Casper Daily Tribune Newspaper, October 27, 1920, Page 8

iT CONDUCT fF LATE WAR ment, inefficiency and Extravagance by Wilson Administration Durmg War Investigations since the Armistice confirm what was obvious to ® competent critic during the war. Billions of dollars were wasted og mismanagement in the proseeution of the war. any billions of dollars were peeropees and expended for | roduction of war material, supplies atid equipment. ition’s war production, however, was W and waste was the outstanding characteriftic of the Adminis- ni’s effort in almost every department. In many lines of war foduction a negligible result had been obtained when the Armistice = signed. The Appraisal. flife of this nation since the Civil War. The nation and its sol- made unparalleled sacrifices. An expenditure of $30,000,000,- within so short a period was without precedent. 7 itstanding significanee—furnish the compelling motive for in- into the Administration’s military policy,.prograni and ef- Our democracy demands a reckoning and an appraisal. Every an citizen should know, first, what the Administration did to us for war—after our entrance into it became inevitable— ar was vigorous and economical. The Administration did nothing to prepare us for war. Slow ® interpret the obvious significance of the European war, the Pres-| ‘tent was even slower to act when our national peril was forced us. He refused to take competent counsel; ar be guided by it. » President’s indecision and his slowness to formulate any policy | aring the two years before our entrance into the war explains why, April 6, 1917, we were as unprepared for positive or effective as we were at the time the Lusitania went down. The Presi- | “s indecision and slowness to formulate a policy continued after | 6, 1917; he remained throughout the conduet of the war stub-| vernly hostile to the development of a comprehensive organization P could visualize war needs and get results. The entire war was t with handicaps of organization which seem incredible to the etent critic. Some Significant Features of War Waste. our gigantic war expenditures, amounting at the close of the to $50,000,000 a day—is significant. Our Aircraft Program: Wo Planes Produced—We expended | 1,511,988 for aviation and airplanes. This was the result. Up to tke time of the signing of the Armistice not a single fight- ing plane manufactured in the United States had been put into! ) action on the American front. We obtained for use at the front 213 De Haviland 4 observation planes, all of which were illy designed and constructed and ex- | povigees A dangerous, and 527 second-hand foreign planes, which | we er bought or borrowed from our Allies. We expended $30,000,000 on a spruce-production program, build- | ing elaborate railroads, camps and facilities, and then were forced to buy 92.6 per cent of our spruce lumber from priv at | independent spruce lumbermen. We spent approximately $10,000,000 on spruce railroads that | never hauled a log of lumber. We spent $20,000,000 for 4,608 Cu iss motors, 1,616 Curtiss-type | aeroplanes, and 1, 100 Standard JN-1 aeroplanes, which we pur- | chased from the Curtiss Aeroplane & Motor Corporation, then gold them back to this eompany for $2,720,000. The War De- rtment refused to sell these machines to aviators for less than | 900 each, and provided in the contract by whieh’ they were sold to the Curtiss Company that the Curtiss Company should have the first opportunity to buy any other aeroplanes wkich the War Department might thereafter declare surplus. We spent $6,000,000 on Bristol planes and $17,500,000 on Stan- dard-J planes, and got not a single machine that could be used for any purpose. Our Ordnance Pr ‘gen4no. 570.48 from thegegts than it cost to finance the Civi fay (@) We had 53 contracts for 37 m/m shells, on which we expended $9,134,582. Not one of these shells ever reached our firing line, fb) We had 689 contracts for 75 m/m shells, on which we expended #301,941,459. Of these shells we fired 6,000. o) We had 142 contracts for 3-inch shells on which we expended | $44,841,844. None of these shells reached the firing line. (a) We had 439 contracts for 4.7 shells, on whith we expended $41,- 716,051. Of these shells 14,000 were fired by our forces. (2) We had 305 contracts for 6-ineh shells, on whi $24,189,075. None of these ever reached the firing line. 4) We had 617 contracts for 155 m/m shells, on which we expended | $264,955,387. None of these ever reached the firing line. We had 301 contracts for 8-inch shells, on which we expended $51,371,207. . None of these ever reached the firing line. ) We had 1 $24,136,867. None of these ever reached the firing line. ‘ We had 239 contracts for 