Newspaper Page Text
THE QAftbEN ISLAND TUESDAY, NOV. 7, 1922
AMERICAN LEGION PAGE
Who Got the Money?
By MARQUIS
The American Legion Weekly has been running n series
of articles the past few weeks which are highly enlighten
ing as to what happened to the tax payers' money during
and after the war.
The Garden Island believes that these articles are high
ly interesting and at the same time give a new 'light as to
what was done with the funds subscribed by the American
people during the war, and with this idea in mind will print
these articles weekly until completion.
Fifteen billion dollars that
Is the amount, made up from
Liberty bonds subscribed by 20
million Americans, which Uncle
Sam spent to outfit his army In
the most expensive of all wars.
Some most of that 15 bll-
lion dollars was spent honestly.
fairly, for value received. Much
of it was Hot. Graft, fraud, cor-
ruption these also entered in-
to the bargain, all of them group-
ed In the popular mind under
the word, profiteering. In the
series of articles of which this
is the first, Mr. James will dis-
close the extent of profiteer-
ing during the war and In the
period of liquidation following
it ni:d give some outstanding
and outrageous examples. The
present article pictures the situ-
ation in America during and dl-
rectly after the war that made
such activities possible and
gave the profiteer full scope to
get in his work and get the
money.
T IFE and property, men and mu-
Li nitions with these two things
and these alone the war was
won. Ar.d however we look upon
the matter our judgment as In
all things is bound to be Influ
enced by the point of view we take
And points of view depend largely
on what one gets used to in this
world, as a story of two first llu
tenants will illustrate.
There was X, who commanded
L. Company, which was relieved
after many tough days In the line,
The remnant dragged Itself back
to "rest" billets, and those who
know the experience will understand
that in the use of the quotation
marks no facetiousness Is intended
Least of all was there any repose
for the company commander. Among
the other things that filled his
nights and days was the Invoice he
was required to make of company
property. Every item of each sot
dier's equipment was checked against
what was on the books when the
company went into battle. There
was certain blank files to be con
sidered, for many men had died
since then an incident tolerably
common among Infantrymen. The
government property which tad
been entrusted to those soldiers,
now dead their rifles, belts, and
bayonets, their canteens and condi
ment cans, their blankets all
went on the deficit list which was
made up ard charged off as ex
pended in action, by which proced
ure Lieutenant X was relieved of
financial responsibility.
- A week went by. Replacements
had come, the needed equipment had
arrived as per requisition duly re
ceived by the company commander.
With new life and new property at
hand the company was on its feet
ready for the line again. Before it
started up a colonel from the In
spector General'8 department breez
ed along and ordered another check
of property, which revealed two
. Chauchat rifles shy lost "thru
carelessness and neglect" of com
mander. An exacting government
deals out a reprimand, but a re
Vli
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JAMES
primand will not replace two auto
matic rifles. An exacting and prac
tical government reaches down and
abstracts the cost of two Chauchats
from the battle-bound lieutenant's
pay, by this means accomplishing
the dual purpose of reimbursing the
treasury and impressing on the
mind of one young man in his coun
try's service the drastic nature of
the obligation of those who are cus
todians of government property.
Look now at Lieutenant Y. In
civil life Lieutenant Y had been a
lawyer. He landed in the contract
section of the Ordinance office. His
f.rst detail was as a "negottin ' of
fleer." Pershing would cable for a
million 75 milimeter shells quick.
Y would be told to go out and ar
range the matter, as if it were like
buying a couple of pencil sharpen
ers. Y would meet the astute manu
facturers agents, dicker over pro
duction figures and facilities, over
head, labor turnover, and cost plus
and return with the manufacturer's
"best proposition." Another over
worked lieutenant would reduce the
undersanding arrived at between Y
and the manufacturers' agents to
the terms of a contract. This con
tract at length went to a stuff
officer, who attached his signature
and the agreement negotiated by the
lieutenant became a binding instru
ment committing the United States
to the outlay of some millions of
the publics money. Y served thru
the war negotiating agreements and
later drafting contracts. After the
Armistice he carried on with the
work of liquidation. Uncounted mil
lions in money and material passed
thru his bands.
