Evening star., 1947-11-22

was In connection with the meyers
plan to buy Government bonds.
Gen. Meyers asked me one day
if I wanted to make some money
by purchasing Government bonds,
the witness continued II asked him
how you could do that. He said
something about putting up $50,000
borrowing money from the bank on
margin and buying the bonds.
Refused for Two Reasons.
"I said wait a minute have you
talked with Secretary OF the Treas
ury Morgenthau about it? Gen
Meyers said he had and that it was
okay. But declined for two reasons
First, didn't think it was right
Second, I never had $4,000 in my
life"
Senator Ferguson asked if Gen.
Meyers, while in the Army, seemed
to have wealth.
"Well," Gen. Arnold responded
''he lived as a captain far better
than I could as a brigadier general. u
Insisting that he never knew Gen.
Meyers had any aircraft stock in
his wife's name or with any broker,
Gen. Arnold said:
when he stated he had got rid
of all his stocks I relied on his
word as an officer"
Gen. Arnold declared that the
duty to obey orders fully and
promptly is even greater in the Air
Force than in other services.
would such conduct as has been
charged against Gen. Meyers call
for court-martial?" the chair
man asked.
Would Call for Probe.
"It certainly would call for an in
vestigation with a view toward a
court-martial," the witness replied
''The man at the bottom in the Air
Force has to know that he will be
treated no differently than the man
at the top"
Wren Senator Ferguson inquired
why the 1945 anonymous letter was
referred to the Air Force front
Office" instead of to the Air Inspec-
tor, after being forwarded by the
FBI, Gen. Arnold explained:
II probably had peculiar way OF
doing business. But wanted to know
what was going on in my command
Normally. therefore, such letters
would come first to my Office and
then be referred to the Air In
spector."
At the completion of Gen. Arnold s
testimony, Senator Ferguson assured
him the current inquiry was in no
sense an attempt to reflect unfavor-
ably on the Air Force or any agency
I'VE should not judge the millions
of men who served so we'll in the Air
Force by the mistakes of few" the
chairman went on. But in times of
peace we must prepare for war. If
there is one bad apple in the barrel
it must be removed at the earliest
possible date so that it won't hurt
all the other apples.
This committee has found it nee
essary to expose corruption in its
own legislative halls"
Carson Case Recalled.
Senator Ferguson recalled how
former Representative Andrew j.
May, wartime chairman of the House
Military Affairs Committee, was
brought to trail and convicted with
Henry and Murray Carson on
charges based on evidence brought
out at committee hearings last year.
He told how the late Senator Bilbo,
Democrat, Of Mississippi was barred
from taking his seat last January as
result of committee hearings. He
also said that the activities of for
mer Representative Coffee, Demo-
crat, of Washington in war contract
dealings were exposed to public light
so that the people would know what
was going on"
I'm closing" Senator Ferguson
said, Il want to make it clear that
the curtains of secrecy are not being
closed. We should not stop at this
particular moment. We should and
will continue to look into this ques-
ton of procurement.
I'm that way the men who fought
in the Air Force and the men who
served so well in the Air Force
Offices in this country during the
war will know that fraud, corrup-
ton or ineficiency, wherever it
exists, will be exposed so that the
public can always have hope and
confidence in the armed services and
the institutions of our country.
This inquiry has developed evi-
dence that Gen. Meyers speculated
in Government bonds. We believe
an overall study of such specula-
ton by civilians as we'll as military
personnel should be made and that
the Banking and Currency Com
mittee is the appropriate agency to
make it with a view to framing
possible legislation and policy. We
have discussed this with Chairman
Tobey of that committee and he has
q oreod with re