1ells, on which we expended $54,- 889,377. None of these ever reached the firing line. /G) We had 71 contracts for 12-ineh shells, on which we expended $0,507,878. None of these ever reached the firing line. k) We had 6 contracts for 14-inch shells, on which we spent $1,266,- 477. None of these ever reached the ‘firing line. We let 11 contracts, to the amount of $478,828,345, for the con- struction of artillery of all calibers, guns, howitzers, gun car- riages, limbers, and reeuperators. Of this immense program of expenditures there reached our troops and were actually used . F in combat thir nine 75m/m anti-aircraft mount trucks, forty- - eight 47-inch guns of the 1906 model, forty-eight 4.7-inch gun earriages of the same model, twenty-four 8-inch howitzers, and Mt) ning of the war until June 1, 1919, more 1] War. <A large part of this fund was in a program of manufacturing artillery and ammunition. Our was in most directions negligible, The following summar- i w \ twenty-four 8-inch gun carriages. ‘The details are shown in a table furnished by the War Department and atta¢hed ‘hereto, pp. 246-247. To sum up, we furnished our troops for use six thousand 975 m/m shells, fourteen thousand 4.7 shells, forty-eight 4,7 guns and twenty-four 8-inch howitzers. ~ Gonstruction of Camps and Cantonments—We expended $1,200,-' for the construction of camps and cantonments largely by 2ost-plus system, a system ig pa by the War Department. By system costs were increased, labor demoralized, the completion ‘the campr ‘vas delayed, soldiers called to the colors were sul jected ; itions that indue ed disease and death, and from 40 to 60 per of the money was wasted. uction of tanks, the exact amount of which has not been computed, a single tank of American manufacture reached the front before Armistice. to cost $25,000 each. To build these we started an immense / | For! Results Try Fribune We eye arm y Given of Price People Paid for Mismanage-_ The Ad-| ik and inefficient ; | The war with Germany represents the most significent event in| These facts— | isecond, the extent to which the Administration’s conduct of the | A tere summary of what we obtained—and failed to obtain— | —The Ordnance Department spent $3,-' ch we expended } contracts for 240 m/m shells, on which we expended | Twenty-two million dollars was spent for fees to favored coil @ractors on camps and cantonmenis, most of which would have been ; ved had this work been let by bids, { Productioa of Tanks.—Many millions were spent for the pro-| Zo complete our tank program we needed 1,200 tanks, which ‘ab concrete factory ‘in France, which was to assemble and | ‘turn out 100 of these tanks a aay, or the extire The British were to furnish the guns and amor ; ya renes for assembly, while’ we were to furnish the ning gear, and ante ‘them to France for assembly. plied their part, but we supplied nothing. The ished at the Armistice and never produced Bee ie Production of Explosives, Powder and sgpearaes) ea a high explosives, powder and gas was likewise a Ty ting failure from the viewpoint of the results obtained. This is what we got: (a) We spent $60,100,000 to build a powder plant/at Nitro, W. Va. It never produced a pound of powder for. the war. After the Armistice there was stored at Nitro personal property worta, at a fair cash value, $10,000,000. Both plant and pro sold after the Armistice for $8,551,000, most of rng ferred payments. We paid the Hercules Powder Co,, for operating the Nitro plant $11,293,737.11. They produced no powder that we could use) in the war. We spent $2,900,000 in furnishing electrical-machinery and build- ing electric lines for the Virginia Powder Company at Nitro, W. Va., and after we had built them a first class system, giving them a practical monopoly of the Kanawha Valley, the Govern- ment settled with them for $81,000 and in addition gave them a long-time contract to furnish electric power for the nayal ar- . mor plant at Charleston, W. Va. (d) We spent approximately $90,000,000 in the construction and op- eration of a powder plant at Nashville, Tenn., called Old Hick- . ory, and which produced no powder that could be used in the war, We spent $116,194,974.37 on nitrate plants at Sheffield, Ala.; Muscle Shoals, Ala.; Toledo, Qhio, and Cincinnati, Ohio. These plants did not produce a pound of nitrates that could be used in the war. We spent for poison gas $116,000,000. Not a pound of Amer- ican gas was ever fired in an American shell, and only about 100 tons of American gas loaded in shells ever reached the ficld dumps. (g) The Government built three picric acid plants and seven plants | to make phenol and acid required by them. This was to furnish picrie acid for the French, who desired it for explosives. None of these plants produced a pound of anything that was used in the war. The plants cost us $35,000,000. The French were to pay the whole bill, but the War Department settled with France} for $14,000,000. Port Terminals.