The war brought X, the Infantry
man, to familiar terms with death,
hardship and terrible suffering. Lieu
tenant Y, of Ordnance, had Lis new
experiences too. He became familiar
with money and materials, with
figures representing almost mythic
al sums of treasure. It's all in what
one gets used to. And so Y, also,
came to have his own opinion con
cerning the nature of the obliga
tion of those who were the makers,
buyers and sellers as well as the
custodians of government property.
Bteween the opinions of the two
lieutenants on this same subject lay
a deep and wide chasm.
To X life seemed cheap but prop
erty was a sacred thing, Waste or
loss thru carelessness was an of
fense to be atoned for immediately
by restitution In kind or cash. The
faintest hint of dishonesty was a
high crime and the punishment swift
and severe. A private drew a sen
tence of a year and a day tor steal
ing a can of beans. Those who
serve Uncle Sam in the fighting ser
vices served a harsh taskmaster,
and one maticuously frugal and ex
acting. With mountains of wealth
at his disposal, he held his fighting
men to strict account for every dol
lar In property that reached their
hands. He required of them that
every penny be watched and admin
istered so as to do its full duty
toward the prosecution and winning
of the war. Frugal, honest, exacting
to a hair-splitting degree; such was
Lieutenant X s opinion of his govern
ment, and though it smarted to pay
for those Chauchats, he could not,
on reflection, disclaim the wisdom
of the policy. War was a serious af
fair, as he had every cause to
know.
8
Too Many Far Too Many
estates that were built up by yenrs of planning and toil, dis
integrate and disappear when once the guiding hand is re
moved. .
Jy naming this company executor and trustee, you can
insure wise management and preservation of your estate
after you are called awav.
Bishop
924 Bethel
New to return to Y and some of
the things he had seen of the meth
ods of the providers, the men who
produced the guns, the shells, the
food, the airplanes, clothing, shoes.
saddles, the men who built the can
tonments and powder plants, who
fabricated the barbed wire thru
wbicft other men crept to their death.
Were they rciuired to be as frugal.
as saving - and as exacting In their
accounts, watching each penny to
see mat r. -.id its full duty toward
the winning of the war? Or did
looser methods and a different stand
ard of values prevail in this field
of endeavor? Could a dollar or ten
dollars, or a hundred dollars slip
thru the government's hands, and
by Intentional fraud or otherwise
slip Into the pocket of one who con
tributed nothing In return to the
winning of the war and would no
punishment or apparent effort at
detection or punishment be made?
Let us glance at two enlightening
incidents. We have cited the case
of a private soldier 18 years old
sent by his country to crawl on
fields of fire where from hour to
hour his life depended on the readP
ncss of his rifle. In a moment of
dereliction he stole a 15. cent can of
beans and got a year and a day In
Leavenworth prison to reflect on
the virtue of honest as a policy.
Considering now the case of the
rich and powerful Pacific coast sal
mon companies caught virtually in
the act of turning over to the Army
several millon can of a rotten fish
tor which it had received $8,600,000.
Was equal justice meted here? Let
us see. A congressional committee
investigated the case and declared
"the canners who packed It, know
ing It was Intended to be eaten by
our soldiers, should have been
brought before the firing squad.'
