Atlanta Georgian

U. S. OFFICERS HIT

IN REPORT ON

EVERGLADES

Moss Investigating Committee

Criticises Employees of De-

partment of Agriculture.

WASHINGTON, Aug. 19.—Officials in the employ of the department of agriculture are criticised for "impropriety, discrimination and irregularities in financial transactions" in the majority report of the Moss investigating committee which was presented to the house today. The report declares that in irrigation and drainage projects the committee has observed "the great degree to which this important work was permitted to be subordinated at several stages of its development to the advancement of other work in which individual members of congress were particularly interested."

The vacillating course of the department in the Florida Everglades is described by the committee as "difference of opinion between members of congress and the state authorities of Florida, with the irreconcilable differences in the opinions and conclusions of engineers in the division of drainage as another contributing cause."

Regarding the famous Everglades investigation which was suppressed after it was made out ostensibly by the department, the report says that "the circular was objectionable to certain persons who were offering lands for sale. The same interests which made this objection to the circular had been guilty of circulating highly extravagant statements in praise of the Everglades lands and falsely attributing the authorship to Secretary Wilson."

Ex-Engineer Assailed.

Supervising Engineer J. O. Wright is assailed by the report for his conduct while carrying on drainage projects for the department. After calling attention to the fact that Wright, in his testimony, admitted taking money and stock from real estate promoters and speculators who were working jointly on land improvements with the government the report says:

The transactions of Mr. Wright are repugnant to that fine sense of honor and propriety which ordinarily distinguishes the conduct of government officials and can not be too severely condemned. If he were still in the government service your committee would unhesitatingly recommend his dismissal therefrom.

Assistant Secretary of Agriculture F. M. Hays is also criticised in the report for taking an option on a land project near Raleigh, N. C., and for being associated with Wright.

With regard to the irregularities occurring in the department with respect to the disbursement of government funds, the committee criticises the condition of bookkeeping which would make such mistakes possible, but expresses the belief that there was nothing of a fraudulent nature in any of the transactions.

The minority report which accompanies the majority statement exonerates Assistant Secretary Hays of any wrongdoing, save in the North Carolina option case, where it concurs with the majority.