Imperial Valley press., 1941-06-25
by Peter Edson...
The Inside Track in Washington

WASHINGTON, June 25 Some
time within the next couple of
weeks. Senator Harry s. Truman of
Independence, Mo, will have to rise
on the floor of The Senate and
make a request for more money to
finance further work of his special
committee investigating contracts
under the national defense pro-
gram.
Starting in April with an initial
$4,000. the committee of seven
senators. Truman, Connally, Hatch,
Mead. Wallgren, Ball and Brew
ster has run two months on a staff
OF chief counsel Hugh Fulton. his
associate Charles Patrick Clark.
half dozen Investigators and a
few stenographers. With that out
lay. the committee has just scratch
ed the surface Of the huge S42 bill
lion defense program.
The committee has not decided
how much it will ask for to carry
on its work. but it has very def
inita program in mind and that
program promises fireworks. Just
q couple of the lines it wants to
investigate will give the idea.
SPOTLIGHTS LABOR
The committee would like to
have a look at profits of corpora
tions with defense contracts. La
Dor is now clamoring for wage in
creases, largely on the basis OF re-
ported increased employer earnings
are those claims justified Tru-
man believes there is no difference
between a labor racketeer and
corporation profiteer and he would
like to go after both.
Immediately ahead Of the COM
mittee is a look at the shipbuild-
ing program. Most of the hula
baloo that has been raised so far
has been with the Army but the
Navy and the Maritime Comm.ssl9n
have been spending few billions
and one or two shipbuilding COM
panies have published earnings
statements which might bear check
ing. How does the Navy let its
contracts? Is there a concentration
OF expenditure here? And what
about all these defense millions
RFC has been letting in contracts?
What Senator Truman would like
tn have is a special staff OF in
vestigators, with men to follow the
ordnance program, the shipping
program, labor relations, financing
and all other phases OF national
defense. Then let these investi-
gative staffs bring out their ma
terial as it develops.
Sometimes, the committee has
found, it takes three weeks of dig
ging to uncover the evidence pre-
sented in one three-hour session of
hearings. The problems are intri-
cate, the facts hard to dig out
That's what takes the money, and
considering that billions of dollars
are involved, the committee may
ask the Senate for maybe as much
as 100000, if you please.
Measuring accomplishments OF
the committee thus far, Truman
admits, is a matter OF surveying
intangibles. They've been able TO
put on the brakes in few instances
most important of which was the
manner in which contracts were let
for camp construction. How any
one with common sense could have
let contracts involving millions of
dollars in as sloppy a way as some
of the early papers were signed is
something the committee chairman
has vet to understand. So a few
government officials feel that II
rothing else has been done, the
committees hearing have perhaps
saved a couple hundred million
dollars by making the contract
signers be little more careful
LOCKS BARN DOOR
BEFORE, ETC.
Bringing to head the boilS
which were the coal strike and the
San Francisco machinists strike, by
public hearings which put leaders
of both disturbances on record.
were psychological victories rather
than exposures, but in these in
stances Truman has gone on the
theory that it's better to keep a
man out of jail than it is to send
him there after he has committed
2 crime. Focus attention on what
i man, q business or union is
bout to do wrong and it can