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Show Why Officials Did Not Sign Large Contract Much lias been heard about Cool-ldge Cool-ldge economy, but perhaps the largest larg-est single saving to the government antedated Coolidge by nearly five years. It was made by Judge Walter Wal-ter Winter Warwick, then comptroller comp-troller of the treasury. One afternoon In November, 1!)18, Judge Warwick was asked by General Gen-eral Goethals to drop in at the War department. Warwick found C-oethals and a bevy of other high officers seated around a huge table heaped with papers. "Those papers are contracts," Goethals Goe-thals explained. "They represent the result of months of negotiation with private manufacturers. None of them have been signed, but we have told the manufacturers In each case that we expect to sign them. They cover mnni lions and other supplies, sup-plies, and in each case the manufacturer manufac-turer has gone ahead on the assumption assump-tion that the contract would be signed. "Since these negotiations were started, however, the armistice has been signed. Now. what we would like to know, Judge Warwick, is whether that makes any difference whether we can legally sign them." Judge Warwick looked at the papers. pa-pers. "How much money Is involved in these contracts?" he asked, "Oh, I suppose, roughly, a billion dollars," Goethals replied. "Well, gentlemen," replied Judge Warwick, "I can only say this: If you sign them every last one of you will go to the penitentiary." He walked out and the contracts were not. signed. One billion dollars, dol-lars, more or less, remained in the federal treasury. Collier's Weekly. |