The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1897-12-25
WHAT THE CHARGES MEAN.
CLAIM THAT THE MATERIALS USED
WE'RE INFERIOR.

/ About Charges Of Conspiracy. Mis-
| appropriation OF Public Funds and
EmbcEzIemcnt- Arrangements for
the Court Martial About Complete,
/ Arrangements have pretty near been
! completed for the court martial of Capt.
/ O. III. Carter. which will take place in Sa-
vannah Jan. 5. BY courtesy Of Judge
Emory Speer the United states court room
has been rendered TO Col, ]. NJ. Clous,
deputy judge advocate general who will
represent the government. and Col. Clous
has accepted the tender
Il rs expected that Col. Clous will be in
Savannah some time about the middle of
next week to make what preliminary ar
engagements are necessary for his work.
It was thought at first that on account
Of i'll health he would not take charge of
the case. but later he decided to do so,
and so far as is now known there is moth
ing whatever in the way of the court
martial taking place as heretofore stated.
As is Wei known the full charges
against Capt. Carter, upon which the
court.martial is based, have not yet been
made public. The Army and Navy Regis
ter for this week, however, publishes an
account in outline of what the charges
purport to be. 1t says that the volumin-
Gus specifications upon which the charges
are based have been transmitted from the
judge advocate generals office to Col
Clous and to the attorneys for Capt. Car
ter.
There are more than fifty specifications
under the five or six charges this paper
states, and they allege violations of the
sixtieth, sixty-first and sixty-second arti-
Giles of war, and cover a period without
regard to the two years limitation in the
jurisdiction of military courts The Army
and Navy Register says the charges in
clude the following: Conspiracy, embez-
Element transportation of public funds,
conduct unbecoming an officer and a gen.
tleman and conduct prejudcial to good
order and military discipline.
The Morning News inquired through its
correspondent in Washington as to the
authority for this statement of the charges
IN the Army and Navy Register, and also
as TO the meaning of the different charges
winch In their ordinary or common accep-
tatson would appear quite serious.
"A dispatch received from Washington
says that 1t is understood that the charges
40 not mean what would appear from this
bare statement of them, though as a sum-
mary of them it is about correct The
charge that Capt Carter entered into a
conspiracy with the Atlantic Contracting
Company, the dispatch states, arises from
the claim that contract or contracts were
entered into for certain work on the Ea-
vannah harbor, at Cumberland sound
To1 IL ..Al,y -.
manner of advertising and awarding these
contracts was such as to give the Atlantic
Contracting Company the advantage; that
this company was furnished certain spec
ifcations In accordance with which the
work was to be done, and that mattresses
and rock which cost the company less,
and which were of less value to the United
States than those provided for in the spec
ifications were furnished.
In other words, the charge turns on the
claim that the specifications were not COM
piled with in the construction of these
works. The same Is true of the charge of
Incorporating public funds, it being
held that as the specifications were not
complied WITH the money was not prop
erly paid out, or, in other words, that it
was Incorporated.
So far as can be determined the charge
of embezzlement comes in precisely the
same category. There is not an intimation
anywhere that one cent of the money eX-
pended for this work was ever appropriate
ed by Capt. Carter to his own use, or
ever went to his own use, and the word
embezzlement, therefore, is not used in
its common acceptation, but as technical
charge. The specifications under the
charge of erubezzlement, it is said, simply
state that the money for these works
was paid out without authority in that
the specifications in the original contract
e mill
conclusion is, therefore, that if the con-
tract was violated by any change in the
specifications ii was void, and all money
paid out under a void contract was lille
gally paid out, therefore it was embez-
Element.
There are engineer officers in Washing
ton who look upon these charges as an at
tack, so to speak. upon the eng%aeering
profession. 1t is taken for granted, of
course, that whatever the specifications
We're. the engineer officer In charge fol-
lowed the dictates of his judgment in car
rying them out. The question, therefore,
before the court will, to a large extent,
be whether the alleged deviation from the
specifications results from a difference of
judgment as to the work done, or whether
the engineer has allowed inferior materials
10 go into it. This, it Is claimed in Wash
ington, makes the matter before the court
turn largely on the value of the present
work. and the charges of conspiracy, mis-
appropriation of public funds and embez-
element grow, therefore, out of the ale
CATION that there has been a deviation
from the contracts, and, therefore, that
the money paid out for the work done was
illegally paid out.
AS to the charge Of conduct unbecomng
an officer and a gentleman, it includes
practically the specifications made under
the other charges, namely the deviation
from the specifications, and therefore, the
illegal payment of the money for the work
done. Under this head, it is said there
also come such charges as absenting him
self from his post without leave from the
department. and reporting himself pres
ent, and entering on the pay rolls certain
names which were not properly there; but
the whole amount alleged to have been
Incorporated by putting men improp-
erly on the pay rolls is less than $50.
The main charge, however throughout,
resolves itself into the question as to
whether the specifications in the contracts
for the river and harbor work, were or
were not properly carried out That is
the question for proof before the court
martial There is no suggestion that
Capt Carter was personally benefited
Through any of these contracts, so that
the charges in the main hinge upon wheth-
er the contracts were properly or improp-
erly compiled with.