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Show CIPPEI DHLS UHQERPRBBE Government Transactions Before and During the War Investigated. "WASHINGTON, Auff. 12. Government dealings in copper, as a purchaser before and during the war, and a seller following the armistice, were the subject of investigation inves-tigation today by the house subcommittee on ordnance department and expenditures. expendi-tures. Total purchases of the metal by the war. department were shown to have amounted to $153,334,479, nearly all secured se-cured from the United Metal Selling company, com-pany, which was organized at the Instance of Bernard M. Baruch, with John D. Hyan as president. Expert accountants employed by the federal trade commission testified that this copper had cost the producers who ' formed the company and who are said to be the largest miners in the United States, approximately $103,038,156, leaving a profit on the purchases of 550,306,341. The selling company itself, according to C. W. Welsh and Tobias Wolfson, its executive execu-tive officers, made nominal profits in commissions on the sales. At the conclusion of the armistice, according ac-cording to the testimony, the government's govern-ment's surplus of copper amounted to 100.000,000 pounds, for which it had paid 23,2 and 26 cents a pound. A contract was given to the United Metal Selling company to sell it back to the producers, which was done at prices ranging from 15.8 to Id and 20 cents a pound. M. C. Wooster, chief accountant for tho trade commission, testified that the average cost of producing copper in 1917, as shown by the books of the larger producers, pro-ducers, was 13.6 cents, and In 1918, 15.3 cents. Mr. Wooster said that the government's gov-ernment's price had been fixed to allow the companies with the highest costs to continue producing, and Eald that the system had given some of the lower cost corporations very large profits. |