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Show GRASSROOTS Taxpayers Bear Expense of RFC Deals and Frauds By Wright A. Patterson GENERAL VAUGHN'S bestowal of refrigerators on favorites was but a piker operation compared com-pared with the natural mink coats presented to White House stenographers stenog-raphers for influence in securing loans for corporations from the Reconstruction Finance Corporation. Corpora-tion. The mink coats have figured prominently in tlie senate investigation in-vestigation of the R.F.C. scandal scan-dal that has kept Washington and the entire nation aghast for several weeks. But like other scandals of the past that newspaper and radio reporters re-porters have dug out of unusual un-usual graft conditions, nothing will come of it all. The White House stenographer has her fur coat and will keep it. The Democratic national committee commit-tee has collected considerable sums with which to finance the next national na-tional political campaign, and it will be used for that purpose. Numerous "fixers" have been paid extrav -.gant sums for their services with directors of the R.F.C. Indirectly In-directly the American taxpayers bore the expense through the R.F.C. loans, which are financed by the federal government. It is reported in Washington that grand jury Indictments against R.F.C. directors and the "fixers" will be sought. Such Indictments may be voted, but, in all probability, convictions convic-tions will not be obtained by the Department of Justice. Regardless Re-gardless of the sensational evi dence produced by the senate committee, nothing will happen. hap-pen. The committee findings will be a political "whitewash." "white-wash." The senate will refuse . to confirm the directors for a new term, and they will pass out of official life and quite possibly accept lucrative jobs with some of the numerous corporations cor-porations to whom they have made extensive iDins of government gov-ernment money. Such a procedure would be but a repetition of other similar instances in-stances of the past. During the last war, for example, reporters dug out the evidence of large" scale graft on the part of contractors on the international highway through Mexico and Central America. They provided the names, places, amounts and methods. The statements state-ments they printed could well have been the basis for libel suits if the statements were untrue, but no such suits were instituted. A congressional congres-sional committee undertook an investigation. in-vestigation. For a few days there was much fuss about it all. Then the subject disappeared from the newspapers, and the investigation stopped. Nothing happened. The grafting contractors kept their ill-gotten ill-gotten gains, the tax payers paid the bills, the investigation was called off. It was interfering with the game of politics and politicians. Another instance in which reporters report-ers dug up the evidence was the installation of radar protection for Hawaii. The installation was to be made under the direction of a German Ger-man who was an engineer officer in the American army. For various reasons of the German officer, the installation was delayed, and that delay resulted in the Pearl Harbor disaster. After the reporters had investigated investi-gated and printed their statements accusing the German officer with deliberately delaying the installation, installa-tion, a congressional committee undertook an investigation. Again there were grounds for libel suits, but the suits were never filed. The congressional investigation investiga-tion lasted for a few days, and was then dropped. The German engineer en-gineer officer was assigned to another an-other job, in connection with the construction of the Alcan highway. Later, he was promoted and sent to Germany with the army of occupation. occu-pation. Such were two examples in which there was convincing evidence. There was a similar situation in connection with the construction of the Aican highway, and the oil development project that went with it. In that case a four-star general was involved. It, too, was whitewashed white-washed by a congressional investigation. investi-gation. The President has sent to the senate for confirmation the five directors of the R.F.C. There is hardly a chance of senate confirmation, confirma-tion, but they will be allowed to get out to be rewarded with lucrative lucra-tive jobs from some of the corporations corpora-tions to which they have made loans of the peoples' money. Such Is partisan politics. |