THE ROLL CALL
The Roll Call ON MEN AND MEASURES Who's Who and What's What in the Navy League? Congressman Tavenner's Spirited Letter to the League's President HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, Washington, D. C., Dec....
...I call your attention to the fact that J. P. Morgan, who is a director of the United States Steel Corporation, was formerly treasurer of the Navy League and is now a director of and a contributor to the Navy League and that J. P. Morgan's brother-in-law, Herbert L. Satterlee, was one of the incorporators of the League, and is at the present time the General Counsel of the League...
...I now desire in all good faith to take the responsibility of making a suggestion to the Navy League...
...I call your attention to the fact that Henry C. Frick, a director of United States Steel, and ten other corporations, banks and trust companies, is one of the vice-presidents of the Navy-League...
...On November 21st I received a letter from you threatening a suit...
...Sheldon is also a director of twenty-four other corporations...
...United States Steel controls the Carnegie Steel Company, which has drawn down from the Navy contracts aggregating $32,954,377 for armor plate alone, and if the Navy League's $500,000,000 bond issue goes through Congress this firm will profit still further...
...On November 19th I publicly stated that inasmuch as the Navy League insisted that its management and backers are entirely free from any atmosphere of war-trafficking influences, I would, as soon as Congress convened, introduce a resolution providing for an investigation of the League, specifically requiring J. P. Morgan and other directors of the League, past and present, to take the responsibility of testifying, under oath, whether they are interested or ever have been, in war-trafficking firms, or concerns which stand to profit from the proposed $500,-000,000 bond issue...
...I call your attention to the fact that Robert Bacon, formerly a member of the firm of J. P. Morgan & Co., and now first director of United States Steel, is a director of the Navy League...
...There have been ten estimates by Government officials as to the cost of armor in a Government plant and the average of these estimates is $238 a ton...
...From the foregoing it would appear that two of the three concerns composing the armor ring in this country have representation either among the contributors to the Navy League or among the officers or directors of the Navy League...
...I understand your position to be that none of the money which the Navy League has used to banquet Members of Congress and Secretaries of the Navy or to carry on the propaganda for the vastly increased naval appropriations which you advocate, has come from any gentlemen who stand to profit therefrom...
...Very respectfully, CLYDE H. TAVENNER...
...I consider your letter nothing more nor less than an attempt to intimidate me into abandoning my plans to seek a Congressional investigation of your organization...
...I suggest that you call a meeting of the Board of Directors and go on record in favor of the Government manufacture of battleships, submarines, armament, munitions, etc., in order that the people may obtain the preparedness which you are advocating at cost...
...2, Wall Street, New York, son of a director of United States Steel, contributed $1,000 to the Navy League, June 10, 1915...
...2, 1915...
...By contrasting $440, the price we have paid the private manufacturers, with $238, the cost at which we might have manufactured this armor in a Government plant, it is possible to obtain an inkling as to the reason we do not now have more preparedness to show for the colossal appropriations made for that purpose...
...I also call your attention to the fact that George F. Baker, Jr., No...
...I call your attention to the fact that Allan A. Ryan, a director of the Bethlehem Steel Corporation, contributed $100 to the Navy League on June 10, 1915, and to the further fact that George R. Sheldon, a director of the Bethlehem Steel Corporation, and the American Locomotive Co., both of which concerns have profited hugely from European war orders, is one of the vice-presidents of the Navy League...
...The personal fortunes of these thirty-one men, by the most conservative estimate, aggregate $100,000,000, or $3,000,000 to each director...
...I call your attention to the fact that Elbert H. Gary, who is described in the Directory of Directors for 1914 as "Chairman of the Board of Directors and Chairman of the Finance Committee of the United States Steel Corporation," contributed $1,000 on June 10, 1915, and that on the same date representatives of the J. P. Morgan estate subscribed $2,000...
...I contend that the opposite is true...
...Cramp & Sons Ship and Engine Building Co., and fifty-four other corporations, banks and trust companies, is one of the honorary vice-presidents of the Navy League...
...When I am right, the Navy League can not intimidate me...
...Colonel Robekt M. Thompson, President, Navy League, Washington, D. C. My dear Colonel: J ASSUME from your letter of the 20th ult., and from your various utterances as President of the Navy League, that the impression you desire to create in the minds of the American people is that none of the men who founded, or who have been, or are now, directors of or contributors to the Navy League, have ever been, or are now, in any manner interested in any concern which would profit financially from the $500,000,000 bond issue for battleships, etc., which you are advocating...
...I contend that any board of directors whose individual fortunes average $3,000,000 can hardly be considered as representative of the views, feelings and heartbeats of the great mass of the American people...
...The Government has purchased from these two concerns, Bethlehem and Carnegie, $75,275,-614 worth of armor plate, paying an average price of approximately $440 a ton therefor...
...If this armor plate had been manufactured in a government armor plate factory, which the Navy League has cold-shouldered, at least $25,-000,000 could have been saved to- the American taxpayers...
...I note there are thirty-one directors of the Navy League...
...I recommend that you either do this or fold your tent and quietly take your departure from the National Capital...
...In your letter you request that I give you some specific information...
...The Bethlehem Steel Corporation has obtained from the Navy Department armor contracts amounting to $42,321,237, and if the Navy League's program goes through, Bethlehem stands to receive increased orders...
...I also note that Edward T. Stotes-bury, a member of the firm of J. P. Morgan & Co., and a director of the Baldwin Locomotive Works, Cambria Steel Co., Phoenix Iron Co., Riverside Metal Co., Temple Iron Co., Wm...
Vol. 7 • December 1915 • No. 12
