The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1902-05-31
CHAFFEE'S CENSURE
Makes No Difference In the Standing
of waller and Day.
Minneapolis Tribune.

Minneapolis Tribune.
Most persons will understand, without az
official proclamation to that effect, that
the review Of the verdict Of the Waller
court-martial by General Chaffee was prac-
tically dictated by the strenuous command
er-in-chief of the army and navy. 1t fore
shadows the kind OF judgment the Presi-
dent is preparing to pass on the Smith YER
dict when it shall reach him. He ordered
that court-martial himself. so as TO have
direct power of review. General Chaffee
disapproves the verdict of the court, ex-
cept so far as it acquits Major Waller of
murder. He thinks that this officer should
be rebuked for acting in a spirit Of re-
venge, and should be punished for taking
the responsibility for execution without
consulting General Smith. He finds some
excuse for Major Waller-which he scorned
TO seek orShimself-in his state of health,
but thinks that Lieutenant Day is censur-
able for not disobeying the order of execu-
ton.
This was not the judgment of Major Wal
lers brother officers, who heard the evil
dence and know the circumstances in which
he acted. We take leave TO doubt II II
is the unbiased personal Judgment of the
fine old Indian fighter whose hand wrote
the review at the end of a telegraph wire.
IL IL Is the deliberate personal JuuSulCul
of the President, the conditions and cir
cumstances of first term in the presi-
dency have modified the nature of the
strenuous campaigner of 1898 and 1900.
Major Waller was not only in personal
peril, but in sore military straits when
he killed those bloody-minded and traitor
Gus guides. His men were enfeebled and
scattered as the result of their treachery,
and were lost in the midst of a swarming
population as treacherous and murderous
as that of the massacre of Balangiga. A
like fate menaced them, and could be
averted only by bold front and the warn
ing of swift and stern justice. The guides
were killed as just punishment for treach-
cry, not 10 revenge past, but TO prevent
future maSSa ores. Their forfeited lives
may have saved those of the whole force.
1t should be understood that the review
does not change the verdict of the court.
1t is only an expression of opinion, like
swearing at the court or lecturing the jury
in civil practice A reviewing authority
may diminish, but may not increase the
severity of a verdict. You cannot keep
sentiment and politics out of military any
more than out of civil trials. But military
law forbids the sacrifice TO these of men not
condemned by its own stern and high
standards. The verdict of Major Waller 5
brother officers Will stand. The review can
no more change 1t than it can bring the
dead guides to life. 1t will not affect the
professional standing of the acquitted Off
GERS. II will not alter the popular approval
of the verdict. 1t injure them only
by giving their rivals for department favors
HdHule against lu6Il, ana IfllS SIlOulU DC
more than offset by the reaction of popu-
lar enthusiasm IT will bring in their favor.
The good name of the American army
can be trusted to the American people.
Major Waller and Lieutenant Day not
objects of pity in the circumstances in
which they find themselves. The objects
of pity are the politicians who have ex-
acted this slur upon them and the senti-
| mentalists the thing is done to satisfy. Men
who are starving and dying in tropical for
ests, lighting fever and treachery and saw
age foes, marching barefoot in the jungle
and sleeping uncovered in pouring rain 10
maintain American authority where the
| government has established ii can take
their chance before contemporaries ana
| posterity with men who sleep in soft beds
and eat three meals a day while they are
pulling political wires, laying plans to get
| political office and exposing the honor of
| the American army to Smirch TO gain the
approval OF a few sickly sentimentalists at
home