The CHAIRMAN. I want this sent to the Department of Justice, and I want the Department of Justice to make an investigation to see if a conspiracy doesn't exist in getting around the statute in order to get the bids. Mr. SUTPHIN. There is every indication that it exists. Mr. BRADLEY. Mr. Toland, do you have any record of how many bids were involved in this collusive bidding? Mr. TOLAND. What we did was this: We couldn't take them all, but we took a large number-a great deal from now on is cumulative evidence. We took different companies to establish that this practice existed throughout the operations of the contract with this company by Mr. Rohleder. It involves in many instances small amounts, but the total amount involved in connection with these contracts of Rohleder is close to two and a half to three million dollars, and a good portion of that was for material which is in excess of approximately $1,000,000. We did not, for the purpose of presentation, take every one. The records are there. They are under subpena. Mr. BRADLEY. Do you know how many orders or contracts, total, were involved in the program for rehabilitation of the shipyard? Mr. TOLAND. No; but they run into hundreds or thousands of purchase orders. The CHAIRMAN. What is the next question you are going to ask? Mr. TOLAND. Mr. Donnelly, one more question. Do you know Mr. Ward? Mr. DONNELLY. Do I know Mr. Ward of the Charles F. Rohleder Co.? Mr. TOLAND. Yes. Mr. DONNELLY. Yes, sir. Mr. TOLAND. Did he ever ask you to write up a lot of bids and give them to him? Mr. DONNELLY. Yes, sir; he is the goat of the whole thing, if you ask me. Mr. TOLAND. I didn't ask you that. Mr. DONNELLY. You asked me if I knew him and I thought I would tell you where I met him. Mr. TOLAND. Did you give him bids on the stationery of these two companies in addition to the ones I have talked about today, that were not used? Did you ever supply stationery of your company and these two gentlemen's companies to him? Mr. DONNELLY. Did he supply me? Mr. TOLAND. Did you give him a supply of stationery from your company and that gentleman's [Mr. Yocum] company and this gentleman's [Mr. Patrick] company? Mr. DONNELLY. No; I gave him a supply of our own but not either one of these other two companies. Mr. TOLAND. What did you give him your own for-if he was short of bids he could take your stationery and use it and fill it out? Was that it? Mr. DONNELLY. Will you let me explain? Here we are up there trying to do a little business and we are getting a chance; and supposing you are the purchasing agent and you ask me to do favors. for you, that is, you are going to give me some business. We have 70533-42-vol. 3- -4 a practice to bend over backward to try to please you. In other words, if you want the place you can have it. So, in order to keep going we do whatever you want us to do, and it never entered our minds there was anything crooked about the whole thing, and I don't believe there is, except for the fact that we weren't used to doing this type of thing-this making duplicate quotations or whatever you want to call them. So, the fact is that we just got mixed up with them, that's all. Mr. TOLAND. Would you have the same opinion if that condition existed with practically everybody in the city of Philadelphia that had anything to do with this company, so far as these contracts are concerned? Mr. DONNELLY. You are asking me, do I think that Charles F. Rohleder Mr. TOLAND (interposing). No; I'll withdraw the question. Your position is that it is perfectly all right to do what you did? Mr. DONNELLY. No, it isn't; now that it happened, but the fact that we are into it-that is all I can tell you. Mr. MAAS. What you mean is that it isn't, now that you got caught. Mr. DONNELLY. You can call it being caught or not. All we did was try to facilitate the erection of the Cramp Shipyard, if you ask We tried to do what we were told to do and do it to the best advantage. me. Mr. COLE. May I ask Mr. Yocum if he had any authority from his superiors to give this stationery to Mr. Donnelly? Mr. YoCUM. No; I didn't get direct authority, but