The Bridgeport times and evening farmer., 1919-07-24
SOLDIERS WERE
 HANDED ''HaRD
 HOILED' JUSTICE
Court Martial Sentences Were Cut 10000 Years. POWER WAS VERY
 OFTEN ABUSED Officer Who Reviewed Cases Tells Story.

RShloh or Grand Island. Ashton, who " an attorney of this city, has just been discharged from the sarvfce and arrived in Grand Island last week. He was q Major fin the IuCye Advocate's department in Washington and for months ho devot<1 his entire time To Investigating cases against soldiers who had been sent to prison for lonr- terms on tho most trivial charges Mir Ashton succeeded in getting 10000 years cut off the prison life of sol dfcrs whose cases Inc investisated
 When Fred Ashton went 10 Wash hEton to undertake the work of in vestigntion he was a conservative. To- day he is decidedly radical. made so by his review of so many cases of miscarriage of justice wherein rnili- inry courts had doomed private sol- dlers to long years fin prison for slight tnfractions of army rules
 Too much authority is placed in the hands of q commanding gener-a1' says Mir. Ashton. Where this official was harsh and severe, sentences that exceeded reason and fairness were given"
 Here's clse of which Mir. Ashton could tell the Congressional commit Gee. Ii is one Mir. Ashton inyestIrate1 and reviewed
 Never Warned of Rule.
 Jtll iieHuerSon WIS charged with desertion. Although found to bo Ignorant, his employers fin civil life spoke well of him. Evidence dis closed he had never been warned of Inc seriousness of staying out without leave. His case was poorly tried. Hear say evidence and much incompetent evidence wns admitted. Inexcusatle errors on the part of counsel for the prosecution fin attempting to prove by Ia9a sT.
 pany records without introducing the record itself or certified copy there Dt and 'n the Introducing of testi- I.Jny ot the same witness as of state mcnts made by Henderson amounting f1 confession without showing that Henderson had been warned of the s'riousucss of such admission or if his own rights in the matter marked The trial.
 HeudCrson's counsel waz nerlig-pn+ in permitting this testimony to a, in without objection and in permitting unjust crosse examination. The review ing board confessed the testimony should not have been admitted. but dismissed tho matter with n statement that "Serious as tho failures appear to bc, they have been waived by the nccused by his failure to make ob- JCctipns thereto"
 Henderson was sentenced to tvcr- ty years Imprisonment. The clemency buprd remitted seventeen and one half yaurs from this term after Ash ton invcstiEa ted tho case.
 Here's another case Ashton fnvesti- gated:
 hn William Randall was accused of ealing an envelope and contents There was no charge that the con tents had any special value. There was no violation of n postal law. It may have been n letter from girl Co hcr sweetheart. He was sent to prison.
 Jess Conway was accused of deser- tion and escape. He pleaded guilty to both and was sentenced to twenty years imprisonment and total forfei- ture of pay. The bonrd found Convey to be an imbecile with the mental age of four and a half years. He was dis missed.
 Sentenced to Be Shot
 Benjamin Garsii was found guilty of disobedience of orders. He was sentenced to be shot. The President commuted his sentooce to fifteen years in prison. Tho clemency board, on ex- animation, found that Garski had been illegally inducted into the army and recommended that his sentence be rcmftted.
 Here is case where the fnterfer- cnce of the commanding officer was responsible for a verdict of guilty after tho court-martial had declared the accused to be innocent. Thomas l.. Harrison was accused of desertion. lie was found not guilty. The com manding officer ordered the court to reconvene and 1t revoked it's former findings and the accused was given n sentence of five years with a dis honorable discharge. The court took it's second step because it did not wish to incur the displeasure of the com mandinR officer
 Still another case: John M. Frazier was a farmer. He had been turned down for oversCas service and was discouraged. He received a pass for a week and went home. Here he found his live stock was going to ruin in his absence. After tending the stock he had no money to get back to the post. lie got a. job near by and con tinuiDg to wear his uniform. freely told that he was going back to camp as soon as he got money enough to pay railroad fare. When he got the money 10 started forI Icamp, but was arrested before he got there. The court-mnrtial gave him twenty years.
 "Ecrbal Dcsertion"-25 Years.
 Floyd Maley, c. M. No. 122309, aged 22 years, a moron, mental age
 
 nected manner; apprehended for fail- lire to register. He was accused of de- eertaon. the assertion consisting of sayfng, T do not want to be sol- disr." He was sentenced to twenty five years and dish onorable discharge
 John Ritchey. c. M.. No. 11s19O aged 25. He was at Camp Perry, Ohio, for seven weeks in August, September and October. 1917. The prisoner asked
 n fef iv,r TT, edo, who was not expected to live. The permit was refused and he left Camp Perry without a permit and went to Toledo, thirty-five miles rway, intending to return the next day. He found his aunt dying. She begged him to stay with her and he remained ono week. when the aunt died. His mother came from Bryan. Ohio, for the funeral and was taken seriously i'll. Ritchey took her back to Bryan. che begged him to stay -&rA h~, swnH0 ahn Goe- -A0f40Gs Uho had