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Show iELLON ENDORSES CAPPER FARM CREDITS I j I NATION DURING WAR ALLEGED Assistant Secretary Under I Baker Declared Conspirator H E DENIES GUILT Celebrated Contractors Accused Ac-cused In Grand Jury's Indictments WASHINGTON. Dec. 30 Bene- ill diet Crowell. former assistant seen - ! tary of war. and six other war-tlmo !JJ officials of the war department. Wera I Charged today in an indictment i-iturned i-iturned by a special federal grand Jury here, with conspiracy to defraud 1 the government and with delaylnc 1 and defeating the administration o? law : The seven defendant wer said by the Jury to have participated uni.m-I uni.m-I fully In the award of contracts let by ,; Uhe government during tho war and I 1 aftr the armistice, Involving expendi-;ture.s expendi-;ture.s totalling hundreUv of mill ion - (or dollars, and ln which some of their number had a pecuniary Interest ALLEGED ONSPIRATORS Those named as conspirators with Mr. Crow ell were William A. Starrett of New York, 'engineer and architect, said to hav g been a member of the firms of Starrett and Van Vleck, and Thomi.- j son-Starrett company Inc. and latei ; associated with the George A. Puller j company. general contractors. Hn (was chairman of the war departments depart-ments committee on pmi-rR' ni v con-6trucfion. con-6trucfion. connected with the Council of National Defense. Morton C. Tuttle. of Boston. IfaSJe.. I said to be general manager of the lAberthaw Construction company an 1 Itormerly a member of tho emergency 'construction committee. Clemens w Lundoff, of Cleveland.. I Ohio, said to be vice president and general manager of the Crowell-Lun-doff-Little company and general manager of the Cleveland Construction Construc-tion company, lln also was a member mem-ber of tho emergency construct loni committee. A .N ID UAIED, Clair Poster, reported to live in Canada, and formerly associated with , the Thompson-Sfarrett and tho George A Puller companies and aled with the emergency construction committee. com-mittee. John H. McGlbbons of Baltimore and Chicago, said to have represented represent-ed a bonding company Issuing bond- for contractors and associated durint the war with tho construction committee. com-mittee. James A Mears of Boston and Springfield Mass.. former general 1 manager of Fred T. Ley and company. Inc., general contractors to whom the first contract for construction of n national army cantonment was awaraea. no was secretary to ih construction committee In" Hie war department during the war. I) l GUERT1 s OPENER. The Indictment was the first of its kind to bo returned as a result of Investigations In-vestigations of war Iraud ases lnltiat-jed lnltiat-jed by Attorney General Daughi rty Others arc expected to follow com- L 'pletlon of the presentation of evidence l. department of Justlco agent. 1 Which is said to be rapidly approacn-1 approacn-1 ing the stage required for jury consideration. consid-eration. 1 After Identifying the defendants, the Indictment recited at length tin-emergency tin-emergency situation brought about by (Continued on Pago Two) I PLUNDERING OF I U. S. ALLEGED (Continued from Page One.) the war and stress under which he government labored, particularly em-phasUInK em-phasUInK tho Importance to the con-Mructlon con-Mructlon program out of which grew the great army cantonments. hugo terminals, warehouses and hospitals. ACCUSATION RECITED Each of the seven defendant, tho Indictment averted, "conceived tho fraudulent scheme and plan of getting control, for their own gain. profit and benefit, and for the guln, profit nnd lneflt of their past and future clients and employers end their frlen.ls, of the administration Ot the Immense smergency construction pro- Hi fwam of the I'nltcd States during tho tar, including the determination of Hj tho policy to be followed, the form of contract grossly, unconscionably And fraudulently favorable to th" Hj contractors and In a like manner anl to the same extent unfavorable to the United States . . J It was next charged that the de-fondants, de-fondants, "each knowing well all the H' BremlSSS aforesaid. did unlawfully and feloniously conspire, combine. Confederate nnd agren together and with divers other persons to said grand Jurors unknown, to defraud the United States by unlawfully and