Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1907-01-26
WITHOUT HONOR TERM.

at strikes me that good many Of the
senators who have made speeches on this
Brownsville business have displayed little
genuine knowledge of the way things are
run in the American army In the views
they have expressed on the subject of the
without honor discharge" said q wash
ington citizen who, when he received his
final statements and quit the regular army
a few years ago, was q regimental ser
geant major.
1.-The real nub Of the without honor dis
charge matter has been lost sight of in
clouds Of oratory and rhetoric. As a matter
Of fact, the without honor discharge was
originally, and still is, Q device hxed up
for the purpose of letting undesirable sol
diers, or chaps who had gotten into the
service without due thought or the con-
sent Of their relatives. out OF the service
honor discharge was always considered,
and still is considered by army men. q
sort of mutual agreement between employer
and employee that their relations shall cease
without mutual damage. The without
honor man accepts his discharge In that
form without question. He doesn't ask for
trial by a court.martial. He is simply
honor discharge is welcomed by him.
There are any number OF ways whereby
without honor discharge can be handed
Of young fellows of good families who
drift into the army through dissipation or
some other cause-a bad marriage or do
nestle trouble or something of that sort
and whose people want to get them out of
the army. In the case of a bad marriage,
Of course, the soldier never states to the
recruiting officer that he is a married man.
and his failure to SO state constitutes fraud
ulent enlistment. But whatever may be
the cause Of such a young chaps enlist
ment, his folks seek to get him out Of the
army. and, il his people are sufficiently in
fuential and can bring the proper amount
Of influence to bear in Washington, they
generally succeed in this effort. The de-
partment investigates the case, concludes
that it will be the best thing all around to
let the young chap make his getaway. and
SO discharge without honor is issued to
him. and he simply quits. He can tear his
discharge into bits as soon as he gets it IL
he wants to, but In any case the without
honor discharge really fastens no stigma
upon him, In so far the opinion of peo-
pie who know what such a document means
is concerned.
again, there are many men who get into
the service who, without committing any
actually overt acts or violations of the
regulations, quickly show themselves to he
quite useless as soldiers. They are slouches;
they can't and won't pick UP the drill;
they are lazy or untidy; they are jests
among their companions; they have no in
terest in their work; they shirk when on
fatigue duty; they make barrack lawyers
of themselves and knock the whole outfit.
and in general they clearly and positively
prove to their superiors that they're not
Well, no charge can be made against men
of this sort. They don't actually commit
themselves: they just dub around in the
capacity of nuisances: they can't be court
martialed and bob-tailed for being plain
slobs and yet there must be some way Of
getting rid Of them. Well, the without
honor discharge is handed to fellows Of
this sort. They make no objection; they
want TO get ont Of the Sprvfca. thew a q
willing to get their discharge any old way
without honor or with it-and that's how
the thing is managed. Their dismissal
paper, inscribed without honor is handed
to them, and away they go, and are for
gotten; but II such chaps really wanted to
stay in the service and made kick over
away with their kick. They could demand
a trial by court-martial and put their SUI
periors in a hole. The regulations provide
that man must have trial II he de-
happens that the discharged soldier who
gets his without honor paper Is perfectly
willing to take his departure by that
method. so that such discharge really
serves useful purpose SO far as 1t goes
But 1t should never be lost sight Of that
the without honor discharge Is absolutely,
and always has been. a mutual agreement
between the government and the man dis
charged. No such discharge can by any
possibility be given to q man who doesn't
want one Of them and who demands that
specific charges be placed against him and
that he be tried by a regularly constituted
court-martial
Senator Lodge, In the Brownsville dis
cussion, cited the cases Of 352 soldiers who
were discharged without honor in the pre-
ceding year. These were all individual
cases, not lump jobs like the Brownsville
blanket discharge, and in every case Of the
352 the man discharged without honor was
perfectly willing to take his discharge so
worded.
ut is wholly different matter in the
cases Of those black soldiers of the 25th In
fantry who were discharged without honor
and is that they didn't want to be so dis
charged. They were under charges which
embodied 30 serious thing as the crime Of
murder. The actual criminals in the outfit
military investigation. Well, that was the
misfortune of the civil and military authort-
ties-that they couldn't get hold of the real
culprits among those three companies of the
stitute any reason why, conforming to the
terms of military law. these men could b
discharged without honor in bulk.
"They demanded trials by court-martial.
They had no hearing. It wasn't voluntary
agreement with them. made with the gov
eminent, that they should accept their dis
charges without honor Just SO long as an
accused soldier holds out his plea Of limo.
cence. and adds to that plea his assurance
that he doesn't want any discharge from
the army. Just so long is 1t the duty Of his
superior officers to give him hearing, and,
If it be considered necessary to get him
out of the service willy-nilly, they may just
railroad him out by means Of the court
martial. But to issue a blanket without
honor discharge, covering 1877 soldiers under
serious charges and to hand these dis
charges to soldiers who don't want them,
and who, on the contrary, are not only will
ing, but anxious to remain in the service.
If only for the purpose of vindicating them
selves of serious charges-I think that any
man who ever did any service in the regular
army must hold that this was the most ex-
traordinary proceeding that ever happened
in the history Of our army.
'All the arguments of the Presidents
senatorial supporters will never convince
men who have actually served in the army
and who know the regulations and who
have seen the actual working Of these regu-
Iations, that the commander-in-chief of the
army or that anybody else Of the army,
has got the right, under our military law,
to discharge single soldier without honor
If such soldier refuses to agree to the terms
of such q dismissal and demands a trial I'M
der clearly specified charges. Any rookie In
our army is familiar with these facts. and It
Is astonishing that 50 many OF the learned
senators have rambled on and escaped so
utterly palpable a fact"
"Praise From Sir hubert