Rensselaer Journal, Volume 10, Number 46, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 25 April 1901 — PROBE FOR MANILA FRAUD [ARTICLE]

PROBE FOR MANILA FRAUD

Scandals Stir Capital Chiefs at Washington. SURPRISE IS MANIFESTED. Commissary Irregularities Cans* the War Department to Take Active Steps to Secure Poll Information —Rapid Living In Certain Army Cliques. Secretary of War Root has cabled General MacArthur at Manila for a full report on the latest developments in the commissary department frauds there, adding that an early reply by telegraph would be expected. The latest disclosures in the scandals hare excited war department officials to renewed efforts to learn the truth, the statement made by General MacArthur heretofore on the subject having led the department to conclude that these frauds amounted to little. Surprise is manifested at Washington because of the report that Captain James C. Read is implicated in the scandal. The Manila dispatches are to the effect that he has already been arrested and that he is deeply involved. Captain Read hails from Pittsburg; his family is reputed to be of considerable social prominence and his father a manufacturer of wealth. Captain Read has been In the service of the United States in the commissary department of the army since July 16, 1898. He was in the military academy at West Point for a short time ten years ago.. The semi-official judgment at Washington is that the scandal will assume considerable proportions before all has been revealed. There is no question in the minds of those who claim to know the situation in Manila as to the high and rapid pace of living in certain army cliques there. Private reports from Manila for months and verbal statements by officers and men who have witnessed passing events in that city are to the effect that thf army of officers in many instances were devoting much more time to dissipation and midnight revels than to chasing the wily insurgent or otherwise doing their duty. It is pointed out at Washington that naturally a few officers will succumb to such temptations, but that it does not follow there is a general laxity on the part of a majority of the men in command. It is believed that arrests will follow within a few days. Major George B. Davis, whose name is mentioned in the dispatch from Manila as 'being credited upon the books of Evans & Co., as having received SI,OOO, is in Washington. He would say nothing when asked by reporters if he desired to reply to the assertion. He was called upon by the war department, however, for an explanation and to an officer said that he knew nothing about the matter. He was closely questioned and said that he never had any money from the firm of contractors mentioned, had not borrowed, and could not explain how there had been any charge made. Evans, of the firm of Evans & Co., is known to some army officers in Washington. Evans was in this country a short time ago, and may now be in New York, if he has not returned to Manila. He is from Niagara, though from which side of the river is not known. At the commissary department General Weston said he had no information to impart concerning the scandal. He reiterated the high praise of his subordinate, Colonel Woodruff, who is in charge of the Manila service, that he expressed when the first reports of the irregularities were received.