Evening Republican, Volume 22, Number 304, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 19 December 1919 — WANTON WASTE OF WAR STOCKS. [ARTICLE]

WANTON WASTE OF WAR STOCKS.

Washington, Dec. 18.—Automobile tires worth more than $35,000,000, thrown in a pile many .feet deep and covering more than an acre of ground, were ruined through exposure to the weather at the motor transport corps base at Verneuil, France, Captain Robert Clendening, an officer at the camp, today told a house committee investi- 1 gating war department expenditures during the war. No coverings of any kind were placed over the tires for more than ten months, Captain Clendening declared, although there were many canvas tarpaulins scattered about the camp or being used for less important purposes. Approximately 3,500 motorcycles, after being placed in perfect repair for use by the A. E. F.» were parked at the same camp and allowed to stand exposed to the weather for months, until they became useless piles of junk, other witnesses told the committee. Automobiles, including passenger cars of various kinds and hundreds of trucks were thrown into piles along the railroad tracks until the “junk” piles covered acres, Earl Tromley, of Detroit, formerly a sergeant in the tank corps, asserted. The former sergeant expressed the belief that no inspection was made of the cars before they were discarded and that many of them could have been placed in perfect repair for less than SSO.