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About Morning Oregonian. (Portland, Or.) 1861-1937 | View Entire Issue (April 20, 1922)
6 THE 'HOUSING OREGOXIAN, THURSDAY, APRIL 20, 1923 WAR FRAUD CHARGES DIFFICULT TO PROVE Stir Caused by Republicans Declared Boomerang. SITUATION IS MAGNIFIED Proof of Looting Government Has Xot Been Found Sufficient W in Many Cases Probed. BY MARK SULLIVAN, (Copyright by the, New York Evening Post, Inc. Published by Arrangement.) WASHINGTON, I. C, April 15. (Special.) It is difficult to arrive at a clear judgment on the merits of the charges that the administration has of claims against some war contrac tors. In the nature of the case, each one of the suits includes such a mass of detail that no one person can ar rive at a fair judgment about the merits' of it without weeks of in vestigation, nevertheless, a person who moves about Washington from day to day acquires certain impres sions. As to some of these charges, it is a, cae of chickens coming home to roost with the republican. During the campaign in 1920 the republican spellbinders made the heavens ring with charges that the democrats in their conduct of the war had been guilty of extravagance, incompetence and even fraud. These charges were accompanied by declarations of inten tion, direct or implied, to put a lot of persons in jail, and now the new administration is accused of negli gence. People Demand Action. Some of these charges during the campaign made a particularly strong Impression in certain communities in which the corporations or others ac cused were prominent. As a result, there have been cases where local republican leaders have complained that the party would lose caste in their communities unless something were done to make good on the charges made during the campaign. To this sort of pressure the repub lican administration does not respond. Neither President Harding nor Attorney-General Daugherty is the sort of official who would prosecute a man or a corporation for political motives or under political pressure. The con sequence is tnat there appears to be a discrepancy between the charges the republicans made during the cam paign and the prosecutions they can aee their way clear to making now. Charges Are Exagsrerated. The answer, of course, is that there was not so much fraud, or even so much unnecessary extravagance, in the management of the war as the re publicans made out when they were trying to win the election on that issue. Any person who wants to be fair about the management of the war by the party which happened to be in power when it occurred should re " member one fixed principle. Time and money are equivalent. In peace money is to be saved at the expense of time, but in war, money is nothing and time is everything. An engineer whose career had been in civil Ufa, once told me the hardest thing he had to learn when he en tered the army during the war was that money never should be consid ered if the prodigal spending of it would save time. It was the reversal of fundamental principle that had been drilled into him in his peace time training. Expense Is Xo Object. On the roads leading to the front "When long lines of automobiles were carrying up supplies, if a tire burst and if you could scrap the entire automobile in the ditch and open the road in five minutes less time than you could repair the tire, then the Quick thing was the right thing, how ever more expensive it might seem. This principle went through '.he en tire conduct of the war, all the way from the front line back to the fac tories in America. ' When a war is costing two or three million dollars an hour, almost any expense that will end it a day earlier Is justified. In short, much of what seems to our peace-time judgment to be wanton waste was justified and wise when .the war was oh. Un doubtedly in the midst of this haste this desperate finding of the quickest way there may have been here and there some chicanery and some ad vantage taken of the government. Situation Is Mamifled. But it was by no means so great as the public was led to believe by the charges the republican spellbind ers made during the campaign. All this was explained in that indignant "hell and Maria" speech which George Dawes made to a congressional com mittee investigating charges of waste and fraud in the management of the war. As you move about Washington, you learn that there are all sorts