The people's voice., 1942-12-25
Army Ignores



AS the story was put into the record
yesterday from Army files, officers
from the Office of Chief of Ordnance
tried to keep it out of the press by
insisting that publication of the dis
closures would aid the enemy.
The attempt to muzzle the story
was made by Col. Albert Browning,
director of purchases, Army Services
of Supply. At the climax of the hear
ing, Browning got Chairman James
E. Murray to announce that the Army
requested the press not to publish
the story.
Censor Overruled
After hurried conferences between
the newspapermen and the committee,
Browning was called to the stand. He
said publication of information on
quantities of the items ordered, and
the dates involved, would be of value
to the enemy in disclosing delivery
schedules of Army equipment
Arthur Silverman, of the commit
tees legal staff, objected that under
an agreement worked out with the
Army the committee was confining
its evidence to material that was not
marked confidential He said conf
Dental files were so marked But
Browning insisted on muzzling the
story.
Newspapermen protested to Chair
man Murray that the whole story
hung on the dates, which disclosed
that contracts had been given to the
Bendix company when it couldn't fill
them until late in 1913 Murray de-
cided that the story could be pub
lished with the names of the specific
items omitted.
Silverman pointed out that Brown
ing had sat through the morning ses-
sion, as similar data was placed in
the files, without protest. 1t was not
until after lunch, as the story got hot
ter, that he tried to invoke censorship.
Plenty of Small Plants
The presence of Browning and other
ment made it more difficult for the
committee to get the story from sub
ordinate officials, but the evidence
was clear from the files placed in the
record.
AS preliminary, Frederick Tom
kins, co-ordinator of purchases in the
New York Ordnance Office, testified
to the availability of plants, workers,
housing, and equipment in New York
for making ordnance requirements
He said survey in July showed New
York firms could turn out $109,000,-
600 worth of ordnance items monthly,
including 79 different items.
Tomkins said orders for only 12 of
these items had been received from
Washington, mostly in small amounts.
He said another survey showed 3,710
plants in the New York ordnance dis |
trict, of which only $50 had been used
Listing reasons why these New |
York facilities had not been used, |
Tomkins mentioned among other rea-
sons, the practice, since discontinued, |
of the Office of Chief of Ordnance of
sending orders to New York ear
marked for particular firms.
Down to Gases
Silverman then began pouring the
story into the record from the files
of the New York office. In Septem-
Der, the chief of ordnance ordered
several thousand ordnance items, di-
recting that they be purchased from
the Eclipse Aviation Division of the
Bendix Aviation Corp. The contract
involved $2,736,52S.
Tomkins testified that Bendix was
not anxious to take the order, be-
cause it was booked so far in advance
He said an official of the
called up and asked whether
the Army wanted these items "for
this war or the next war"
He also testified that it was per-
fectly feasible to break down the con-
tract among many smaller firms and
that this alternative should have been
But under the directive
from Washington the order was given
to Bendix without bidding from any
one else, although the delivery was
not scheduled to be completed until