Mr. COHEN. In ordnance about $18,500,000-between 18 and 20 million dollars. Senator WALLGREN. How about shipbuilding? Mr. COHEN. Shipbuilding I have told you. Twelve ships at $110,000. Senator WALLGREN. How much? Mr. COHEN. Twelve vessels at $110,000. Senator BREWSTER. That is the fee, I might say. Senator WALLGREN. I mean the total amount of your contracts. I want the total amount of the business that you have obtained over a short period of time. Mr. COHEN. I just told you in ordnance it is between $18,500,000 and $20,000,000, and for the maritime part, it is to build 12 vessels at $110,000 fee. Senator WALLGREN. That $110,000 is your fee, but the 12 vessels would cost the Government approximately, let's say, $1,200,000 each. Is that right? Mr. COHEN. About a million and a half, I think. Senator WALLGREN. All over this country there are a lot of smaller plants that are unable to obtain any Government contracts, threatened with the possibility of having to close. You have been successful enough to obtain all these contracts, some from the Government and some from other people. I merely wanted to bring out the fact that apparently your outfit is being favored against others, whether your deliveries are a little better than theirs or not. Mr. COHEN. Senator, let me say this. Anybody in the United States who wants to do what we did, go into a city like Savannah and start building a yard and undertake to invest two and a half million dollars (we invested our money, our own credit, on our own responsibility, at any rate-it is our own, no public's and no Government's)-anybody who wants to do that can go to the Maritime Commission today, and they will kiss them on both cheeks and give them contracts to build vessels. Senator WALLGREN. I am not criticizing you, Mr. Cohen. I am not criticizing your company, but I may be criticizing the policy. Mr. COHEN. Well, Senator, I think it is even not right to criticize the policy, for this reason: This was a peaceful country-this wasn't a war country. Nobody had any ordnance, nobody had any plants, nobody had any experience. Somebody had to go and get started. We wanted to get started. We started the hard way. Sure, we didn't have a lot of money. If we had had a lot of money, it would have been easy. We didn't have it. We went to all our friends, we went to our banks, and we went any place we could get help to start this ordnance business. We came around and we bid, and we tried everything we could in order to promote it so that we could do the manufacturing. Finally we got an order and started to manufacture. From then on we worked day and night producing, producing, producing, and we are producing pretty well. I wish everybody else were producing on the same basis, and, if the rest of the country had gone in on the same basis we would be in fine shape today. Now, on the yards, if anybody wants to come along and give us back our money and do the same kind of work in Savannah that we have been doing, I will kiss him on two cheeks and he can have the yard and we will go do something else. Senator HATCH. Wait just a minute. You will take your original investment and step down and out? Mr. COHEN. Senator, if you are ready now to give me what we put into the Savannah Shipyards. Senator HATCH. I am talking about what you put in. Mr. COHEN. That is what I am talking about. Senator HATCH. What you put in yourself in Empire Ordnance Co. Mr. COHEN. Let me come to one thing at a time, will you? Senator HATCH. No; you just talk so, you make such extreme statements, Mr. Cohen Mr. COHEN (interposing). I did not make an extreme statement. I made a statement which I am going to repeat to you. Senator HATCH. All right. Mr. COHEN. If anybody wants to keep talking about Savannah Shipyards and about the wonderful contract we had, if anybody wants to pay back to us the money we have in there, he can have the contract and he can go to work, and we will go to work some place else. Senator HATCH. I understand you are confining yourself to Savannah Shipyards. Mr. COHEN. Yes; and if somebody will give us back all the labor and effort that we put into Empire Ordnance Senator HATCH (interposing). Wait a minute, wait a minute. You are willing to take your original investment in Empire Ordnance? Mr. COHEN. I didn't say that. Senator HATCH. Why, of course, you wouldn't. Mr. COHEN. I didn't say that. Senator HATCH. But you talked about the labor and the time and everything else-high-sounding words. Mr. COHEN. It is not high-sounding words-just good hard labor and just good hard effort, and the best proof of it is that nobody else did it-that we did it. Gosh, I don't think we should be criticized because of what we have done here. Senator HATCH. I am not criticizing you for anything you have done, but the thing I criticize you about is your attitude before this committee. I don't like it at all. Mr. COHEN. I am sorry. Senator HATCH. Because you don't speak frankly, plainly and, I think, truthfully. Mr. COHEN. I am sorry you say that because that isn't what I am doing. Senator WALLGREN. Mr. Chairman. While I was inquiring, Mr. Cohen, as to the amount of business that you had obtained from this Government, it was pointed out that you had obtained contracts amounting to some $37,000,000. You mentioned the fact that that was not all from the Government. It is my understanding now that you have been manufacturing guns for the British Government