This was not done, of course. In
fact, nothing seems to have done
except to hand over to these pack
ers . a rebate of $660,000 because
they were so objlglng as to take
hack rotten nan which the govern
ment chemists had pronounced un
fit for consumption by human be
ings. The Salmon Cat Delay
It took a court a few hours to de
termine a punishment that fitted
the crime of the boy who stole the
beans. A year and a half have elap
sed since congress in bristling terms
called the attention of the Depart
ment of Justice to the salmon case,
specially recommending action to
recover the money and the crlmln
al prosecution of the packers. The
congressional Investigators submit
ted evidence which appears to es
tablish conclusively that decompos
ed fish knowingly was packed for
sale to the Army. Yet the courts
thus far have been denied an oppor
tunity to decide whether the salmon
packers should disgorge or whether,
if guilty, they should taste the medi
cine dosed out so promptly In the
case of the great 15-ccnt bean rob
bery.
It Is difficult to compress into
one fleeting birds-eye paragraph
an adequate statement of a situa
tion to present which In bare out
line five or six articles like this
will be required. It's not too much
however, to state that the business
administration of the war, when at
length It Bhall be disclosed, will
present Borne of the blackest pages
In our national history, some of the
most inconceivable crimes of fin
ancial gain that ever soiled the an
nals of a modern nation. Under the
stress and pressure of that greatest
of emergencies, with the vision of
the nation centered on foreign bat
tlefields where our national lii-J and
liberty hesitated in the scale, and
in the teeming camps and indus
tries at home that kept those arm
ies there; behind the wall of other
millions of brave and honest men
and women who tolled t.nd gave at
home; shielded by this, by all that
was worthy and wholesome, unself
ish and fine in a nation of one hun
dred million souls in arms, there
toiled and spun a conspiring clique
which betrayed the state in the
hour of greatest need, invoking a
. . ' Z
Trust Company, Ltd.
St. Honolulu Telephone 6177
out i l-UNvj wtu iyi-i v-vjimvj cj u.j
saturnalia of graft, fraud, waste, ex
travagance and mismanagement the
full disclosure of which wheth
er It comes presently or in the next
generation depends on public In
sistence and public vigilance.
Exclusive of loans to allies. Uncle
Sam's war transactions involved a
bout 19 billion dollars, which Includ
ed the outright purchase of about
15 billion dollars worth of material
during the war, and the sale or ex
penditure In settlement of unfilled
contracts after the Armistice of
three or four billion's worth. So
Uncle Sam figures in the transaction
both as buyer and seller, as custo
mer and merchant.
During the war Uncle Sam was a
customer, and the richest, the sleek
est, the easiest,- the most lenient,
and desirable customer that Las ap
peared on the horizon ol commerce
since the art of bartar was discover
ed to man. He strode into the mar
ket and in a year and a half spent
15 billion dollars, paying spot cash.
He handed additional billions to his
partners, his allies, virtually all of
which was spent here in the home
markets.
I have said he paid spot cash. He
did better than that. He set ud
merchants in business, built factor
ies for them and then guaranteed
to take their entire output at tre
mendous profits. He would go to a
dealer and say, "Here, want two
million gas masks and I want them
quick." But," the dealer would re
spond, "that would take my little
factory five years." "Build a fac
tory then," the lmpatltnt Sam would
snap, tossing over a million dollars.
"Put on three shifts, work 24 hours
a day hang the expense, but build
the factory and make the masks.
I've got a war on." And so it went
in a thousand cases. It was not al
ways the little fellow who was stak
ed. Some of the richest Industrial
corporations received enormous cash
advances.
Speed! Speed! That was the rul
ing cry, Hang the expense, bul hur
ry!. Sacrifice everything for haste;
we've got a war to win and not a
hundred years to do it in! Well, it
can't be charged that Uncle Sam
wasn't taken at his word. Everything
was sacrificed economy, frugali
ty, efficiency, good management and
good Judgment even honesty, faith,
trust and sacred words of honor
and at this terrible price Uncle Sam
sometimes got the speed desired and
sometimes he got nothing but the
bill. He planked down a billion and
odd million dollars for airplanes
25,000 in all, 20.00Q to be on the
front and in reserve by January,
1918. What did he get? Not a single
American-made fighting plane of any
description ever reached the front.
