Evening star., 1946-07-09
Text of Mays Speech on War Contracts Charges

| When the title was examined and
found good by the attorney for the
land company, survey made and
| the acreage ascertained, the land
was bought and paid for, the title
conveyed direct to the Cumberland
Lumber Co. The new owner was
anxious to get started into produc-
/ ton of lumber and asked me to
recommend some person to carry on
| logging operations, which l did,
and I was again helping one of my
constituents to have a job with
the prospect of years of work. That
was at time when manpower
shortage was at its worst The
lumber company started operations
with six men, two of whom were
on salaries, when 40 to so men were
needed. The land was entirely
mountain land; most of the timber
stood on the upper land and the
mountaintop which was nearly S.
600 feet high. and had to be brought
down steep rocky ravines.
The manager made the grave mis-
take of trying to build tramway
down one of these ravines on which
some several thousands OF dollars
were spent. The structure was
total loss and unusable. The job
then shut down because they could
not get machinery. such as tractors
trucks, skidders, etc, and remained
idle for months while overhead eX-
pense continued. They then changed
I managers and started to produce.
Later they found that most of the
| lumber was being sold without their
knowledge on the commercial mar
ket. and the proceeds were being
deposited in bank-not to the credit
Of the Cumberland Lumber Co, but
to the managers own credit I then
adviced Mr.. Carson to bring suit
for possession of the property and
for an accounting by the operator,
which he did, and as result OF the
law suit, the property was sold for
$4,000 in cash and RENTED by
their lawyers to the Cumberland
Lumber Co. which left total loss
of about $4,000 on the entire Cum
berland Lumber Co. transaction.
/ Here I interpolate to say that
when a report came out to the press
/ from an inquisition committee, an
investigating committee. there was
no mention of the fact that the
$4,000 of the money had been re-
turned to the company direct from
their own lawyers. But they wanted
to leave the impression that l was
the recipient of the money. I fur
niShed these facts in testimony to
the Mead Committee on June a.
Received No Fee
I neither asked for nor received
compensation or fee for anything !
did. All accounts, bank statements.
/ checks and correspondence were de-
! livered voluntarily to the Mead
! Committee through its assistant
counsel, Mr. Flanagan. just prior to
! the time I testified before the COM
mittee. At the time l did testify
/ that all these documents were in the
I hands of the committee and as the
counsel knows and has stated, they
! fully explain all the tranSa ctionS
showing no irregularities of any
kind and full accounting by me of
! all the funds I received For this
reason, l am at complete loss to
understand why the Mead Commit
/ tee failed in their hearings Saturday
morning to explain either through
! the chairman or counsel that the
testimony given them on June was
in their files as were all the docu-
mentS. checks, statements and bank
records. Not one cent was either
paid to or received by me for COM
penSatiOn of any kind.
Here I interpolate to say that if
I had been doing something crooked,
l would not have placed an account
years ago in my home town and
MADE it an open checking account,
which I did.
Now l state all of that to show
there was reason back of this
publicity that has been covering and
labelling the front pages of daily
papers from one end of the country
to the other
Congress was so concerned over
the fate of small business that we
passed law authorizing the War
Department to finance small buSi-
ness concerns, paper empires if you
please, to which war contracts were
awarded. to the extent of making
advances of a large part of the
oF l,;o
the whole Congress was trying to
promote and encourage the produc-
ton Of war materials by small busi-
ness concerns Was it an impro-
priety on my part to call some high
ranking officer in the War Depart
ment and urge speed in getting
munitions of war to our battle
fronts? Was it wrong for me TO ask
that fair and equal treatment be
accorded small business concerns
that had no coSt-pluS or cost plus
affixed fee contracts? Was 1t wrong
for me, who had been as much re-
SponSible as any member of this
Congress for sending the flower of
our young manhood to foreign lands
|, to fight and die, to try to see to 1t
that they were furnished the neces-
sary munitions and weapons to carry
on the battle and protect their
lives? Shall I. who have given the
best years of my life to the preser-
vation of my country in time of
peril, be now the victim of a con-
spiracy of falsehood and malice?
No, let the truth be told.
Opposition in Chicago.
7 had been informed and had
reason to believe it to be true that
certain of the officers in the pro-
curement division in Chicago had
opposed the processing of contracts
to the two companies in question
that after they had obtained con-
tracts these officers used their efforts
to curtail or cancel them and had
given as their reasons that hey did
not want to deal with damn Jews
and Hikes" who owned them. 1t
seemed to me, and 1 have not
changed my viewpoint, that at a
time when the Nation was in peril.
when munitions such as were being