The times., 1899-08-22
like AN INFANTS Wall
Colonel Barr's Opinion of Argu-
ments in Carriers Favor.
The Reply of the Assistant Judge
Advocate General Who Had Charge
of the Case Against the DefauIting
Engineer Oficer-Facts and Specf-
fications Of Frauds Summed Up.

his exhaustive review of the Carter case,
and. it is said, is now preparing his opin-
ion. He has spent considerable time in
reading the reply of Col Thomas F. Barr,
the Assistant Judge Advocate General of
the Army, who had charge of the trial of
Captain Carter, to the argument of the
convicted mans counsel Colonel Barr's
brief is a severe arTaignment of the con-
victed man. 1t is addressed to Attorney
General Griggs, and says in opening:
THE argument of counsel appears TO be
largely devoted to the demerits of
the judge advocate of the court-martial
rather than to the merits of the case
Its discourteous and calumniatory charac-
ter is such as TO demand specific con-
demnation. and such condemnation it shall
receive with a refutation of its untruthful
statements.
In the introductory remarks of counsel
it is recited that the members composing
a court martial are necessarily not learn
cd in the law, nor accustomed to weigh
evidence 1t is difficult to comprehend
such a didactic statement 1t is not pos
sible to conceive OF a class OF men more
competent to judge of the weight and credi-
bility of testimony than educated Army
officers of mature years. The court ap-
pointed by the President for the trial of
Captain Carter was composed of thirteen
members, all officers of high rank and adj
vanced years. The president of the court
is a trained lawyer as well as a distin-
guished soldier. A more intelligent. con-
scientious, and attentive court martial
never sat in this or any other country. 1t
is giving the judge advocate credit for
greater powers of persuasion than he or
any other officer possesses to assert that
ne could lead such a court into error of
Judgment, even had such desire actuated
him. The ability of the members of the
court to form correct judgment will be
considered further on.
'tIt is alleged On page 8 of the brief that
the Judge advocate rendered in evidence
a letter known as the Cooper letter, and
after the court had ruled it out he again
offered it at a subsequent stage in the
trial and urged upon the court that its
admission was legal and proper. and the
court was at last persuaded to allow this
paper 10 be filed with the record as a sub
stantial part of the evidence. This is true,
and it is also true that the way for the
legal admission of this letter was paved
by the counsel for the defence in the cross
examination of Cooper. 1t is complained.
on the other hand, that when a letter from
r. r. Westcott to the accused was offer
ed in evidence by the defence the judge
advocate streruously objected to its in
PRODUCTION for practically the same rea-
sons which were urged by the counsel for
the accused against the admission of the
Cooper letter and the court, yielding again
to the influence CT his position as adviser
of the court, ruled it out. In other words,
letter is a letter There can be no diff
ferentation between them. The statement
that the objection of the judge advocate to
the admission Of the Westcott letter was
based upon the same grounds urged by the
counsel for defence against the admission
Of the Cooper letter is deceiving. The
facts c. records disproye it. Cooper was
in the hands of counsel for cross examina
tion. Westcott was alive and could come
before the court, make his statements
under oath, and submit to the test of
cross-examination. That was the ground
of the judge advocates objection, and his
contention was properly sustained by the
court rs a similar condition would have
ELECTED like ruling from any civil court in
the land
Case Without n Parallel.
Replying further to charges against the
Judge advocate Colonel Barr says:
THE case under consideration is with
out parallel in the history of courts
martial in our Army or in any other. The
allegations touching the incompetency of
the members Of the court-martial and
their lack OF knowledge of business is
like the wall of an infant. 1t would not
be possible in civil courts to secure jury
OF like special fitness to determine the
issues which were submitted for their
judgment. The violent assault upon some
of the witnesses for the prosecution is but
a renewal of the tactics resorted to by
sounsel for the accused before the court,
and gives evidence OF the poverty of ma
terial for legitimate defence within their
reach and the desperate straits to which
they have been reduced" Referring to
witness Sterly, Colonel Barr remarks:
He was the instrument of the latter in
transmitting accounts for merchandise in
to pay rolls for personal labor. He the
disburser of the Illegal 'slush funds cre-
ated by the accused, and under his direc
tion. He was intrusted with the secret
cipher code Of the accused for use in tele-
graphic correspondence. To sum up, their
relations were OF the most confidential
character. In whose hands is it reason
able to suppose that this witness was
plaster
Summing Up the Facts.
In summing up the facts in the case
Colonel Barr adds: 1.-The following is a
brief summary of the contentious of the
prosecution and what is endeavored to es-
tablish before the court and which, it is
confidently asserted, it did establish.
1T is claimed that Captain Carter. al
most from the first of his long tour of
duty in Savannah, was in collusion with
B. ID. Greene, John r. Gaynor, and others
to defraud the Government by managing
so that they would get as many contracts
a possible, the speeiicat tions of which were
TO be so loosely drawn as to put all possi
BILE power into the hands of the engineer
officer. so that large profits could be made;
or, if an outsider got the contract, he
could be subjected to totally different
treatment and thoroughly discouraged
from trying 1t again. 1t was the belief
and theory of the prosecution that in car
rying out this plan things were arranged
SO that the shortest possible period should
elapse between public knowledge of the
proposed work and the opening of bids;
that while all the forms of the law should
apparently be observed. every possible un-
obtrusive obstacle should be put in the
way of prospective bidders; that persistent
ones should be bought by the Gaynors. or
given minor subcontracts whose execution
should be made as uncomfortable as pos
sible, If there was any chance Of their
being future bidders: that the authorities
at Washington should be kept in the dark
as to the fact that one concern was getting
all the contracts by letting them in the
names of relatives or of employees OF the
Atlantic Contracting Company. or, which
was the same thing, tc the firm of Greene
& Gaynor, or in the theory of the prose-
cuticl to the firm of Greene. Gaynor &
Carter; that In the execution OF their con-
tracts whenever Greene & Gaynor were the
contractors, the loosely drawn specifca-
tions were interpreted in the loosest pos
sible way. using invariably the cheapest
materials that could possibly be permitted