of queer motives for some of these charges. Back of a part, at least, of the charges against the management of the alien property custodian's of- ! ftce is a motive on the part of the j German owners, or on the part of sympathizers of the German owners i of the property that was taken over. I These owners want to get that prop- erty back. ' i There are hundreds of millions of 1 dollars in litigation and any senti ment that can be built up to the effect that the original German own ers were treated fraudulently or oth erwise wrongfully would be of help In the present effort to get the prop erty. Protection TVt Extended. The fact is the present republican management of the alien property custodian's office has gone over the past transactions with a fine-tooth comb and has found nothing more repreber-sible than large fees paid to some democratic lawyers. No one person can be familiar with all the cases; so that it is dangerous to make generalizations, but it will be difficult to convince any well balanced person that anybody Is being Improperly protected against suit. Any person familiar with the mech anism of the government at Wash ington is pretty sure to come to the belief that outright cheating of the jrovernment is close to impossible. The government is slow and the gov ernment is incumbered with red tape, but the government is honest and it is painstaking and it very rarely fails to get all of its own. rail With Government Nil. Many persons distant from Wash ington who have business with the government have a grotesque and en tirety wrong notion of the value of pull. They pay big fees to lawyers j wfio think - they have some sort of i inside track, when, as a matter of j l'act, they would do better to send j their own local la wyers.v who are: familiar with the facts in vthe case. I It would be difficult to find an in stance in which pull counts in a fi- I nancia or legal transaction with the-; United States government. Occasion ally lawyers of the political sort who are known, to have political or per sonal associations with men in the government will, by adroit implica tion, capitalize that connection. But in all such cases it is the client and the outsider who loses and not the government. Successful Frauds Bare. It is pretty nearly certain that the legal affairs of the government are looked after slowly, to be sure, but with minute fidelity to the govern ment's Interest. The government's operations as a business institutios are frequently costly, because thej are carried on slowly and through red tape, and with all the complex ities of checks and balances inherent in government as distinguished from DAUGHTER OF TENOR READS "IRJESE" COM ED x" J r t-v iL PattI Harrold. "Irene," the vivacious musical comedy which has broken many records for attendance, will pay a return visit to Portland and will be seen at the Heilig thea ter tonight, tomorrow and Sat urday. This time it will be presented by what is called the New York company, which is headed by Patti Harrold, whose reputation is partly due to the fact that she is the daughter of Orville Harrold, the famous grand opera tenor, but more particularly because she played the name part in "Irene" in New Tork city at the Vander bilt theater for 65 consecutive weeks. The other members of the cast, while not always the originals, were also In the com pany for long periods during the time "Irene" remained in the metropolis. Cleanliness and entire absence of suggestiveness are the key note of the success of "Irene" and are doubtless the reasons why it continues to draw such large houses on its second and even third and fourth reappearances. private business. But the cases of successful, willful fraud against the government are so rare as to be al most negligible. Student Leaders to Visit College. OREGON AGRICULTURAL. COL LEGE, Corvallis, April 19. (Special.) Lyle Bartholomew, president of the University of Oregon student body, accompanied by Helen Carson, secre tary, and Floyd Maxwell, editor of the Oregon Daily Emerald, will be guests at the student body meeting here Wednesday. The university stu dent body president will speak to the assembly in regard to the friendly relations existing between the univer sity and the college. This is the first of a series of exchange visits between the officerse of the two student bodies. Aged Aberdeen Woman Dead. ABERDEEN, Wash., April 19. (Spe cial.) Mrs. Frank