The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1901-02-11
OBERLIN CARTER SPEARS.
Imprisoned Army officer Gives the
Public His Side of the Casa

e@@E <e--~rf
Fort Leavenworth, Feb 1.-THE truth
IN this case will finally come out-no
stan department In the army is power
ful enough to keep it hid much longer;
and when 1t does, its light VIII snate
more than one person with blindness.
The above IS the concluding paragraph
OF pamphlet just issued by Attorney
Frank p Blair in behalf OF Captain
Oberlin NJ Carter, the former engineer
officer now serving sentence in the fed
eral prison.
The publication has created a genuine
sensation in army circles Court-InarIlai
practices are attacked. and it is charged
that Carriers conviction was brought
about because OF the untruthful ana
v1nd1ctive attitude assumed by the
Judge advocate He refers to Colonel
Thomas f. Barr now serving on the
staf of General Otis, who was the presi-
dent OF the court-martial- Colonel Barr
has positively declined to reply to the
charges.
AS a secondary reason for Carriers
conviction Attorney Blair assigns that
the court was Influenced blythe appalling
number Of specifications, thirty-seven
in number. charging a multitude of diff
ferent offenses. Incidentally, seventeen
Of these were on their face barred by
limitations. Because of the death or
witnesses or their absence, Carter, al
leges Blair, was compelled to plead the
statute-the end probably intended by
the person who drew the stale charges
And, lastly, for specious reasons, the
judge advocate, in a four months trial
induced the court to admit q mass OF
irrelevant testimony calculated to ar0use
the suspicion of it's members.
There is a growing supicion in army
circles that the end Of the Carter case
is not yet, so far as the service Is con-
cerned. The determination of Carter.
through his attorneys, to insist on a re-
hearing and to obtain the opportunity
to lay the matter before the people of
the country through a civil trial win yet
develop a sensation. Some go so far as
to claim that the Dreyfus case Will not
be in it, and that, as in the latter, some
people very high in official circles and
in authority Of the government viii be
drawn into it.
Attorney Blair goes on to say that a
court-martial is peculiarly unfit to try
such a case as Carriers. The main Of
lenses charged were not military crimes,
but conspiracy, involving complicated
engineering problems and abstruse ques-
was the fault of the systen-now long
since abandoned by all civilized nations
whereby the prosecuting officer is the
legal adviser of the court.
Referring to the attorney generals
subsequent review of the case, he says
that this officer arrived at the same con-
clusion on the engineering aspects of
the case. but because he deemed the ex-
PLANTATION of the accused as to the source
of the large amount of money admitted
~ in his possession unsatisfactory and
improbable, he recommended the presi-
dent to approve the entire sentence.
That explanation was that Mr.. Westoott,
the father-in-law OF the accused, gave
him the money.
on this point the attorney ssays that
there was not a scrap of evidence, even
in the remotest way. suggesting that
Captain Carter got any portion of the
1000 mentioned Indeed, the attorney
general. when he made his adverse re-
port, knew positively, outside of the rec
ord, that Carter did not receive any
portion thereof.
Mr. Blair charges Carriers father-in-
a w T.
torney, will be shown when he shall be
confronted by Captain Carter IN a court
"a place where Justice is judicially ad-
ministered'-to the entire satisfaction of
the American people. It must be remem-
bered that Captain Carter has not had
an opportunity to confront Mr.. West
colt. The evidence now claimed by the
government as conclusively Of his (Car-
ter's) guilt was not delivered at his trial
or even In his presence"
In conclusion the attorney says:
Captain Carriers acts are absolutely
inconsistent with sanity and crime on
his part. He voluntarily quilted Savan-
nah for a foreign detail, leaving FIVE
sixths of a SO, 600 600 contract unfinished
and in the hands of an unknown sue
cessor. Is it likely that q sane conspir-
~ a million dollars prize money but
also have left his supposed fraudulent
work to be overhauled by the officer to
succeed him? He left every private pa
per, letter and document he had, cover
ing the period from his graduation in
1880 to his departure. in a government
file case in the engineer office in Savan-
nah, while he went to Europe, and at
terward freely put them into the hands
of the investigating board of engineer
officers. Is this the act of a sane Grim
inal?"
The pamphlet is addressed ITO Every
American Who Believes in Fair Play"
1t also gives an abstract of the evil
dence Of W. r.. Westcott before the