National Affairs: Men of Arms (Cont’d)

Last week the Senate committee investigating the munitions industry closed up shop until after the November elections. Before its members scattered to their homes, they added the following facts and fancies to the official record:

¶ From 1930 to 1933 United Aircraft & Transport Corp.’s business in Germany totaled $59,000. In 1933 it jumped to $272,000, and in the first eight months of 1934 to $1,445,000. Biggest German purchases: unmounted Pratt & Whitney engines. The Senate committee promptly concluded that United was helping Germany rearm in violation of the Treaty of Versailles. But “it was not the understanding” of United officials that their German sales were for military purposes.

¶ President John W. Young of Federal Laboratories, Inc. brought gifts for the committee—one wooden model of a Thompson submachine gun, two sample gas bombs, one packet of sickening-gas crystals. On the stand Armsman Young told how in December 1933 he sold President Ramon Grau of Cuba 60 submachine guns while simultaneously negotiating with Colonel Mendieta about another revolution. In return Mr. Young was later retained at $12,000 to reorganize the Cuban police force.

¶ In 1932 Mr. Young’s firm was supplying both Bolivia and Paraguay with gas and arms as they were squaring off for a resumption of the Chaco War. At the time, however, a Federal Laboratories’ agent on the spot wrote President Young: “Unfortunately for us it looks as if the trouble will be settled amicably.”

¶ From Ecuador, Mr. Young’s brother Paul, missionary of the Christian Missionary Alliance, wrote: “Six or eight Indians showed a desire to follow the Lord and we prayed with them. Some of them made beginnings but had been pulled down by sin. Indian work . . . needs a great deal of prayer. Yesterday I saw the Minister of War again and made arrangements to demonstrate. . . . I shot [gas] at the soldiers but they were able to stand the gas and get at me. I then shot the grenade in a room and asked the men to go in. This was a real success. . . .” Remarked Senator Bone: “It would appear that Paul’s activities give a new meaning to the familiar old tune ‘Onward, Christian Soldiers.’ ”

¶ President Young revealed that the tear gas business had increased some 10% since the textile strike. His ethical defense: tear gas is better than “lead bullets” to down a disturbance.

¶ Last company under investigation was Lake Erie Chemical, whose President Byron Cassius Goss was Chemical Service chief of the A. E. F.’s Second Army. Like his rival, Mr. Young, Colonel Goss insisted on the relative humanity of gas. From the files of Lake Erie Chemical Co. was extracted a letter insinuating that the American Legion could be induced to lobby against the Arms Embargo Bill in January 1933. Colonel Goss believed they had been so induced. Up from the committee table rose Senator Clark, one of the Legion’s organizers and its second national commander, to roar: “If any member of the Legion took such action he is a disgrace to the Legion and should be expelled. It is an absolute prostitution of the Legion.” Chief Legion Lobbyist John Thomas Taylor denied he had worked against the Arms Embargo Bill.

“The committee feels that it has thus far only scratched the surface,” declared publicity-loving Chairman Nye. To the “rather sordid picture” of the munitions industry painted so far by his committee he proposed to add the steel companies sometime in December.