In reviewing the stupendous ex
penditures made by the government
for which no return was received,
must distinguish between such ex
cusable failure as the air program
and cases where loss was due to
the fortunes of war, as In building
certain munition plants where tens
of millions spent did not produce
one grain of powder because the
armistice was something that could
not be foreseen.
That "Business" Administration
Much has been said and written
in a lony eulogistic, not to say
bombastic vein, of the vaunted
"business administration" of the war.
With a self-censored press and gov
ernment control of the news distri
buting channels, this misapprehen
sion has never been thoroughly dis
pelled. Of our war time production
the public only read the government
desired should be read, only what
the series of collosal industrial
groups, which In the last analysis
held the reins, desired should be
read. Quite naturally they desired
no publicity reflecting on ttelr con
duct of public affairs. Even con
structive criticism In the public for
ums was deemed unpatriotic. So
we read that modern war was es
sentially a gigantic industrial under
taking which was true.
The drafting of soldiers was a
reality "draft" was a word on ev
'fill
I III
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ery lip. It conjured to the mind a
definite and a desirable picture; a
picture of a democracy at war, duty
requiring alike of the rich and the
poor, the high and the low. It came
to pass that we read of labor and
capital being drafted. The word
came trippingly on the tongue. It
conjured a definite and desirable
picture which passed, for the time
being, as a true portrait. But It Is
not a true portrait. At best It Is Just
a half-truth, which Is only a lie
adorned.
So became Indistinguishable the
true coin and the false, the draft
that was a hard reality, the draft
that was a deceptive play on a
word. From this faulty perspective
the nation wag permitted to view
the hasty creation of the tremend
ous machine which was to solve the
mighty industrial Issues of the con
flict. That vast creature has come
and gone, and we are yet exploring
Its traces. The biggest single expe
dition to that end was the Select
Committee on Expenditures of the
Department of War, appointed by
the House of Representatives under
the chairmanship of Congressman
William J. Graham of Illinois. For
18 months the committee worked
rne testimony it recorded fills a
library of more than a score ca
pacious volumes. Much as It accom
plished, much was still undone. Nu
merous other Investigations under
official mandate proceeded and fol
lowed the prodigious effort of the
Graham committee. From the whole
of this effort can be gained a fair,
though still incomplete, Idea of our
mammoth war-production organiza
tion. From the evidence of this
wealth of study, and from other In
dependent researches, It Is possible
to make certain general and depend
able observations.
A striking aspect of the situation
Is the measure of public faith with
which we endowed the creatures and
operators, of 'our war-production col
ossus. This, of course, was careful
ly inculcated by official propaganda
but It is not Just to attribute it
wholly to that. If there is one thing
which the American public has sub
lime trust it is in the infallibility
of our great business men, our cap
tains of finance, our marshals of
industry. It was represented that
the organized industry of the coun
try was mobilized drafted for
the war. We saw great leaders tak
ing places on the baffling jungle of
boards, committees, commissions,
councils, which sprang Into being to
run the war. Experts In charge of
everytning. Business administration
of the war. Fine. The halo of infalli
bility hung thick and heavy. Actual
analysis of the situation, however,
reveals shocking Imperfections in
that "expert" organization. Conflict
Ing authorities, divided responsibili
ties, every manner of weakness a-
gajnst which American business is
supposed to be puncture-proof. We
find that control, at least nominal
ly, Is not exclusively In the hands
of those experts after all, but that
It is balanced and juggled among
them and among officers of the
Army, the Navy, and the pre-war
government institutions generally;
which tho experts were supposed to
suppiant.
The question of supply naturally
reu into tne hands of those most
likely to be able to do the sunoly-
ing. The leather men controlled the
leather buying, the great steel svn-
dicates the steel production, the
powaer companies the nowder or
ders, the packers the meat demands,
and so on. And bear in mind the
universal cry of speed, soeed. sneed.
spend, spend, spend, spare no mon
ey, no effort, no means, no anv-
tting but deliver the goods. Un-
cie bam, the worlds richest cash
ana-carry customer, was at the
counter.
