Evening Republican, Volume 23, Number 180, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 28 July 1920 — NINE BILLION WAR WASTE [ARTICLE]

NINE BILLION WAR WASTE

DEMOCRATIC EXECUTIVE WITH BLANKET AUTHORITY FROM CONGRESS WASTED BILLIONS It is now possible very closely to arrive at what the European war has cost the people of the United States in money, how is was spent, and what itr was spent for. At the start of hostilities the influence of the President defeated a proposal for a joint committee of Congress to supervise v war contracts and expenditures. The Democratic control of Congress surrendered its judgment and perogatives in the matter for the first time in history left the President an. absolute unchecked, free hand in expending its* unprecedented appropriations. Since the war ended Congress has passed under the control of the Republican Party. Committees on war expenditures are nearing the end of very thorough and widespread investigations. “And when their investigations are completed,” said Representative Edward E. Deriison of Illinois, in an exhaustive presentation to the House of the facts so far as learned, “and the results are fully disclosed to the American people there will be a political if not an actual revolution. There has been an orgy of waste, extravagance, of dishonesty, of fraud in the disbursement of these billions taken by taxes and borrowed from the people, that not only surpasses everything ever recorded in connection with any government but exceeds the wildest imagination?’ .aaK Boiled down, the statements of proven expenditures made by Representative Denison were as follows:

I—The Treasury Department reports thdt it paid out between April 6, 1917, and February 29, 1920, on warrants of the various executive departments, the sum of $36,918,000,000. When from this of .conducting the government amount is taken the normal cost (eighty-three and one-third million dollars a month) the war cost to date has been approximately $84,M made report, of Six; 000 expended by the War Department alone practically 39,000,000, 000 has been wasted , lost or spent pn projects that were useless now, and were totally ineffective in prosfhere was spent at Charleston, Norfolk, Boston and other

places 1150,000,600 for port terminal* from which no ship daring the war ever salted. 4—A port terminal was begun, in a bog and swamp ten miles up; the river from Charleston and after $20,000,000 had been spent in construction it was found that ships could not reach the terminal until the river had been dredged for the purpose. s—-For nitrate, plants $120,000,000 was spent in, a visionary scheme end not a pound of nitrate was. produced. Practically $100,000,000 of this sum was sunk at Muscle Shoals, Alabama, and the War Department now asks additional millions to turn the abortive nitrate plants into fertilizer producers about the feasibility of which experts differ. ' 6—For powder plants $160,000- ( 000 was spent and not a pound was made in them. The one at Nitro,; West Virginia, eost, $70,000,000 and was sold recently for $8,000,000 with the prospect that the government will never 'get very much of the eight million. 7—There was $1,000,000,000 spent for shells and only 17,000 American shells' were fired by the American forces in the war. We fired very often as many as 500,000 in a single barrage on a single morning; we had to bRy or beg them from our Allies. B—We spent $1,051,000,000 preparing to manufacture aeroplanes; we did not produce one fighting machine. We did make a purely bombing plane——a few of them. All we made and sent to the front in France were 213 observation planes and they were dangerous and defective. 0 ’ 9—For tanks we spent SIOO,000,000. The first American .tank did not reach France until after the armistice had been signed and the war was over. '' 10—There was $117,000,000 expended for the manufacture of gas. There never was a pound of gas fired on the battle front in American shells. 11—Guns cost us (to make in this* country) $478,000,000. We only succeeded in getting 48 of the 4.7-inch guns and 24. of the 8-inch howitzers —a total of 72 American guns—to where our boys in battle could use them. Such is the story of extravagance and inefficiency of Ahe War Department. The same is true to some extent

of the Naty establishment. The War and Navy Departments together spent within a radius of 25 miles of Norfolk, Va., $250,000,000 for the construction .of cantonments, warehouses, and training’stations where it has been found impossible to get a supply of water sufficient to meet their needs. The Navy Department -put one training camp in _ nea j Norfolk at a cost of $7,000,000 and every dollar of it, as now disclosed, will be lost. * _ - , “The people,” said Representative Denison, “may as well understand who is responsible for the awful revelations which these investigations are disclosing. Gentlemen from North Caroline and Tennessee say there is an attempt being made to discredit the President. Mt will not work. “The facts and figures show that the waste and ineffective investments of such a considerable part of the $34,000,0.00,000 war expenditures has been dUe largely to the autocratic alid dictatorial encroachment by the President on the constitutional privileges of Congress and the servile submission of tne Democratic majority in- the House which together prevented the ap : pointment of a joint committee tosupervise war expenditures, thereby opposing and ending any action being taken at the beginning to prevent or at, least Jessen the probability of such waste.”