Johnson, 79 years old, died at her home, 400 North F street, Monday night. The funeral will be held Sunday from the White side chapel. Mrs. Johnson was born in Sweden, but had resided here 28 years. She is survived by her hus band and two stepsons, residing here. Body Taken to Reedsport. ABERDEEN, Wash., April 19. (Spe cial.) The body of George H. Butler, 70 years old, who died Monday morn ing, was taken to Reedsport, Or., where funeral services and. interment will take place. i 1 i EFin Repairing WATCHES . CHECKS-JFWCIKV t True Economy Is Getting What You Need When' You Need It When you really NEED a thing a meal, or an auto, or a pair of shoes, or a GOOD WATCH you are a loser every mmute YOU DON'T HAVE IT. You can get a good WAL THAM WATCH from us TODAY just as easily as you can TOMORROW. We are WALTHAM AGENTS Let me "show you the' $60.00 Colonial. W. H. SAXTON Belding & Saxton 245 Washington St. Official Watch Inspectors (or Six Railroads. SEME IFF IS OUT GF JAIL ON BONDS Cossack Chieftain Greeted by Jeering Thousands; charges against General Semenoff, arrived here tonight. He said -that three persons here had communicated to him certain in formation bearing on the case and that he had come to interview them. "Their information iS important, if true," he added. The senator expects to return to Washington tomorrow night. BOMB THROWING FEARED Crowd Howls When Friends of Russian Hurry Into Prison With $25,000 In Currency, Bonds. NEW YORK, April IS. A demon stration, typical of his turbulent Rur sia, greeted General Gregogie Semen off, Cossack chieftain, as he left Lud- kw-street Jail late this afternoon Released on $25,000 bail, furnished by his friends, the Cossack ataman, sur rounded bv a detachment of the police department's bomb squad, appeared at the jail door and cringed into his coat collar as the jeers of thousands fell uuon his ears. Ludlow street was black with the crowd, which had stood in a driving rai for several hours awaiting Seraen offs release. When his friends, ac companied by the sheriff, hurried into the building, carrying $20,000 in cur rency and 15000 in liberty bonds, the crowd sent up a howl and moved closer to the entrance. Police Fear Bomb Throwing;. Extra details of police were ordered to preserve order. Hundreds of per sons stood on roofs of tenements and hung on fire escape ladders. They were driven xff by the police, who feared bomb throwing. Semenoff, who has been called the "stoneheart" and accused of murder ing American soldiers, betrayed ner- voursness as he descended the jail steps. He kept close to his guards and quickened his step as the crowd, breaking through the police line at one point, gathered around a taxlcab at the curbing. - He entered the cab, accompanied by several policemen and his friend George Kroupsky, his former military aide in Siberia, and was whisked away. Soldiers Prefer Charges. General Senfenoff was arrested here two weeks ago in connection with a civil suit involving the theft in trans-Bakalia in 1919 of goods valued at $47S,Of0 the property of the now bankrupt Youroveta Home & Foreign Trading company. In the meantime members of the Siberian expedition of the American army preferred charges against him in Washington, claiming that hecaused the murder of soldiers in the American expedition. BORAH BEACHES NEW YORK Senate Committee to Investigate Charges Against Semenoff. NEW YORK, April 19. Senator William E. Borah, chairman of the senate committee investigating the HEATHEN IDEAS PERSIST Tahitians Converted to Christian ity More Than 100 Years. PAPEETE, Tahiti. Many remnants of old heathen beliefs persist among natives of Tahiti, despite the fact that Tahitians have been converts to Christianity for more than 100 yeara Fishermen still firmly think that their success or failure in securing a large catch depends upon the favor of the fisherman's god, represented by a stone carved in the form of a fish and deposited in some cave in the nearby hills. It is said by the natives that if this figure is pointed with its head in, the fish will be plen tiful around the barrier reef. If, how ever, some evid-disposed person should turn the head toward the sea, the fishing grounds will be barren. Robert Edmisson, treasurer, and John Wonderly and Earl Colson, di rectors. They will be installed on May 3. ' Arthur Haight is, the retiring president of the club. Stock Prices Low at Sale. CHEFALIS. Wash., April 