—We spent $17, 116,000 in constructing a port terminal at Charleston, $. C., which was built in an isolated swamp 10 miles up the Cooper Riv er, where it\qvas neéessary to dredge to reach it. There never ‘was a pound of produce, a man, or an animal shipped either out of or into this terminal during the war. We spent $127,661,000 for port terminals at Boston, Brooklyn,’ Newark, Philadelphia, Norfolk, Charleston, and New Orleans, Some of them were not finished ang none of them were used for anything except storage during the war. The foregoing summarizes briefly the corioliatiens veached by the Select, Committee of the House of Representatives on Expenditures in the War Department after months of careful investigation. The couclusions of that Committee remain uncontradicted, Excessive Orders for Less Essential Things.—No less startling than the Government’s failure to produce essential things such as guns, shells, gas, aeroplanes and tanks, was the mismanagement in- cidental to the placing of excessive orders and the makjng of lun- | necessaty expenditures for less ential things. A few instances verified by the records are sufficient: (a) We ordered 41,100,152 pairs of shoes and Recs nee deliveries of |i | 32,227,450 pairs, for 3,513,837 men. | (b) xe bought and received 500,226 double sets of sacks and 110,- single sets. We had, in all, during the period of the war | 580182 horses, of which only 67,948 were shipped overseas and 96, 000. died. We bought 945,000 saddles aid had, in all, 86,418 cavalry horses. We bought 2,850,853 halters. We bought 585,615 saddle bags. We beught 1,637,199 horse brushes. We bought 2,033,204 nose bags. We bought 1,148,364 horse covers. We bonght for our Ordnance officers 712,510 camplele sets of spur straps, about, 36-sets for each officer. (j) We bought 8,781,615 horseshoes. (k) We bought 195,000 branding irons, (1) We ordered 149,456,61 hard bread cans and used 31,500, 000 ‘dur- ing the war. is in de- | | |) (e) (e) (f) | | (¢) (d), (e) (f) (g) (h) (i) The conclusions presented™here snd elsewhere inthis report are based / upon data furnished by agencies of the Federal Government and upon the} sworn testimony of competent witnesses who appeared in the hearings before * the Select Committee on War Expenditures of the House of Representatives. | The evidence, testimony and conclusions have been published in the various, reports of this committee, See also Congressional Record of June 1, 1920) (pp. 8754-8760) th: weeks in the Hamilton MULE CREEK HAS ‘WELLS IN MONTH Ney ected ts to come in ‘the first nsxtel |maenth in the second Wall Creek sand, Ripro. ‘Weatern’ inten), Welles cones 20m j which is expected to come in any day, should be /completed within the next in this ficld: on 30-5 50 baste With the Petrojeura Ff oduce “Ts corporation. a Omaha Livestock | Western States Report Covering 7 Rania Day st stone dncer: Market by Wire tant Developments in Drill- OMAHA ne Oct States Bi a | ceipts, 4,000 medium ing Operations id light butchers, Unusual aetivity is reported by the / Western Oi! and Land company + top, $12.90; hulk, | ‘during the last 20 days in the variou packing grades, $12. ‘a Wyoming fields. Three new. wells w p th ars completed in the Mule Creek field dus | d Filipe: jing the-first part of October by the veals steady; stockers Western States company, The ‘wel mostly Ihe to 25¢ ‘higher. averaged nd came in 000, Killing. grades } top Western lambs, nt from 1,300 to. 1,500. feet. $6; tevilera). a teaavEAsiin : feeders, steady; Two more wells in ‘this field are éx- pected in some » this. month, one of which is: now w peer ak PY, off Ps Read The Trivune Classified Adz ster well the of section 6.4 § of the Salt. Creek field which was & ‘ought on in the latter part of last month, is es- tt SEE BEN is being @sed from it, my ay The or mn the northeast quarter of “ git % section & is in the first Wall Creel . sand at This ia depth of 2,200 feet. Sheep For Sale Offering 8,000 head of yearling ewes. For full particulars inquire of JOHN BRYNE 345 CY Avenue Casper, Wyo. Safest Investment Casper Real Estate GEOLOGISTS OIL EXPERTS Oil Field Maps. Blue Prints ‘Explorations Reports Wyoming Map & Blue Print Co. 0. Box 325. Rm. 10, Lyric rty were ng _jrison, Symes and Hancey holdings in o * NEW YURK CURB CLOSING : Bid Ask $184.00 $166.00 Midwest Refining Great Western Petroleum. .07 Sinolair Ot) Hutton Lake 04 Jupiter <.. 02 Kinney — -80 Lance Creek Royalty 08 Lusk Royalty -.. — 08 . | Lusk Petroleum - +08 Mike Henry —. 