The Durant news. (Durant, Miss.) 1882-1985, 1941-05-29
Congress Investigates BIonding;
New York Sun Carries Comment

ditions under which the camp were con-
structed and the part politics played in To-
eating the camp where it was.
We are glad that congressional inves-
tigacion is now being made and headed by
Senator Truman. Day by day as the in
v~estfgation progresses tht facts we pointed
out in our story are being brought to light.
1t is to be hoped that the investigating
committee will not whitewash any high rank
ing government or National Guard officials
who might have been guilty of shady deal
ing in locating Camp Blanding. The truth,
whatever it is, should be brought before the
dishonesty they should welcome an invest
cation so that their names would be cleared.
Something for the committee to inves-
tigate: The report that the site committee OF
the Jacksonville Chamber of Commerce
spent $4,000 trying to find a proper site
for the camp only to be ignored when the
brass hats came down from Washington tc
call on Brig. Gen. Sumter l.. Lowrey, high
ranking Florida National Guard officer, now
in active service at Camp Banding.
Something else to investigate: The con-
~nection between the Gulf Insurance Com
pany, of which Gen. Lowrey was reported
to be chairman of the board, and the Key
stone Heights Development Company whose
idia was SlSaGy IlhalSS III dku ~ Icd-
son of location of Camp Blanding. Twas
rumored that Gen. Lowrey was chairman of
the board of the Company that held a I,or-
tgage on said property of Keystone Heights
Development Company. The latter com
pany now is said to be paying a nice dividend.
Certainly any wholesale changes of
titles in property in the vicinity of Camp
Blanding should be Investigated so as to clear
the names of Florida's Senator Pepper and
Congressman Green. We are certain these
two men would welcome a congressional in
vestigation of any of their activities.
In connection with Camp Banding ar
ticle our readers might be interested in the
following piece, commenting on our May
9Th story, which appeared on the editorial
page of The New York Sun on May 10. We
quote:
To The Editor of The Sun-Sir: "In the
last ten days. said Mr.. Hoover, 1--WE have had
many speeches and much propaganda, the
meaning of which is to drive the American
people into this war" Of these speeches the
most truculent was that of Senator Pepper
of Florida, often a spokesman for the Adj
minlstration, who proposed making "a sham
bles out of Toxic" in addition to SHAMELESS
making in Europe. So patriotic is Pepper
that, observes the Durant, Mississippi, News,
it does seem as if "the Florida politician
would have forgone politics in the interest
of national defense"
But he hans't. The Durant News has just
published a four-cOlumn report of its inveS-
tigation of Camp Blanding, Florida, which
Florida's Pepper saddled on the nations tax
papers in the disguise of national defense. OF
the choice of such a place at all, it says,
sit is an established fact that training could
be accomplished at a much greater speed al
most anywhere else in the United States"
FTln N,xuo l~a1nroa 4LoA -1,a, 4ho fuI1 .%oax,
is told Peppers Camp Blanding twill stand
out as the most ex~travagant project ever TO
be launched by a spendthrift government and
that it will eventually assume the proportions
of a national scandal"
Under the contract the work was to cost
S10,0 O0, 900; preliminary work was started
September IL, and already 100000, 900 has
been spent. The troops sent there for train
ing are from New England and the South.
The topography of the land selected increas-
ed the coss over 100000 about 40 per
cent of the camp is below the lake level. The
Mace isn't fit for training" "The workers
and men fell all over each other trying to get
around in the kneedeep mud" "There were
as many as 500 serious cases of flu at enc
time, to say nothing of COMMON colds and
there were practically no hospital facilities
and nothing but aspirin to give the men"
This was through the winter, and in the
spIIHS III IIot IMPRESSION OiC SClS y IdHtp
Banding is sand. Sand everywhere, in your
eyes, your hair and your shoes. The men
breathe sand, eat sand and sleep with sand.
Sand is all over the camp from six to twelve
inches deep, and it is almost impossible to
walk in it."
Where the profit came in was in leas-
ing the land to the government. "The land
is good for nothing in the world. Anything
they might realize from it was so much
gravy. The acreage leased by the War
Department is insufficient for the purpose,
and much of the land leased is worthless for