Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1907-06-10
SHE PLANS A SUIT
Mrs. Ayres About to Bring Ac-
ton Against Taft.
BARRED FROM WEST POINT
Colonel's Wife Says the Order Was
Made and Is Despicable.
WILL NOT TELL ITS TEXT
She Declares She Gan See Her Son
Only When He Is HIN
terview Denied.
BARRED FROM WEST POINT
WILL NOT TELL ITS TEXT

WEST POINT, N. Y, June 1o.-Mrs
Elizabeth Fairfax Ayres plans to sue Will
liam H. Taft, Secretary of War, for dam
| ages because of letter Of instructions that
| the Secretary sent to her husband, Col
| Charles G. Ayres, 14th Cavalry, U. S. A,
| forbidding his wife to go on the West Point
reservation. Mrs. Ayres, who terms the
| letter insulting and despicable," has
| turned it over to Mann Trice of 277 Broad
| way, her attorney, and the course to be
pursued will depend upon Mr.. Trice's adj
vice.
| Col. Ayres, who has just returned from
| the Philippines, and who is in the east on
| furlough, received the Secretary's order a
| few days ago. Although neither he mol
| Mrs. Ayres will make the text public, its
| purport is we'll understood at West Point
| 1t states that Mrs Ayres is not to be per-
| mitted to visit the reservation while her
| son, Cadet Fairfax Ayres, is at the
| academy and retains his good health
| Should Cadet Ayres become seriously in
! capacitated, however, Gen. Ainsworth, the
military secretary, may grant her permits
sion to visit her son in his sick room.
| Col. and Mrs. Ayres are living at the
West End Hotel, in Highland Falls, few
hundred yards from the limits of the
academy reservation.
THE Secretary of Wars letter Of in
structiOns TO my husband, said Mrs Ayres
yesterday afternoon, SIS so insulting and
despicable that I will not repeat or show
| it. 1t has been placed in the hands Of my
| lawyer"
This is all that Mrs. Ayres would say
about the order. She also refused to make
further comment on what she has termed
the "scandalous treatment to which she
| has been subjected by certain officers sta
| toned at the Military Academy. She has
! threatened to sue Lieut.. Col. robert L.
Howe, commandant of cadets; Hugh L.
Scott. superintendent of the academy;
| Lieut. Col. Stephen c. Mills, formerly OF
the inspector generals department, and
| Capt L. w. Oliver, for damages aggregat-
| ing about 100000
The order from Secretary Taft unfolding
the academy officials and forbdding Mrs.
Ayres to go upon the reservation was ex-
pected by the officers stationed here Be
fore the order was communicated to Col.
Ayres, Col. Scott and Col. Howe had re-
| ceived authority from Washington to pre-
vent the recurrence of such unpleasant en-
counters as Col Howe and Capt. Oliver
are said to have had with Mrs. AyreS. The
| incidents with Mrs. Ayres were made the
| basis of the official report to the military
secretary which resulted in Mrs Ayres' de-
termination 10 sue tle O1lcerS concerned.
West Point is thoroughly stirred over
| what is known as the "Ayres Incident"
Now that the Secretary of War has been
brought in one of the parties the in
tereSt has been intensified. Should the
President write an approval of what his
Secretary has done, he may even be drawn
| in.
| Under the order Mrs. Ayres cannot come
to West Point even to take a train. She
must depend upon the little station at
Highland Falls, where trains do not stop
! often as they do at West Point She
| Garrisons, just across the river. because
| West Shore of the river only runs to the
West Point landing.
| AS the order was directed to Col. Ayres
| it is practically Impossible for Mrs. Ayres
| to attempt to defy it, since to do that
| would place her husband in the position OF
| violating instructions of his superors. Her
| friends confident that she VIII not dc
| anything that will embarrass her husband
| in any way.
| The stories published in the New York
| papers yesterday in which Col. Ayres is re-
| ported to have made the statement that
| he had been warned that his friendship for
| Major Gen. Leonard Wood would cost him
| his commission. were denied by Col. Ayres
| He also denied having made other state
| ments in reference to his wife'S troubles to
| the effect that attempt to settle the
| matter by appealing to a military court
| would be suicidal, as his experience has
| convinced him that military Investigations
| are a farce and have been used for years
| as a means to destroy an officers record.