08) ip] Beene Mountain & Guit = 06... <a Sens Northwest ses Myst ’ Ryyaiee Outwest Oe ace | aed Picaray 2 aT Tgp ne atone Riverton Refg. SSh0T 3? LIBERTY BONDS Royalty & Produce: =, 8h 83) 31-25 -_.. 4 Sunset --_-.-_.__ = 07 08! Ist 4's 89.50) ‘Tom Bell Royalty - 04 05] 2nd 4's 88.50 Western Oil Fields. 31.) 88} ist 44's 89.80 | Western Exploration ~ 1.85 1,85] 2nd 4%’s - 88.38 Wind River Refining. - 02 04) Srd4%4's' 90.52 | Wyo. Tex. - ~ 02 9.05] 4th 4i4's — 88.66 Wyo. Kans i 2.05] Victory 4%'s 96.12) WYOMING CRUDE OIL MARKET Grass Creek -. as $3.10] Rock Creek Torchlight -. 10 | Salt Creek 75 | Elk Basin Bic Mudey 2.75 Greybull —_. Pilot Butte 2.95 Lance Creek Lander ..._.... Hamilton Mule Creek ..-~~.. 15 05 WAKE GOSSIP. AND FELD NES —— on i SD until recently with the American Refiners and Producers’ Raney | has accepted a position as field manager for the Piney-Crescent Company. j through the efforts of J. C. and J. A. ) Peterson, mebyeiaumént of Fosst] hold. New DeDvelopment Pending. ings will occupy first attention of the” | eonce a) the perators. Pryamid Test A test of the pains well completed by he Pyramid Oil Company inthe Fosst! jcld, Lincoln County, Wyo. hss iran ing the arrival of pi ae The well is standing full op of the casing and ple ca afta i “ee 4 ‘ te Western Oil Field BO 82/72 otled preparatory to giving It @ try- ¥. Oil fs Be mtn: 8) in the same field excavation has been started by the Arizona-Wyaoming Coin- pany for the first unit of a small re- Midwest Common 1.25 2.00! finery which is to be placed in opera- Mia Pref. 4.59 ° 3.00, tion on holdings im Which dt is: inters Merritt —.. 14.50 15.00} ested. Long delays wa experienced jn Glenrock Oil 187 2.00\ securing the necessary equipment, Salt Creek _ 2909 30-50) which recently arrived. 37 2 ! : 675. 6.00) Republic Is Expanding.” > ris 7.00 7,60 > Oil company of Ther ‘ — 9.82 9.87} hich started in a small Way | , 25 id oe epublic Oil syndicate and has e a 1.75) een steadily ding, announces the z 5 297.00 304.00), -cuisition of leases on 24,060. acres of a \CKS nd in the Clear Creek structure, Iy- i" NEW YORE STO mig between and*Chinook, Mont. 2.35 ; Open Close | ng structure miles wide by nine Mexican Petroleum ; fie acookdls the company’s ‘geal: in. the Hani- Thermopoks, Awe nor! » bel “eke operated by the Elk Basin Consolidated company which has one producing well, anot! down 1,600 feet, a third drilli 800 feet and rigs going up for Nos. 4 and 6. The panies in a well be! Texas, in wildcat territor Potrogas Sells Leases. The Petrogras corporation has sold its holdings in the Dry Piney ‘ield, tn- tu Thomas Clinton coin county, W and Charte ‘key, pioneer operators in this district, who atready have be gun the drilling of a well on section 7 28113. The purchase included consid- erable drifting equipment. The Petro- gras corporation recently turned tts at- tention to the Osage filed where it ac quired good lens Bridgeport Machine Reorganizes. AUGUSTA, Kas., Oct. 26.—The Bridgeport Machine Company of Au- gusta, Kas., today announced the is- suance of a preferred stock issue of $400,000 and a change in form of or- ganization from a co-partnership to a corporation, Plans of the company, wth actual work under way, include the doubling of the production capacity of their shops at Augusta, and the trebling of the size of their underreamer factory at Marietta, Ohio. The officers of the company are: J. A. Woods, president; G. M. Smith, vice president; E, W, Boyd, secretary treas- ur This leave the’ management the samo as it has been, with the addition of Mr. Smith, a banker and capitalist, well-known in Western banking circles. General office of the company Will re- nt Augusta, Kas., with branch of rt Worth, Tex.; Ranger, Tex Marietta, Ohio; El Dorado, e, Kas., and distributing throughout the oil fields. fc Tulsa, A corporation is in process. of formas tion through financing by New York) capital to embrace the Hersman, Har- the Lincoin County, Wyo., ofl fields, according to Kemmerer reports, gehtly manaincins his eeiaatt i" Some of you fellows “gently.” Get busy today. Genuine PHONE Union- Alls Specially Priced This Week $4.45 Per Suit ‘Taylor Election 260 S. Center St. Where Society Brand Clothes ‘Arg Sold CASPER, nM 114 South Wolcott Street Meating Stoves Furnaces: STOVES or FURNACES should be grateful for the Have one installed. Incorporated For the benefit.of our customers and friends we will receive all Over our private wires on Election Day, Phones 203 and 204 HI a Lester Brokerage House Specializing in NEW YOR without either HEATING Cali us. HOLMES HARDWARE @ HOLMES TO HOMES. 601 & Clay Returns November 2 wyo. HII IL K OIL “Seeeconsn