Evening capital and Maryland gazette. (Annapolis, Md.) 1910-1922, 1910-07-16
MARINE CORPS TROUBLE
Settled AT Last--AII Concerned
Censured
EIGHT OFFICERS AT FAULT
Navy Department Acts Upon Findings OF
Court.-COmmandant OF Marine Bar.
racks Criticised

Letters of censure were sent yes
terday by Acting Secretary of the
Navy Beekman Winthrop to eight
high ranking officers of the United
States Marine Corps as result of an
investigation by naval court of in
quify of the condition of affairs exist
ing at the headquarters of the corps.
Major General George F. Elliott,
commandant of the corps, was one of
the officers reprimanded. He was
censured for lack of dignity and firm
ness in his official intercourse with
his subordinates and for the use of
incorporate language. The other
officers who were censured for unmili-
tary and disrespectful conduct toward
the commandant were:
Col. Charles ii. Lauchheimer, adiu-
tant and inspector; Col. Frank L.
Denny, quartermaster; Col. Charles
A. Doyen, commanding Marine Bar
racks at the Naval Academy; Lieu
tenant Colonel Thomas C. Prince, as
sistant quartermaster; Lieutenant
Colonel Henry C. Haines, assistant
jutant and inspector; Major Louis J.
Magll, assistant adjutant and in
spector at Philadelphia; Major David
d. Porter, assistant adjutant and in
spector.
Colonel Lauchheimer is a Balti-
morean. He graduated from the City
College in 1877, and then entered
the United States Naval Academy,
graduating in 1881. He was born in
Baltimore on September %, 1859.
After leaving the Naval Academy he
was not commissioned in the Navy,
however. because of the fact that
there was an excess in the number of
graduates over the number of vacan-
cies in the Navy.
He entered the Marine Corps in
1888. He has been adjutant and
Inspector of the Marine Corps since
December IA, 1904. He was former
~ in the Judge advocates department
of the corps prior to the enactment
of the legislation consolidating the
adjutant inspector and judge advo-
Gates corps.
According to the finding of the court
of inquiry, the trouble at the Marine
headquarters was due to radical
difference of policy between General
Elliott and Colonel Lauchheimer. The
trouble at headuarters eliminated last
December in a wordy dispute between
General Elliott and Colonel LAUGH
heimer. Bad blood had existed be-
tween the two officers for several
years, although there had been no
open outbreak.
General Elliott regarded Colonel
Lauchheimer' conduct as insubordi-
nate and he suspended Colonel LAUGH
heimer for five days. Colonel LAUGH
heimer regarded the suspension as un-
warranted and appealed to the Nary
Department to overrule General FL
liott's action and clear the suspension
from This record. Secretary of the
Navy appointed court of inquiry.
Colonel Doyen, of the Naval Acad-
emy Marine Barracks, the court said,
failed to show the proper respect
and subordination' toward the COM
mandant
The court found generally that the
difficulties had arisen from radical
difference of policy between General
Elliott and Colonel Lauchheimer
through the formers lack of firm
ness. consistency in language and
department, and too-long tenure of
Office of officers in the adjdtant's, in
spector's and quartermaster' depart
mnts, resulting in lax ideas of subor-
dination, and military ethics and lack
of professional and military expert
ence.
At the bottom of the dissension in
the corps is said to have been the
question of the successorship to Cen
eraI Elliott when he retires in Octo-
ber. the fight being between officers
of the line and of the staff