South Bend news-times. (South Bend, Ind.) 1913-1938, 1919-01-12
DEMANDSPROBE OF
C0U R IS MARTIAL
Congress viii Investigate the
Heavy Sentences Imposed
on Soldier Boys.
News Times special Service /:

WASHINGTON, Jan. II -Pres't |
George T. Page of the American Bar I
association has thrown a bombshen |
into the general staff with his Wig !
orous denunciation, at the annual |
meeting of the executive council of 4
the association in New York city,
of the cruel and excessive punish /
ments melted out by military courts |
martial TO- American soldiers during /
the past year and a half
For when Mr.. Page, as spokesman |
for the most conservative legal !
group in the country, declared pub /
licly that the war has revealed that !
our military laws and our system Of |
administering military Justice are !
unworthy the name OF law or jus |
tice," he shattered the almost in |
durable complacency OF the general !
staff by revealing a solid public re-
sentiment Of which the military mind !
has hitherto been blissfully ignorant. |
Congress has now taken up the |
matter. Sen. Chamberlain-whoh had |
some indignant words to say on the J
same subject the other days now /
demand for a thorough investiga- |
ton into the sentences melted out 10 |
the volunteers and drafted men for |
trifling infractions OF discipline |
Those who know of cases where men |
have been railroaded to the peni.en-
tiary by the army authorities for |
trifing offenses, ought to forward |
the facts TO Sen. Chamberlain or
their own senators, without delay.
Investigate Sentences.
Up on the hill IL is believed that |
an investigation of all the sentences |
will be ordered. Some predict that !
before congress gets through certain !
high military regulations will be |
blasted forever and that the reac- |
tionary articles of war will be over !
hauled TO make them more demo- |
cratic and abreast Of the more en-
lightened codes of France. England |
and Belgium.
Pres't Pages references TO the |
atrocities of military law were in full |
as follows:
This war has demonstrated that |
our military laws and our system of |
administering military justice are |
unworthy of the name of law or jus |
tice. We are still following rules
and forms copied from England in |
IVA. which were long ago aban-
doned by Great Britain and which |
were better suited to the armies Of |
feudal times than to the citizen
armies OF a modern republic. (
my interest in this matter was
aroused some time ago by stories Of /
outrageous punishments melted out !
by our courts-martial for compare
lively slight breaches of military dis
cipline. Punishments are not only
grossly harsh. as compared with the
penalties imposed for like offenses
by our criminal courts, but they also
differ so widely that we find the
same offense punished in one court
martial by % years in the peniten-
tiary and in another by six months
punishment in disciplinary barracks.
Exaggerate Offensives.
"A boy overstaying his leave or
yielding TO a natural impulse to go
home for Christmas is charged not
with 'absense without leave but
with desertion. Disobedience OF or
ders is seen by a Jealous officer as
mutiny. In neither case is there
present the intent to desert or to
mutiny against the authority Of the
army. but boys have been convicted
of the graver crime and sentenced TO
as much as 25 years Imprisonment.
THE accused soldier has no real
legal protection. He may, il is true,
obtain a pardon from the president,
but this leaves his record blotted by
a serious crime of which he ought /
never to have been accused.
"A young soldier. charged with
burglary, was acquitted by the court
martial which tried him. The COM !
handing officer who appointed the /
court disapproved the finding of not l
guilty and ordered the court TO re-
consider the case They did so and /
promptly found a verdict of guilty
and sentenced the boy TO Is years
Imprisonment What would be
thought Of power vested in the gov
ernor OF a state 20 set aside a YER
dict of not guilty and order a re-
trial in a criminal case? 1t is fun
damental to our principles Of right
and justice that 10 one should have
the power TO interfere with verdict
Of not guilty
"A boy Of 16, who had just been
discharged from the hospital after /
an attack of influenza, instead OF be-
ing allowed the usual five days for |
recuperation, was set to scrubbing |
kitchen floors and to guard duty. |
He protested he was not strong /
enough TO do this work, neverthe- |
less he was continued on guard
duty for a longer period than usual. |
In this condition he was taken with |
a chill, went TO his tent 70 get his !
overcoat and while there sat down /
on the edge Of his cot. He was
caught with his head in his hands |
and was accused Of being asleep !
while on duty. Though he denied
that he was asleep and asserted that |
he only yielded TO over-powering
fatigue. he was convicted by court
martial and sentenced TO % years
I in the penitentiary."