Los Angeles herald., 1908-05-21
RAYNER WANTS
INQUIRY COURT
ScATHlNGLY ARRAIGNS THE
PRESIDENT
sARcAsTICALLY REFERS TO HIS
TNFALLl5ILlTY"
Objection Is Made and Further Con-
slderatlon of Resolution Is POST
poned-May Go Over to
Next Session
BY Associated Press.

Rayner again today made an appeal
to the senate for vote on resoiu-
ton authorizing and requesting the
president to appoint court of inquiry
to investigate charges against Col.
William +. Stewart. coast artillery
stationed at Fort Grant, Ariz. Mr..
Rayner declared his belief that the
committee on military affairs would
not report his resolution during the
present session of congress and asked
that a modified resolution he had pre-
pared be acted upon by the senate
without the intervention of the COM
mittee Objection being made, further
consideration of the resolution was
postponed
Senator Rayner of Maryland In the
senate today called up his resolution
requesting the president to appoint a
court of inquiry to investigate charges
against Col William F. Stewart OF the
coast artillery, now stationed at Fort
Grant, Ariz.
Mr.. Rayner said he took this action
as he was satisfied there would be no
\ report from the committee on military
Nafairs on his resolution during this
Eession of congress.
He reviewed the sending OF his reso-
luton to the committee last Wednes-
day and his appearance before that
committee on the following day. Last
Friday he was informed that papers In
connection with the case had not ar
rived from the war department, and he
humorously referred to the difficulty of
sending a messenger from the war de-
partment to the senate before congress
adJourns.
Speaking enthusiastically of his belief
that the president the war department
and the committee on military AFFAIRS
were fastening action on this case, Mr..
Rayner continued:
"Tt ta y,r0par for mo IN rannind the
senate that while this case is being
thus expedited. Col. Stewart Is upon the
heights of Arizona. He is at high
altitude, as high as the president can
get him, with very little chance OF his
getting down any lower within any
definite period OF time. Being at a
high altitude he ought not to complain.
The climate is salubrious and uniform,
II being as cold in winter as 1t is hot
in summer; the surroundings are all
salutary, his companions are festive
and convivia1, consisting of caretaker.
mules, and the society at this fashion
able center is therefore extremely ex-
elusive and select.
President Delighted
1.-THE president is delighted with the
situation, and therefore the chairman
of the military committee ought to be
also satisfied.
"If the president is satisfied every
body else ought to be satisfied. Why
not? What right has anybody to be
dissatisfied with anything that satisfies
the president? Who would be guilty of
such reasonable act? The king can
not commit a wrong, and therefore the
president cannot commit a wrong. Con-
gress may make the gravest mistakes.
Courts may err. Human judgment at
the zenith of its strength may arrive at
faulty and erroneous conclusions. but
the executive never can blunder. In
fallibility is one of his attributes.
When he has finished with the prosecu-
ton, and there has been no testimony
allowed to be produced on the other
side. he is so well fortified and in
trenched that you cannot dismantle
him.
when he has his victim upon the
heights of Arizona and declines to re-
ceive anv communication from him and
positively asserts that there is no neces-
sity of examining his witnesses or hear
ing his testimony he Is then in posi-
ton to administer justice with an abso-
lutely impartial and unprecedented mind.
A judge who hears both sides may have
his mind disturbed. but a president who
hears only one side can proceed with
accuracy and precision to final judgment
without the slightest danger of maxi
ing any mistake upon the testimony he
He
to a criminal the right to be informed
of the nature and causes of the accusa-
ton against him, to have process of
obtaining witnesses in his favor and to
have the assistance of counsel for his
defense.
1.-THE president prefers to try the
case without any witnesses for the de-
fense because If witnesses for the de-
Tense were summoned, he summarily
proclaims, to use his own language,
They could not possibly misrepresent
the Judgment that he had already rem
dered.'
Appeals to Senate
Mr.. Rayner appealed to the senate
for a vote on his resolution.
IF the senate refuses to act" de-
clared Mr.. Rayner 1.-The only relief
that / can now think of would per-
haps speedily come If this officer were
to die In the place of his captivity.
Then the country would, perhaps come
to the conclusion that no other man
should die by the same methods. One
OF England's bravest admirals was
shot to death on his quarterback for
committing an error of Judgment. 1t
was held that an error of judgment
was punishable by death. Parliament
never moved, but when the work was
DONE the whole world rang in denun-
citation of the murderous deed"
He was not, he said 1mbued with a
threatening spirit. but he could indulge
in prophecy and not a threat.
'I predict" he added, that II there
Is no relief anywhere, If the presidents
resolve is the final scene in this trag-
edy, then something will occur that
has happened over and over again be-
fore Public opinion does not realize
the situation now: all 1t knows is that
the president has punished an officer
of the army because in his judgment
he is Objectionable to the service.
"It has not yet grasped the entire
environment. 1t does not yet compre-
bend that the president has taken a
stand that no sovereign or monarch in
any other civilized land would dare to
take at this enlightened day. When
1t understands the proposition fully
then public opinion will move; 1t will
move along the avenues of public in
telligence, 1t will be heard through the
channels of public expression; 1t will
move slowly but surely to the place
of captivity; it will take the unfor-
tunate officer and transfer him from
the custody Of the president into the
presence OF the president and tramping
with an iron heel upon the desperate
experiment of authority the president
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