Evening star., 1949-03-16
krug |sAsked
1oDeIayPub|ic
olfContracts
Hearings Next Week;
Recreation Boord
Members Seek PurIey


At the same time. District Rec
reation Board members. armed
with Z secret report, sought
another conference with Assistant
Interior Secretary C. 0irard
Davidson, who announced Mon
day he was recommending q Ave-
year contract renewal with the
s. G. Leofler Co.
The Recreation Board takes the
position that the golf courses
should be operated by q public
agency, not q concessionajre. At
least one other company. the
Cleveland Concession Co.. is in
the fight.
The congressional phase started
with . resolution by Representa-
tive Rivers. Democrat. of South
Carolina for an investigation of
the courses operation, and pro-
gressed yesterday when Mr.. Rivers
q bill to prohibit the
Interior Secretary from entering
into any contract until new au-
thorization by law.
Hearings to Start Next Week.
Hearings on the bill probably
will start next week before a Pub
lie Lands Subcommittee. Repre-
Peterson. Democrat. of
Florida. acting committee chair
man, will call an executive ses-
sion at 10 am. Friday to plan the
Both Mr.. Rivers and Mr.. Peter
son telegraphed requests to Mr..
Krug that he delay action on
signing a new contract until after
the hearings.
Mr.. Rivers said he had tire
amount of complaints on
his desk" as to the way the
courses have been operated.
To Turn Over Complaints.
I'm fact, nobody seems to know
what is going on" he said. Il
don't care who finally wins the
but I think the people
who foot the bills should have
some voice in the matter"
Mr.. Rivers said he would turn
over to the committee complaints
showing the courses have not been
operated in q business-like man.
ner.
In announcing his decision to
renew Mr.. Leoffler's contract. Mr..
Davidson said he was motivated
partly because of 4 promise made
to the golf course manager when
he advanced money for construc-
ton Of the Fort Dupont clubhouse
last year.
Through four hours of bitter de-
bate. hastily-called members of
the Recreation Board Golf Com
mittee battled yesterday over
to let the public in on
their report on operation of the
golf course. Finally. they decided
to carry the report to Mr.. David
son first.
Calls Report Biased.
Irving c. Root, superintendent
Of National Capital Parks. which
has direct control Of the golf
courses for the Interior Depart
ment. termed the report biased
and intended only to "embarrass'
the department. James E. Schwab,
of the Golf Committee
it as an accurate study
study Of the situation that should
me made available to the public
1t was pointed out that once
the report was presented to the
board by the committee, it became
a part Of the record and was pub
lie property. Accordingly. the re-
lease is just q matter of when.
Mr.. Schwab said the study
showed careless supervision. Mr.
Root denied this fiatly. adding
that nothing was raised that
can't be explained to the satisfac-
ton Of the General Accounting
ONCE"
The committee voted to seek q
conference with Mr.. Davidson to
go over the report with him with
in the next 10 days. If such a
conference could not be arranged
the committee will meet again to
decide when to release the report
Later he said he wanted to be
able to present his analysis of
Mr.. Loefiler's operations at the
same time, 50 as to give q fair
picture. He indicated he would
get right to work refuting the
Mr.. Root pointed out at the
that the figures used by
the Board Committe were fur
nished by his office. The con-
clusions drawn from the figures
differed, however, and were mis-
he insisted.
Report Read to Davidson.
Chairman Harry S. Wender said
the Board Committee had met
with Mr.. Davidson last week and
read him the report. In 1t was a
recommendation that the golf con-
tract be awarded for only a one
year period so that the Recreation
Department could study the ques-
ton and possibly come to some
agreement with the Interior De-
partment for taking over the
operation of the courses.
Both Mr.. Wender and MIR.
Schwab indicated they were sur
prised by Mr.. Davidson's an
nouncement of his intentions to
give the contract to Mr.. Leoffler
without further word to them
about the matter.
Rose Society to Meet
Better roses through better soil
will be the subject Of q talk by
DR.. Charles E. Kellogg OF the
Agriculture Department at q
g.