What happened? Carelessness
crept into that mighty machine.
Waste crept in. Incompetence crept
in. Goods were sold at exhorbltant
profits. On hundreds of items the
government enormously overbought.
cnuugu oi some tnings were pur
Theo. H. Davies & Co., Ltd.
HONOLULU AND HILO
Sugar Factors and Commission Merchants
IMPORTER8 OF GENERAL MERCHANDISE
GENERAL HARDWARE
Builders' Hardware, crockery, Glassware, Silverware, Sporting Goods,
Fishing Tackle, Firearms, Ammunition, Safes, Refrigerators,
8park Plugs. Flashlights, paints, Varnishes, Brushes
Oils, Greases, Harness, Saddlery, Rooting, Trunks,
Suit Cases, Etc., Etc.
GROCERIES
Fancy and Stape
DRY GOODS
8hoes, Toilet Supplies. Stationery, Etc., Etc.
INSURANCE AGENTS
Writers of Fire. Marine, Compensation, Automobile and Miscellaneous
Insurance Policies
AGENTS FOR
Canadian-Australian Royal Mall Steamship Lin
Upon application information will be cheerfully furnished In regard
to any other lines in which you may Interested.
chased to keep the war going 20
years. Instances of waste and extra
vagance have been revealed which
are so flagrant as to impel tho con
clusion that they were deliberate In
order to increase purchases and
profits for favored contractors. Fav-
orltism of the rankest sort was rife.
Schemers among the profiteering
producers dealt openly with con
federates In the government service.
Contracts were of the loosest possi
ble variety. Every advantage was
with the contractor, every disad
vantage with the government which
was at war. It was the practice to
draft contracts so that no possi
ble Joss could be sustained by the
contractor. The charge Is made that
whole industries held the govern
ment at their mercy, fixed prices
to suit themselves, and dictated the
terms of contracts whereby they
stood no earthly chance of losing a
dollar while the government could
and did lose millions. When
Uncle Sam was a customer every
rule of the game favored tho mer
chant. It was heads I win, tails
you lose, the most perfect example
of the game In all history and for
the highest stakes,
(To be continued next week)
Who is the American mother who
had the greatest number of son
In Che world war.
The American Legion Auxiliary,
composed of tho wives, mothers,
daughters and sisters of legionnaires
of the war, desires to have this
mother's name and the records of
her son's service, so that they may
honor her.
An Indiana community has i moth
er who had seven sons in the service
of the couatry during 1918 two in
the navy and five in the army.
Several mothers In the Auxiliary
had as many as five sons in the
service, and two or three sons were
not uncommonly representative of
one family.
But to the mother who had seven
sons or more to give to her coun
try is due great honor, and the Am
erican Leglen Auxiliary national
headquarters in Indianapolis is de
sirous of obtaining the name of this
greatest of war mothers.
Gold Among the Dross. Accord
ing to a contemporary, the priests
in Russia are, in spite of persecu
tion, a most optimistic body. There
Is, we suppose, always a sporting
chance of finding a button amongst
the rubles in the collection box.
The Passing Show (London).
Marrying Wealth. The parents of
two Chicago girls were nearly dis
tracted when the girls disappeared,
but they have 4been found in Omaha
married two automobile thieves.
Which just proves again that it is
foolish to worry. The American.
Lumberman (Chicago).
Oh Yes. "I drove a hundred miles
speeded the whole distance wet
all the way but didn't skid a bit."
"What were you driving?"
"A yacht." Nashville Tennessee
an. Another Dlflnltlon Efficiency Is
the art of spending nine-tenths of
your time making out reports that
somebody thinks he is going to read
but never does. Kansas Industrial
ist. An Early Start A doctor lately
married a girl whom he had usher
ercd Into the world twenty years
ago. Real love at first sight. Lon
don Opinion.
Lines, Feed. Etc.
0
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