Alexandria gazette. [volume] (Alexandria, D.C.) 1834-1974, 1915-07-14
CARL|N ATTACKS
NAVAL ACADEMY
Alexandria Congressman
Defends Midshipmen
at Annapolis
MAKES A HOT SPEECH
Delivers Bitter Criticism of the As
sertion That Politics is in Matter
Before Court.

Annapolis, Md, July IA vigor-
Gus attack upon naval officers and up.
on many phrases Of the work at the
| Naval Academy was made by Repre-
sentative C. c. Carlin, of counsel fo.
the defendants, who opened the ar
gument yesterday before the court OF
! Inquiry, which has been is session
here for the last 5 weeks. Particular
/ subjects of the attack of the Congress
! man were Admiral Fuflam, superin-
tendent of the academy, and COM
! r,ander Traut, who, besides being
head Of the modern language depart
ment, from which the examination
papers which caused the trouble
leaked, was member of the original
board which recommended the seven
/ original defendants for dismissal.
4 significant portion Of the argH-
iLent of Mr.. Carlin was Il statemen:
in which the authority Of Inc Secre
tary Of the Navy OF even The Presi-
don't, to dismiss midshipman upon
the recommendation of the court o.
inquiry, was denied, and the asSer-
ton made that civil court could be
invoked in such an event TO prevent
the execution of the finding. Mr.. Car
in pointed out that the act Of 1906
provides for the dismissal Of Il mil
:hipman by the Secretary of the
Navy, with the written approval q,
the President, upon the recommcnda
ton of the superintendent of the
Naval Academy, and that 1t provides
that an accused midshipman has the
right to give reasons in opposition 20
his dismissal.
The right to dismiss through an
other procedure was denied by Mr..
Carln. The right, under the academy
regulations, to punish gouging by
anything but the imposition Of de-
rierits was also denied hy the
speaker.
A bitter criticism Of Admiral Fui-
Inns claim that politics had been
iiyokcd to keep the midshipmen from
deserved punishment was made by
I1r. Carlin. He said that the academy
authorities, by officers attached 10
tne academy and others, had made
newspaper campaign to prejudice the
! decision of the court and that Al
miral Fullam had attempted to
prejudice the mind of the Secretary
of the Navy in advance of the deci-
sion of the court and to befuddle the
issue by the cry of politics.
Admiral Fullam was attacked by
.Ir. Carlin for the advice given tG
midshipmen who had been made de-
PENDANTS that they should not Sc
cure the same counsel as the origl-
nal defendants. 1t was claimed that
il. had been intimated that he had
intimated that counsel were serving
for a financial consideration, where
as. Mr.. Carlin stated, they were
serving entirely from interest in
| youths and desire to secure their
! fair treatment for them. He claimed
that Admiral Fullam had been pref
diced against the seven original de-
PENDANTS from the start and had as
sumed their guilt upon insufficient
evidence.
Commander Traut was criticised by
Mr.. Carlin because, Mr.. Carlin'
claimed, he had assumed that the
midshipmen were dishonest and had
attempted to protect his department
against thieves on the outside and
had not considered the possibility Of
thieves on the inside. 1t had been
clear. Mr.. Carlin said. that the pa
pers were taken from the dcpartmer;
about May TO- yet the examinations
we're not changed and the only thing
done was to move the papers from
one drawer to another Mr.. Carlin ex
pressed the belief that the wide
spread distribution of information
pertaining to the examination wa
due to some other leak in the de
partment rather than to the sprea;
of the papers received by Midshipmar
Moss.