cor-ruptly cor-ruptly delaying, lrnpedlnr. obstruct-ng. obstruct-ng. perverting, prejudicing, contra-xrnlng contra-xrnlng and defeating the admlnlstra- tlon of its laws and lawful regulations. regula-tions. . . . COMPETITION KI1MIN ITEJO Violation of fedora! statutes relating re-lating to tho procurement of services of contractors for the building construction con-struction program of the war depart -ment was charged In une count. In this reference, the Indictment said the defendants de-fendants caused all competitive bid-, ding to be done away with in connection con-nection with tho administration of substantially all building construction which involved expenditure of hundreds hun-dreds of millions of dollars and included in-cluded among other things, 16 national na-tional army cantonments, Id national guard camps, huge port terminals, many warehouses, hospitals, aviation fiei.ls, ordnance plants and fortiflra-tlons, fortiflra-tlons, c mprislng more than 500 sop-' arate contracts. ThO defendants, It was charged, administered ad-ministered laws and regulations of th.- war department contrary to true ! intent and "In a manner not In the best Interests of tho United States, but In great part In the Interests and for the unconscionable gain, profit and benefit primarily of certain favored contractors selected by defendants." i The Indictment recited the names of numerous army officers who. It said, were deceived, misled and overridden over-ridden by th defendants. causing gr.-at waite of money appropriated by congress and unjustifiable profits to the defendants and their associates. OROW1 LL RJEP1 9 CLEVELAND. ".. Dec. 3 0. Categorical Cate-gorical denial that there was any conspiracy con-spiracy or collusion In tho awarding i I war construction contracts which te had any knowledge of or oonnec-1 Ion with, was made by Benedict Crowell, former assistant secretary of war. when Informed of tho return of indictments against himself and six, t'fh.-r ' dollar a year'' men "1 know nothing whatever about the indictments and have oo Information Informa-tion regarding them," ho said. "I have recently turned over all my records rec-ords regarding the building of army camps and cantonments to department depart-ment of Justice agents and have cooperated co-operated wlt them In every way In their Investigations." Clemens Lundoff also of Clove-'Jjind, Clove-'Jjind, Is said to bo In Los Angeles attending at-tending a convention of general con- tractors. NewtOD P Baker, former secretary i of war. when told of the Washington Indictments, said: "Not having seen tho indictments I eanot comment on them. I have always al-ways believed, howevor, that the cost I plus plan was tho only possible way the camps and cantonments could have been constructed under the circumstances" cir-cumstances" It Is news to me." Mr Crowell said, referring to the allegations In tho Indictment of daily meetings between be-tween the alleged conspirators in connection con-nection with assignment of contracts-' contracts-' There was a great amount of construction con-struction work to ! awarded during the war," said Mr, Crowoll. cxplaln- ng the mothod of operation. "As assistant as-sistant secretary of war I had th--duty of finally approving theso contracts. con-tracts. "A construction division of the nrmy was set up and as each Jub came up, tho division Investigated ail the large contractor applying for tho Job and picked out tho men they thought most capable of handling that particular partic-ular contract. "Their recornmendatb n was sent to the council of national defense, I who had to pass on it and snd the .report to me. I I made It an Invariable rule to approve the contract when ths two bodies, the council of national defense de-fense and the army construction division divi-sion agreed on the firm most capable 1 of handling It " Clement W. Lupdoff. another i Cleveland man, cited In tho Indict-ments Indict-ments Ii Fald to l- In Los Angeles or. Fan Francisco attending a convention of contractors. Mr Lundoff was vice , president of a Cleveland contracting firm In which Mr Crowell wa-s preel-l dent until the latter's appointment as assistant secretary of war. Mr Crowell Is now chairman of the Crowell and Llttlo construction company and head of the Crowell and Murraj company, chemists and mining min-ing engineers. |