I knew my superior would have given letterheads if asked for them. - Mr. COLE. After you turned the paper over to Mr. Donnelly, did you talk to your superior? Mr. YoCUM. Yes; I told him. Mr. COLE. And received his approval for what you had done? Mr. COLE. But you said he would have. Mr. YoCUM. I said he didn't approve it but I imagined when I gave the letterheads to Mr. Donnelly, that my superior would have given the letterheads had he asked for them. Mr. COLE. But you were mistaken. Mr. YOCUM. I was; yes. Mr. COLE. Have you received any financial remuneration or profit from these contracts? Mr. YoCUM. None whatever. Mr. COLE. What reason do you have for giving it? Mr. YoCUM. Just because I know him and am friendly with him, that's all. The CHAIRMAN. You haven't cleared up, Mr. Donnelly, exactly how you got this stationery from this gentleman's [Mr. Patrick's] company. You said you don't remember whom you got it from. You know how you got it. Mr. DONNELLY. Oh, yes. The CHAIRMAN. Come on and tell me how you got it. Mr. DONNELLY. All right. To the best of my knowledge, I went to the Philadelphia Iron Works' office and asked to see John or his father or anyone connected with the firm, with the sole intention of getting some letterheads. As you put it, I have to put it on to someone in particular. After all, that was last August, 9 months ago, and I just think that I went to the clerk and said, "Let me have some letterheads," and he gave them to me. I think that answers the question. The CHAIRMAN. And you got the letterheads for the purpose of putting in a phoney bid from his company? Mr. DONNELLY. That is right. The CHAIRMAN. And you got the letterheads from this gentleman's [Mr. Yocum] company to do the same thing? Mr. DONNELLY. You call them phony bids. I don't put it that way. In other words, they were something put on to me. The CHAIRMAN. All right, they were bids they weren't making. Mr. DONNELLY. That is right. The CHAIRMAN. Now, this gentleman [Mr. Yocum] knew what you were getting them for? Mr. DONNELLY. Yes, I guess he did. The CHAIRMAN. Did this gentleman's clerk? The CHAIRMAN. Witnesses excused. Mr. TOLAND. Mr. Bowers and Mr. Roberts. The CHAIRMAN. Hold up your right hands. The evidence you shall give the Naval Affairs Committee shall be the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so help you God? Mr. BOWERS. Yes, sir. Mr. ROBERTS. Yes, sir. The CHAIRMAN. Áll right, Mr. Toland, go ahead. TESTIMONY OF FRANK R. BOWERS, A WILT & SONS CO., PHILADELPHIA, PA., AND S. W. ROBERTS, GRATER-BODEY CO., NORRISTOWN, PA. Mr. TOLAND. Mr. Bowers, give the reporter your full name. Mr. BOWERS. Frank R. Bowers. Mr. TOLAND. And your residence. Mr. BOWERS. Queens Street, Woodbury, N. J. Mr. TOLAND. Where are you employed? Mr. BOWERS. A. Wilt & Sons Co. Mr. TOLAND. What business are they engaged in? Mr. BOWERS. Architectural woodwork. Mr. TOLAND. What position do you have with the company? Mr. BOWERS. President. Mr. TOLAND. Did you ever submit any bids to Cramp Shipbuilding Co.? Mr. BOWERS. Yes, sir. Mr. TOLAND. When? Mr. BOWERS. During the past year, 1941, sometime. Mr. TOLAND. Did you prepare this statement? Is that your signature? Mr. BOWERS. Yes, sir. Mr. TOLAND. I offer it in evidence. (The statement dated October 13, 1941, together with attached statement dated December 3, 1941, was received in evidence, marked "Exhibit No. 201, and is printed in full in the appendix of this volume.") Mr. TOLAND (reading): In the office of A. Wilt & Sons Co. in Philadelphia, Pa., Mr. F. R. Bowers, president of Wilt, had his secretary, Mrs. Henry, prepare the opposite side on the one typewriter in his office and stated that he had never seen the bids prepared on what is referred to as the single line dollar mark and that none of the bids signed "Bowers" were signed by him. Look at those, Mr. Bowers, and see if you signed any of them? While Mr. Bowers looks at them, Mr. Roberts, what is your full name? Mr. ROBERTS. Samuel W. Roberts. Mr. TOLAND. Where do you live? Mr. ROBERTS. 