Mr. Benedict Crowell of Cleveland, 0., is a builder and contractor of large consequence. He was Assistant Secretary of War from 1917 to 1920. He supervised the construction of training camps and engaged in the work of supplying the Army with arms, munitions and equipment. In January of this year he (with six of his associates) was suddenly and unexpectedly indicted for conspiracy to defraud the Government oncontracts for construction of war camps. The charge declared that in the awarding of cost plus contracts Mr. Crowell had been interested in one of the companies which had done some of the work. Mr. Crowell pleaded not guilty and entered a vigorous denial of all the alleged misdeeds.
He said at that time:
“The facts are that I never profited one cent by the trust reposed in me by the country. . . . It is not in human nature that a man given the opportunities for service that were given to me in the time of the country’s need could have devoted those two years in cold blood to cheating and wounding the nation for his own miserable profit.”
The case came up for trial in Washington last week and Mr. Crowell’s attorneys moved for a dismissal of the indictment. Although Mr. Crowell was a member of the Democratic Administration, he is defended by two prominent Republican lawyers, Frank J. Hogan, one time Quartermaster General of the Army, a member of the Progressive National Committee in 1912 and a delegate to the Republican National Conventions in 1916 and 1920, and Henry L. Stimson, Secretary of War under President Taft.
In arguing for the dismissal of the case these two gentlemen made rhetorical mince-meat of the present Department of Justice.
Said Mr. Hogan:
” Inasmuch as this [cost plus] system was approved by Newton D. Baker, Secretary of War, and must have been known to and approved by Woodrow Wilson, President of the United States, there was no possible justification for indicting Mr. Crowell and his associates without naming those who appointed them to office and approved their policies step by step.
” But the officials of this Administration knew they would be laughed out of court should they attempt such preposterous outrage, so they contented themselves with covertly referring to Messrs. Wilson and Baker as ‘other conspirators’.”
Said Mr. Stimson:
” This is an attempt on the part of the present Administration to transform a political difference of opinion into a criminal prosecution. If the indictments are upheld no President would ever be free to exercise his functions as Commander-in-Chief of the Army and Navy.”