Show v up T 0 U H in W a washington headline flun hunting ting a term originated by the tha distinguished w writer r I 1 t e r headline floyd gibbon gibbo na hunting has long K aced icen a n senatorial pa pastime 81 it Is a practice a game which pas has beon been used by some senators over and an d over again to obtain for them delves personal onal publicity usually nt fit tile the expense of private interests Infer ests which always are smeared in sena investigations whether justified or not lately however headline hunting as ag a pastime took an awful blow on the chin and when headline hunting was the reel recipient plent of a flare back froni its own devices it caught two well known senate figures in the whirlpool of the reaction probably one of the senators was largely responsible for the terrific explosion that took place aiace and he caught the full force and effect of his own statements as they camo came in reverse gear the incident to which I 1 refer occurred in ili connection with the investigation vesti gation of munitions makers and bankers by senator nye republican of north th dakota and the special committee of which lie he is a chairman this investigation has fins guno done on for some fifteen months and lias ins cost approximately 0 o of f which came out ol 01 0 bunds appropriated Pria pr jated ted to feed the ibe hungry of new york efty city it has disclosed some questionable practices by some of the small dealers in munitions nut bui as a whole I 1 believe the consensus in washington hington Is that mr nyes ayes investigation called a fishing expedition by many newspaper correspondents spon dents has added little or nothing indof of a constructive character once v before in these columns J I 1 reported to you how senator nye w was a fj proceeding The Great about the country flare back bach making speeches in which lie he charged munitions makers and international ter bankers and even aircraft and with being instrumental in promoting war in t deed he asserted numerous times that bankers and munitions makers lift had 1 I forced vie the valte states janies 1666 the lie world war lie ile and investigators employed by the committee were constantly engaged in telling capital correspondents of terrible things which the investigators had dug up tip while they mulled through aih private flies fileo of bankland banks bank sand arid business houses these brought plenty of headlines but now that the munitions investigation adzi dzi Is virtually over one odb can hardly agree in ill making a fair appraisal of the committees work vork that mat the charges cli arges have uc been substantiated senator nye nyc Is ad advocate of pence peace and lie he hadman had many opportunities ales therefore to appear in the roll roil or of a peace leader in speeches before various organizations interested ed it developed however that he honoraria gifts of money molicy or fees for the speeches hut but to get back to tile the he headline adling hunting and how lt it flared fla back the climax of the munitions inquiry was the investigation 0 of the gigantic new york financial house of J 1 P morgan and company it was wo while tho the morgan partners word acro on oil the witness stand that the explosion came and it did not involve morgan in any way the incident around which the storm blew hardest came when senator dark clark oi of missouri a son of the ho distinguished late speaker clark read into the committee record documents showing how president filgon allson had diplomatically mati mat cally leally evaded informing a sen sell ate committee of the existence of treaties among the allies by which there would bp be it a division of the col colonies onles of germany and austria la i hungary inthe if the the world war subsequently documents showed that mr air wilson allson was dware aware of ott those liose and when wh enthis tills wits disclosed Send senator tor nyo charged changed in n a committee hearing that at mr r binl wll in son had misfile falsified d the 00 records there followed tile the explosion word reached the ilie floor of the senate then in iff session nail and senator ir i connolly TOTOS texas democrat b blew on off tile the lid lie ile openly accused senator nye of besmirching the lie names ahme s of mr and the late secretary of state lansin and charged cli arged at tile the same time that the north dakota senator ft as a publicity seeker senator clark was criticized also and the inference lofe e was cast out to in the tha vicious senate debate that the BlIsso missouri url senator was indirectly biased because ie his father had lost the presidential nomination to mr ivinson in that famous and bitter 1012 1912 democratic con vAilon thus senator clark got caught in the mess but biot to such an extent as 03 did senator nye because senator glass the virginia democrat and ant a leader in the wilson administration also took up the cudgels an and d lambasted lam basted the youthful north da kotan without tile tha benefit of gloves on top of this senator pope of idalio idaho