and that your checks are paid not out of the lend-lease program. Mr. COHEN. That is correct. Senator WALLGREN. But they come right direct from the British Government. Mr. COHEN. That is correct. Senator WALLGREN. I see. I merely wanted to get that in the record. The CHAIRMAN. Are there any other questions, gentlemen? Senator BREWSTER. I wanted to ask Mr. Cohen about the present state of your relations with the British in connection with your ordnance plants. Are the contracts current or delayed, satisfactory or unsatisfactory, as far as you know? Mr. COHEN. As far as I know, they are very satisfactory. And when you say "current." it is difficult to answer that question because you start a contract with an estimated delivery date and then you get some five-hundred-and-twenty-odd revisions and you have to keep revising because, again, we were a peaceful country, we didn't have these designs, and as these guns are made they find some error or some mistake or some improvement, and so on, and we have to keep on changing. On the basis of what we have done, on the basis of what the British expected from us, on the basis of what we have been delivering to them, we have done a very, very good job. Senator BREWSTER. Is that the feeling of the British? Mr. COHEN. They have said that in our presence time after time, that they are grateful and thankful for the job that we have done. Senator BREWSTER. Is that the attitude of our War Department? Mr. COHEN. We had no production with our Government, our War Department. Senator BREWSTER. Now, just a minute. You recall your testimony this morning about contacting the War Department because they were to take over the inspection. Mr. COHEN. The inspection. Senator BREWSTER. That is what I am asking you-whether or not they are satisfied with your handling and your progress. Mr. COHEN. Today they are; and the deliveries are going out all right. We had difficulties for about 6 weeks when the inspection changed over, because there were different methods of inspection between the British and different methods between the United States. Senator BREWSTER. You said that the British took a 10-percent check, while the Americans took a100-percent check. Mr. COHEN. A good example of that is springs. We bought certain springs from American Locomotive. We bought the whole amount that we would need for the whole order-5,600 springs. The British gave us the inspection certificate on it. Their man was up there and inspected, and they inspected on this 10-percent basis. Well, when the U. S. inspection came in, there was a 100-percent inspection. But it had already been manufactured, and then we had to begin to rearrange these springs and look for another place from which to get springs and how to work it out. That is what I meant by the difficulties in inspection. Well, I can't tell the figures, though. The CHAIRMAN. Mr. Cohen, there is one question that I don't think was asked you today. Did you make a $50,000 contribution to the Democratic campaign fund in 1940? Mr. COHEN. That is another one of these crazy stories. I didn't given any $50,000 to any campaign. I never contributed and I never offered to contribute. The CHAIRMAN. Did you contribute any money at all to either of the national committees, Republican or Democratic? Mr. COHEN. No. The CHAIRMAN. The committee will take a recess, to meet again at the call of the chairman. (Whereupon, at 3:55 p. m., the committee adjourned, subject to the call of the chairman.) INVESTIGATION OF NATIONAL DEFENSE PROGRAM WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 28, 1942 UNITED STATES SENATE, SPECIAL COMMITTEE TO INVESTIGATE Washington, D. C. The committee met at 10:37 a. m., pursuant to adjournment on Thursday, December 18, 1941, in room 318, Senate Office Building, Senator Harry S. Truman presiding. Present: Senators Harry S. Truman (chairman), James M. Mead, Clyde L. Herring, Joseph H. Ball, Ralph O. Brewster, Mon C. Wallgren, and Harley M. Kilgore. Present also: Edward R. Burke, former Senator from Nebraska; Mr. Hugh A. Fulton, Chief Counsel; Mr. Charles P. Clark, Associate Chief Counsel. The CHAIRMAN. The committee will come to order. Mr. Nelson, you made a request to be heard before the committee, I think, verbally to me, and then by a written request. Mr. NELSON. Yes, sir. The CHAIRMAN. And you are here at your own request. If you a statement to make to the committee, you may proceed with it. have TESTIMONY OF DONALD M. NELSON, CHAIRMAN, WAR PRODUCTION BOARD-Recalled WAR PRODUCTION BOARD POLICY REGARDING DOLLAR-A-YEAR MEN Mr. NELSON. I have, sir. Thank you. I appreciate this opportunity to meet with you and discuss this very important problem of the dollar-a-year men. I asked for this opportunity to talk to you about a problem that I know is of particular interest to this committee. I want you to understand, and to be thoroughly informed, as to my attitude on it. We all have the same goal-complete victory. The problem I want to discuss with you is one of personnel. It relates to the dollar-a-year men. As you know, Congress by successive statutes beginning in June 1940-expressly adopted the policy of authorizing employment of dollar-a-year men in times of national emergency. The CHAIRMAN. May I say to you, Mr. Nelson, at this point that the committee has some very definite ideas, which were expressed in our report on the dollar-a-year situation. Mr. NELSON. Yes, sir. |