Bisbee daily review., 1906-12-14
AN UNSAFE MOVE.

The president has sent special message to congress asking for the initiative and responsibility to dis miss any officer of the army or navy the executive authority upon his own in the service. The existing law pro vides that in time of peace no officer shall be dismissed from the service except in pursuance of court-martial or in mitigation of a sentence. This provision the president desires to have repealed.
 This recommendation will not com mend itself to the sense of justice of the country. To dismiss an officer from the service is in the nature of capital punishment, It deprives him in vast majority of cases of his liv- ing. and. more than chat, of his char racter and good name.9 Under the con stitution cf the United States a citi- zen cannot legally be deprived of one dollar of his property without due pro cess of law. and here it is proposed to make 1t legal to strip an army oi naval officer of everything that is val uable to him upon the mere dictum Of the president. No officer would ever be safe from an emotional impulse or an outburst of anger 10 which presi- dents, like other men, are subject.
 MT. Roosevelt bases his recommend ation upon the case of naval officer who was accused of :n-ecent and dis gusting behavior, was convicted by the court-martial. but the sentence i'm posed was not that of dismissal, IL may be true that the court in this case was too lenient. But there is an anc- tent maxim of law worthy of all ac- equation, that 1t is better that ninety and nine guilty persons escape than that one innocent person should be punished. It is human to err. and now and then, without duu1t court-martials err, sometimes on the side of mercy and sometimes by undue severity But. in the main. the officers in both branches of the service are. as a body, as keenly sensitive of the honor of their profession, as honestly solici- tous to purge ft of unworthy mem bers. as the presideh, can possibly be.
 A court-martial composed of trained and honest men who have patiently investigated case and heard the sworn testimony of the witnesses and noted the bearing of each on the wit ness stand Is a tribunal which the president should be able to trust. If its members err as they sometimes do. they commit a fault from which even presidents are not always exempt To dismiss a military o-icial Is far more serious matter than to dismiss a person from civil office. T-ne civil ian goes into the civil service. gen eraIly. as a temporary occupation, not loosening his hold on other things. And yet, one of the grearcs- re-orms O1 tQlS SeuST6iiol Ado ocCn tAkc Sho~~ ment of a number of civil service laws which protect the government clerk and nearly all the civil employees of the government from arbitrary dis missal Even before any civil ser vice reform had been thought of. there was a president of the United States in whose hands congress did not deem it safe to ,rust civilian off cials, but tied his h~nds by the enact
 nent of the celebrated Tenure in Office" bill.
 When a naval officer or an army officer Is dismissed from the service his life is ruined. He IS deprived of his character, his standing among men and of his employment. and when these are gone there are few gainful occupations open to hisn. ought he to be deprived of these things exceDs b the judgment of duiy authorized and properly constituted court! It would not be common justice to do it.