Guide to House Records: Chapter 22: 1910-1946 Government Bonds and Securities

Chapter 22. Records of the Select Committees of the House of Representatives

Table of Contents

Records of the Select Committees of the House of Representatives (1789-1988) from Guide to Federal Records in the National Archives of the United States, 1789-1988

• Introduction
• House Select Committees (1789-1847)
• House Select Committees (1847-1909)
• House Select Committees (1910-1946)
• House Select Committees (1947-1968)
• House Select Committees (1969-1987)

Select Committee to Investigate the Preparation, Distribution, Sale, Payment, Retirement, Surrender, Cancellation, and Destruction of Government Bonds and Other Securities (1924-25)

22.77 On January 15, 1924, Charles B. Brewer, Special Assistant to the Attorney General, submitted a report to the Attorney General charging that there had been fraudulent duplications or overissues of certain Government bonds, that Treasury Department officials had suppressed information concerning the matter, and that there was fraud or carelessness in the handling of securities after retirement. On March 24, 1924, the House established the select committee to investigate the handling of government bonds and other securities. Brewer served as its counsel. In a letter to the President of April 26, 1924, Secretary of the Treasury A.W. Mellon denied the charges, but acknowledged some mechanical clerical errors in preparing and recording wartime securities, as well as some petty thefts of retired securities. Mellon protested that Brewer was raising old allegations that had previously been laid to rest and strongly denied any cause for alarm.

22.78 Among the records are copies of the committee report and the confidential committee print of proceedings and hearings, as well as newspaper clippings, magazine articles, minutes, and bills and resolutions relating to the investigation. There are transcripts of testimony, correspondence, and other papers from the Secretary of the Treasury pertaining to a case involving a theft of government bonds from the Studebaker Corporation of South Bend, IN.

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