and senator george of geor gla both stalwart democrats withdrew from the nye committee pro ce edIngs in doing so they read lead it a statement explaining their position which though tactful was none tho the less direct in expressing their dis dig satisfaction 4 jn in the meantime tile morgan partners headed by J 11 morgan himself sat adt in the witness chairs with nothing to do they sat for three days dais with virtually no questions b being CI ng put to t them IM n from their standpoint I 1 believe lc lleo their climactic appearance as wit ft it nes nesses 16 was quite fitting the committee that had started stalled out with bales and bales bale s of records from which tile the investigators were going to prove how terrible was the house of morgan had found it was giving them a rather clean bill of health they found that the committee instead of proving that they had brought biou glit on the war was brov ing for the house of morgan that it had served the united states government ern ment that its policies were of more value to tills this country than they ever had br un publicly shown to be before und thit that in the end they had enabled the governments of great britain and france to maintain their strength and bigit I 1 oft off the central powers until the men ind money from flora the united states were brought into play through the long years that J P morgan and company has operated 0 P in N new ew york the name has been synonymous ous with alth wall street it was synonymous with wall street because demagogues and those politicians who profit by baiting big business as a popular sport had created that impression at ways when it was profitable for a representative or senator to conjure up a picture to win votes for himself you could find to the mighty power of morgan it will be recalled how in recent years two former senators brookhart republican of iowa and heflin democrat of alaba alabama ma malle made mance the money changers chan geis of wall street always the money changers were headed up by the house hoube of morgan I 1 mention these two former senators because their attacks ar are e typical there are those in eljes alio senate nato today who do the he same thing for tho the same bame purposes the committee investigation of the house of morgan showed that tile the institution had profited by acting as commercial agents for theal the allies and that in handling about three billion dollars in purchases of wheat cotton coil oil shells and other biwer munitions of war for the allies a commission of A 1 per cent had bad been paid to thel the house louse of morgan the inquiry also revealed tho the extent to which morgan and company had taken bonds bond ilof of the french and british british governments and had sold evidence showed showe it that ahat fier after the united states entered the war alie united states government took over the job of financing those nations ng whose business and transactions transaction had been handled by the house of bf morgan prior to td april 0 so th e m munitions unIt Ions investigation instead of smearing the house or of M morgan drgan apparently has told for tile first time the of how flow it functioned during a n period when the united states government could do nothing a period when the the vast majority of our were proved to have been sympathetic with the allies against the central powers at the outset I 1 said tills this investigation ilius ams flared back on its spon sors time alo alone e senatorial wm will tell how flow 81 alg n 9 0 In inquiries tills explosion has been and time ilme alone disclose whether it will have the effect of reducing tho the number of se senatorial ii a norfal excursions into the affairs of private busl business neSs tile the senate has vast powers and tl they ey are susceptible to abuse there are many un unbiased students of government who hold the conviction Vict lon that there liau been unwarranted investigations by b lite hie senate and that these investigations amount to of private obviously some inquiries hav hav turner up real dirt talethe Ta kethe oil scandal that carne came out ont of tile the harding administration for ream exam pt pie the facts in that conspiracy probably never would have been disclosed except for the vigorous job done dona by the late senator walsh montana democrat Penio crat thero there are arc other illustrations of the truth of tile the s statement tat ement that thi some investigations ate aro valuable on the other hand it seems to me that headline hunting na 68 such represents a game somewhat outside of the tha rules of fair play if the bitter feeling that was developed from tile the situation entering centering around president ellson war tim 0 ae actions aiono serves ns as a lesson for the future I 1 feel 61 suro sure that there will be fewer senatorial inquiries jt shows or ought 11 to show that there should be some gome basis before a senate committee g goes oes whole hog after the hide ot of ciny any business men large or small 0 western newspaper union 4 |