Albuquerque morning journal. [volume] (Albuquerque, N.M.) 1903-1926, 1919-09-15

our own department 0S justice which
every one must sincerely regret.
Snch abuses of power are hot COM
mon In this. country. III they were, our
government would be no better tslAn
that of Mexico. The statement bF
Haryey's Weekly has never been
challenged by the government, nor
has there bcen any attempt To explain
II. Stranger still, the agent guilty of
such Methods never nave been dis
charged from the service, SO far as
the public knows. or even reprimnnd-
ed. The statement follows3
Justice 10 Colonel HirscIf.
Harvey's Weekly.
BY accepting, as true, official
statements from the department OF
justice, the Weekly has, on two sepa-
rate occasions had the misfortune 10
print articles seriously rejecting on
the character of Col Harry j. Hlrsch,
graduate OF West Point and an off
Ger of the regular ARMY who, after pe-
ing denied overseas service on physi'
cal grounds, has rendered f3lhaple
service throughout the present. war.
In so doing the Weekly was CROSBY
deceived, and having learned that
press its sincere regert at the injustice
done an officer with thirty-one years
of rablerservice to his credit,
Col. Hirsch was indicted at the in
stance~of the department of justice for
completely in an alleged conspiracy to
defraud the government. SO dis
graceful was the travesty of justice
perpetrated by the department that
when the government had completed
its case, and before a single witness for
the defense had been heard, Federal
Judge Edwin l., Garvin, In the T. )
court for the Eastern district OF Now
York, courageously threw the case
out of court.
But although instructed as to their
verdict. the jury, declaring their de-
sire to place themselves on record,
adopted resolutions asserting that No
other verdict could have been render
ed Regarding Col. Hirsch the jury
said:
col Harry Jean Hirsch, United
States army, was named as a defend
ant in the case mentioned, and to pre-
vent so far as we can do so, any posl
sible harm to his official record as an
officer of our army coming from the
mere fact of indictment we enphati-
cally hereby certify that we find, after
carefully listening to all the charges
hand evidence that there was not the
slightest foundation for the indicr+'
ment of Col Hirsch."
That the public may know the ex-
tent to which justice has been perVert-
ed and an honorable officer libelled
by representatives of the department
of justice, we present the facts OF the
now famous Rosenwasser case, as
they were developed at the trial soie's
by witnesses for the government I'M
der direct and cross examination:
In 1916, Col. Hrsch, on duty as in
speeding officer for the army at Phil
adelphia, recommended and caused
the discharge of Frank j. Creeden, Il
government shoe-inspector, because
he was temperamentally unfit and
was guilty of conduct prejudiclal ~
discipline At Philadelphia K was the
duty of Col, IIirsch to pass upon shoes
manufactured for the government
by Rosenwasser Brothers, large man
ufacturers, Of unblemished reputation,
whose contractual relations with the
war department had been continuous
since 1898 and who had won repeated
commentator by high ranking Off
v.
1917. when the government was
sorely in need Of shoe-inspectors,
Creeden, by conceaing the fact of hts
former dismissal, procured appoint
ment under the quartermaster in New
York and was assigned to the Rosen-
wasser factory. The temperamental
characteristics which had caused his
former discharge led the foremen in
the Rosenwasser factory to join in
round robin declaring they could not
endure his violent and abusive
language, and again he was dis
harged.
When the department of justice,
through Assistant Gttorney General
Houston Thompson and Charles b
Brewer, special assistant to the attor-
ney general, heralded in the press its
| determination to prosecute the Ken
yon case. Creeden saw his opportunity
! for revenge. He wrote the department
of Justice that he could furnish evil
dence of fraud on the part of an OF
| ficer and manufacturer. And on the
unsupported word of this vengeful
mendacious, discharged employe, the
| officials named caused a supine grand
Jury to indict nineteen men, including
| Colonel Hirsch, Lieut.. Samuel Grass
| of the quartermaster's department,
and Morris Rosenwasser, president of
Rosenwasser Brothers.
During the trial of the Rosehwas-
] ser case Messrs. Thompson and Brew
! err presented all the evidence they had
| been able to obtain, with all the IN
strumentalities of the government at
| their disposal, in the course of an in
vestigation which had lasted from
July 1918, until March, 1919. Under
cross examination it was developed,
| that the sole charge against Colonel
| Hirsch and Lieutenant Grass was that
| they had accepted supplies in which
| there was question of slight technical
| deviation from the specifications. 1t
was shown that they had done SO By
| direction of the quartermaster gener-
al, Henry G. Sharpe. who had IN
structed commissioned officers mot to
| let inspectors reject any articles of
supplies of equipment which will an
swer our purposes in this great emer-
gency."
1t was shown that the governments
star witness, Creeden, had obtained
eight different appointments from the
government and had been discharged
as many times; that there was in the
files of the department of justice
letter from w. M. Offley, assistant
superintendent of the New York
branch of the departments bureau of
investigation, written in 1917. saying
| that Creeden offered evidence of fraud
| in return for a high salaried position.
| Creeden admitted that he was an ex-
convict; that his photograph adorned
the rogue's gallery of New Jersey; that
his Bertillon measurements were on