Jasper County Democrat, Volume 22, Number 87, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 28 January 1920 — REPUBLICAN LIE IS NAILED [ARTICLE]

REPUBLICAN LIE IS NAILED

Government Motor Trucks Not Rotting at It. Benjamin Harrison. Statements published In a Cleveland newspaper that “2,700 trucks are rotting” at Ft. Benjamin Harrison and that "the cost of watching those trucks are at least four times their value,’' are untrue, according •to a statement Issued by Colonel Everard E. Hatch, commanding officer at Ft. Harrison. Colonel Hatch says sheds have been erected to bouse all the machines stored at the fort, and he said every truok Is blocked up from tires and springs and the engines flushed with heavy oil. In August when he took command at the fort, he said there were 9,000 trucks, 4,000 of which were without shelter, ©beds for all these truckß were completed by the middle of December, he said. There are now about 5,000 trucks at the fort and sill are “in perfect conditiop and not deteriorating,” Colonel iHlatch declared, quoting an assistant of the state highway commission as saying, when he saw some of the trucks which were being burned over to the department of agriculture: “These cars are In firstclass condition, and essentially equal to what they were when they were first taken from the factory —motor, differentials and transmission perfect.” Colonel Hatch said that neither Captain W. 8. King, quartermaster at the fort, or any other officer, has authority to sell awy of the cars. The cost of guarding the trucks Is practically nothing. Colonel Hatch said, as the work Is being done by the garrison at the fort, numbering about 500 enlisted men, who are receiving military, educational and vocational training. Colonel Hatch Invited investigation and examination of the work now being done. —Jndtftnapolis News.