Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1914-05-24
House Committee Reports Out
Measure to Place Officer
on Active List.
REPORTS OF PHYSICIANS
ARE QUOTED BY DANIELS
In Letter to Lawmakers, Secretary
of Navy Says Retiring Boards
Action Was Not Justifiable.

Lieut.. Col. Constantine Marrast Per-
kins, L. S. NJ. c., will be reinstated
upon the active list If the bill reported
favorably from the House naval affairs
| committee is enacted. The case is
famous in congressional and Marine
Corps annals. Secretary Of the Navy
Daniels in a letter to the Senate naval
affairs committee stated that Lieut.. Col
Perkins had suffered grave injustice
In being forced to retire.
The officer. says the report. claims
that he was placed in a position where
he was compelled to elect between being
retired from the active list az being
mentally unstable. or voluntarily retir-
ing, and that his consent to retire from
the service was given solely to escape
the disgrace of the charge of insanity"
The matter was investigated by a
former Congress, and after exhaustive
hearings the naval affairs committee of
the House of Representatives came to
the conclusion that Lieut.. Col. Perkins
complaint was justiiable and RECON-
| mended his reinstatement to the &C.
tive list of colonies to a place to which
he would have held had be not been
retired
Wrote to Committee.
Secretary Daniels took interest in the
matter and April 2. 1914, wrote to the
Senate naval affairs committee q long
letter, in which he outlined the long
conversations he had held with ouicers
who knew Lieut.. Col. Perkins. In this
letter he said:
In reaching an opposite conclusion and
In deciding to recommend the passage
OF an amended measure to restore Col.
Perkins 1 have been largely Influenced
thereto by the evidence of four eminent
surgeons who gave testimony before the
| board, to wit, Col. William C. Gorgas,
now surgeon general Of the army; DR..
George A. Lung. one Of the ablest sur
geons in the Medical Corps Of the navy;
Maj. Charles E. Woodruff, now retired
surgeon Of the United States army, and
Surgeon H. c. Curl. also an able surgeon
of the navy, then superintendent of the
Colon Hospital under the Panama canal
commission. The testimony of these sur
geons Is convincing to my mind that
Col. Perkins. while suffering from nerv-
BUSINESS. was not mentally unbalanced.
Each OF them knew Col. Perkins long
and intimately enough to form an esti-
mate Of his mental condition: and these
four able surgeons were direct and posi-
tive in their statements that his mental
condition was stable and that he was fit
ted to discharge the duties inherent to
his position
Qualified for Promotion.
Further. Secretary Daniels' letter states
The examining board on July II, 1905,
composed Of three colonies, a medical in
spector and surgeon, received report
from the medical members that Col Per-
kdns was physically qualified for promo
ton and thereupon the board unanimous
ly= made the following finding:
We hereby certify that MAI. Constan-
tine NJ. Perkins, United States Marine
Corps. has the physical. mental and moral
the duties Of the grade to which he will
next be eligible, and recommend him to
promotion thereto
I'm view OF this report can not be-
lieve that the retiring board was justified
in permitting medical records prior to
that examination to have controlling
weight against Col. Perkins, as they EVIL
IDENTIFY did. 1t is too awful and serious a
thing to officially declare an officer to
be incapacitated for service by mental
instability which is Interpreted by the
world as a considerate way of saying one
is crazy, for such finding to rest upon
any testimony that 10 open to question.
The preponderance of medical testimony
was that he was mentally stable and ca
pable Of continued service as officer
Of high rank In the Marine Corps"
Attached to the report is a copy Of a
report made by the naval affairs commit
tee of the House on the same subject in
charging specifically that the retirement
of Lieut.. Col. Perkins was procured by
duress and fraud 1t relates series Of
incidents to bear out the contention that
the officer was the victim Of persecution.