19. (Spe- Residents Promote Beach Road. SOUTH BEND, Wash., April 19. (Special.) The residents of the low er end of Pacifioi county have sub scribed $6000 to apply on a road which will be built from McGowan a ferrying point opposite Astoria, on the Columbia river, to the famous North Beach district along the ocean. This road is being built under the Donohue road bill. The county will appropriate $60,000 for the- road, the road distict will give $30,000, and $24,000 will be directly assessed against property within two miles on either side of the road. Most of it . will be bitulithic paving. This road will be used by thousands of autoitts who come over from the Oregon side to visit the beach. Wash ington tourists come down the Ocean Beach highway from Chehalis. Dr. Hicks Is Honored. SPOKANE; Wash., April 11. Dr. W. C. Hicks of Seattle, direcor of Americanization of the Washington department of the American Legion, has been named a member of the le gion's national commission on Amerl canization - and Washington state chaplain of the United States veter ans' bureau for the 13th district, he announced' here today. ' . Rancher's Dwelling Burns. CHEHALIS, Wash., April 19. (Spe- cial. ) -Ducien Gumm, a rancher whose home was a mile north of Evaline, lost his dwelling and most of the con tents by fire Tuesday. He was "en gaged in boiling wax for grafting trees, when the pot boiled over and started tire blaze. Mr. Gumm had lived near Evaline 35 years. The loss was $500, with no insurance. Rotary Club Elects Officers. CENTRALIA, Wash., April 19. (Special.) The Centralia Rotary club at its weekly luncheon yesterday elected the following new officers for the coming year: Alva Heaton president; George Ellsbury, vice president; Dave Monfort, secretary; The Scientifically Built Watch Waltham'Colonial Series No. 1420 Catalog No. 14. Price $6o ' Looking Straight at You WE like people who look straight at us eye to eye face to face in confidence and honesty. And here's a watch that says boldly "My name is Waltham. I will give you a life-long service. I help maintain the prestige of the honored name I bear." This is indeed an eye to eye, face to face watch. It is "smart looking and accurate working. It was built to tell the correct time, always. It is a fine example of a seventy year old reputation for building the finest watches it is possible to build. . ' Ask your jeweler to show it to you. You will like . it immensely. He knows Waltham Watches. Write for a valuable booklet that is a liberal " Watch" education Sent free upon request. The Waltham Watch Company Crescent Street, Waltham, Mass. WALTHAM THE WORLD'S WATCH OVER. TIME When you let this sit they sell Waltham Watches Makers of the famous Waltham air-friction quality Speedometers and Automobile Time-pieces used on the world's leading cars ' GIFTS THAT LAST G. HEITKEMPER CO. 130 Fifth St. Watch Specialists Expert Repairing Phone us for correct time Main S47. Select Your Watch at the WALTHAM WATCH AGENCY Sales and Service STAPLES the Jeweler OPTOMETRISTS OPTICIANS 266 Morrison Street ' " Portland, Or. cial.) -At a neighborhood sale of live stock held by Colonel C E. Payne, auctioneer, yesterday at Evaline, 17 cows averaged only $45 each. A 22-month-old Jersey bull of inferior breeding sold for $20. A grade Hol stein that will freshen soon topped the sale at $69. No one would bid on a small work horse. Two hogs were bid In by the owner. S. W. Porter. R. K. Owens and Charles F. Conradi were owners of the stock offered. Farmers' Petition Denied. ' THE OREGONIAN NEWS BUREAU, Washington, D. C. April 19. Secre tary ef War- Weeks today dented the petition of a group of farms livlnj adjacent to Camp Lewis for permis sion to grate their etock on the mili tary reservation. The secretary of mar said Camp Lewis was one of the few posts affording sufficient area for the training of lare bodies of troops and that it was Important that it be kept rriy for uch i?e 111 - ... J-III-1' , ! Ill II 111 ' ' yt 1 111'1 XMf1 1 1 ill' ' i .SfX : ' III 111 I -'II V ) :fi ' I m ' ' V Iuy ffl-f w'x' I III III - I I If C ',7 f'p ,mhCZA IP ill 1 aL -tflTv. t ' jjl 111 : Wxm i & t ' IP ll srr It ill' 's.o- I in The Mart Schaffner NORFOLK fairly straight front; easy drape and fit This, is the season for sport clothes; this is one of the smartest styles Sam'l Rosenblatt & Co .-Fifth at Alder Hart Schaffner & Marx Clothes Shop-Wash.atw.Park 1