307 Ashborn Road, Elkins Park. Mr. TOLAND. What company are you with? Mr. ROBERTS. Grater-Bodey Co., Norristown, Pa. Mr. TOLAND. Did you ever submit any bids to Cramp? Mr. ROBERTS. No, sir. Mr. TOLAND. To Rohleder? Mr. ROBERTS. Yes, sir. Mr. TOLAND. Did you ever submit any bids on stationery of companies other than your own? Mr. ROBERTS. Yes, sir. Mr. TOLAND. Did you ever do that on behalf of Mr. Bowers' company? Mr. ROBERTS. Yes, sir. Mr. TOLAND. Did you do it with his knowledge and approval? Mr. TOLAND. When did you do it with his knowledge and approval? What bids did you submit? Mr. ROBERTS. Quite a few. Mr. TOLAND. What bids did you submit with the signature of Mr. Bowers on which you had the written or oral authority of Mr. Bowers to sign his name?" Mr. ROBERTS. I didn't have his authority to sign his name. Mr. TOLAND. Whose authority did you have? Mr. ROBERTS. Nobody's. Mr. TOLAND. Did you have any authority to submit any bid on behalf of his company? Mr. ROBERTS. I borrowed stationery and Mr. TOLAND (interposing). From whom? Mr. ROBERTS. From his secretary. Mr. TOLAND. Did he know it? Mr. ROBERTS. I don't know whether he did or not. Mr. TOLAND. Are any of those your signatures, Mr. Bowers? Mr. TOLAND. All these bids that the witness, Mr. Bowers, has examined bearing his name Mr. BOWERS (interposing). I didn't see any bearing my name. Mr. ROBERTS. From Mr. Bowers' secretary. Mr. TOLAND. Did you ever discuss it with him? Mr. ROBERTS. Yes, sir. Mr. TOLAND. When? Mr. ROBERTS. Before I got it. Mr. TOLAND. Before you got the stationery? Mr. ROBERTS. Yes, sir. Mr. TOLAND. What was the discussion? We Mr. ROBERTS. I told him I would like to borrow some for bids. have done that kind of work for years. We fight like the devil to get a job in the beginning, and once we get the job there are certain ethics in our business. After one fellow gets it and he is working on the job, another contractor will not come in and try to cut his throat. Mr. TOLAND. Is it your testimony that on all the bids that you submitted, that you were on the job before the bids were submitted? Mr. ROBERTS. Not all of them; no, sir. Mr. TOLAND. What is the name of your secretary? Mr. ROBERTS. Our secretary's name at the present time is Miss Magee. Mr. TOLAND. What was the name of your secretary 6 months ago? Mr. ROBERTS. Miss Plush. Mr. TOLAND. Do you know where she is? Mr. ROBERTS. Yes, sir. Mr. TOLAND. Where? Mr. ROBERTS. Up in Collegeville. Mr. TOLAND. Have you talked with her recently? Mr. ROBERTS. No, sir. Mr. TOLAND. What is the name of Mr. Bowers' secretary? Mr. ROBERTS. Mrs. Henry. Mr. TOLAND. Do you know Miss Plush's signature? How long did she work for you? Mr. ROBERTS. Twenty-five years. Mr. TOLAND. You ought to know her signature. Is that her signature? Mr. ROBERTS. Yes. Mr. TOLAND. I offer the statement in evidence. (The statement dated October 14, 1941, together with attached stationery, was received in evidence and marked "Exhibit No. 202.") Mr. TOLAND. This is a witness that we could not locate: OFFICE OF GRATER-BODEY CO., Norristown, Pa., October 14, 1941. Gertrude Plush, a secretary in the office of the above firm on this day gave me a sample typed on a machine in their office and stated that the bids on the letterheads of S. S. Keely & Sons, of Manayunk, Philadelphia, and of A. Wilt & Sons Co., of Philadelphia, referred to as the "single-line dollar mark" were typed by her on those letterheads, under the direction of S. W. Roberts, president and general manager of Grater-Bodey. The bids of Grater-Bodey were always typed on a Woodstock typewriter, and the other two bids were always typed on the L. C. Smith. This also was done under the instructions of Mr. Roberts. Is that correct? Mr. ROBERTS. That is correct; yes, Mr. TOLAND (reading): sir. Miss Plush states that she has been present when calls (telephone) have come in from Rohleder, Ward, and Baldrich. Miss Plush showed me a drawer in a desk here where the Wilt and Keely letterheads and Wilt envelopes were kept. GERTRUDE PLUSH. In the presence of Vincent A. Burns. Attached to it is the stationery of the company and stationery of the other companies also found in the office at that time. |