The Waterbury Democrat., 1943-11-16


 The big unanswered question is: Did Comfort pass part of the money on to someone else?
 It has been ascertained that Comfort cashed a check for Sl0,- 900 shortly after he received his first payment from the airplane
 companies. He got this $l0,000 in cash. What did he do with 1t? When asked about 1t, he said he didn't remember.
 Then, after second install- ment was paid by the airplane companies, Comfort and his broth CT drew out $11 400, also in cash. Again, they don't remember what happened to this money.
 Here Is the story of this un- usual transaction:
 The Brewster AerOnautical
 Corporation, now being lnvesti-
 gated by the hard hitting House
 Naval Affairs Committee, dis
 covered that the tax bill of 1940
 would not permit advance pay
 ments by foreign governments
 to be classified as borrowed in-
 vested capital This made q
 difference of thousands, perhaps
 millions in taxes t0 certain air
 plane companies. Hence, Brew
 ster lobbyists attempted to get
 Senator Wagner of New York
 to introduce an amendment fav-
 bring their tax situation. He would have none of 1t.
 Then they tried Senator Her ring of Iowa. He also refused. Then the airplane lobbyists con- tacted Herring's close friends and political mentor, Frank Comfort, in DesMoines. He came to Wash ington, registered at the Mayflower hotel, where Herring lived, and shortly thereafter Herring intro- duced the proposed tax amend- ment. It became law and saved the airplane companies tremen- dous tax bill.
 WHERE DID MONEY GO?
 Meanwhile, Brewster, Lockheed, Consolidated and Curtiss- Wright had raised a pool of $65,000 to pay for lobbying for this amend- ment. Of this, $30,000 went to Comfort.
 He received his first $l5,000 in mid-O october, 1940. On October 27, 1o4o, approximately one week later, Comfort drew a check for $l0,000 on the 1owa-Des Moines National Bank & Trust company, payable to himself, and cashed the check.
 So far as can be ascertalned, he did not deposit the cash in any savings account. Examina- ton of his checking account shows that checks of this size were distinctly unusual. Yet when questioned, Comfort was not able to remember what he did with the cash.
 In December, 1940, Comfort re- ceived a second $i5,000 from the airplane companies, and on Dec. 23, he signed a check to himself for $3,900 and a check to his brother, George P. Comfort, for $7,500. Both checks were caShed the same day, and examination of both Comforts and his broth- CTS personal accounts shows that no deposits even remotely ap- proximating the size of these sums were made during an extended period thereafter.
 Again Comfort was unable to rec member what he or his brother had done witht he money.
 Big question in Washington is: Who got the money?
 NOTE: Tn August, 1042, Presi- dent Roosevelt asked for ail in- vestigation of the whole matter, including other Brewster irregu- larities. Fifteen months have now passed with no resulting ac- ton.
 BULLITT REBUFFED BY FDR
 Several weeks before the recent Philadelphia election, ex-Ambas- sador Bill Bullitt came down to see his old friend the President to pave the way for a place for himself in the Roosevelt Adminis- tration in case of defeat. Appar- ently he had a premonition that 70 uyritas "ar,d when I oot tio I