Omaha daily bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 187?-1922, 1919-04-27
Court-Martial Defects
New York Times.

The court-martial reforms proposed by MAI
Gen. Leonard Woo&at the American Bar Asso-
cations hearing ia Washington are similar to
those recommended by Judge Advocate Cen
eral Crowder in his elaborate letter upon "Mili-
tary Justice During the War" addressed to Sec
retarv Baker on March TO- Both officers hold
that the British procedure is i'll some respects
superior to ours and, when it is better, should
he adopted General Wood urged thorough
yestigation by officers of the court OF charges
before bringing accused men to trial. Generai
Crowder had advised that paragraphs - ana
rs OF the Manual for Courts Martial should be
amended so as~to require the officer who mas
jurisdiction to investigate personally. or depute
the work to an officer OF experience, and pre-
pare Summary of the evidence and settle upon ,
it in agreement with the accused. substantially
eral Crowder would restrain the officer "exer-
cising court-martial jurisdiction" from ordering
a case to trial until he had considered the
written opinion of his staff Judge advocate.
The result would be reduction D the number
of unnecessary trials. very desirable reform
A Just complaint is that too many trivial cases
are brought before the courts martial.
General Wood and General Crowder agree
that the words "in time of peace" should be
struck out OF the forty-fifth article OF war; IN
order that the president as ,commander-in.chiet
should have authority to fix "the maximum
limits of punishment" at all times. General
Wood contends that Judge advocates should be
merely legal advisers OF the court and ought not
to act Representing attorneys. General
Crowder approves of the British general court
qualified member of the Judge advocate gen
erals staff to act as impartial legal adviser at
the trial of all SERIOUS. difficult and com
plcated cases" Obviously, General Crowder
shares General Woods opinion that there
should be some one to see that the accused has
f,;r +r;n1 nd ic w
counsel They are of one mind about allowing
the president as commander-in-chief to retain
the powers to review and revise cases, although
he is supposed to act upon the advice OF the
judge advocate general They~also say that
court-martial trials are fairly conducted as a
rule, the design being to preserve the rights OF
the accused General Wood in his testimony
asserted that there is no inclination to dis
crimnate between officers and enlisted men"
1t is to be noted that Generals Wood, Hugh
L. Scott, and John L. Chamberlain are all OPP
posed to Colonel Anselps recommendation that
control in court-martal cases be taken away
from commanding generals and the president
and reposed in the Judge advocate general They
fear that discipline would suffer if that officer
! were made supreme. Certainly that would be
the case if he were untitled by temperament
and training to exercise such authority. A final
appeal to the president who, although COM
mander-n-chief. is detached from the army,
should always be possible.
he truth is that COnQemndtlOn or the court
martial, which after all is human institution,
has been violent. Some of the critics have been
careless of their facts. If they had followed up
the worst cases of severe sentences they
would have found that the offenders we're in
spite of those sentences often let off lightly.
One offender served but short time in the
disciplinary barracks" went to France as a
private and rose to be a captain. Never de-
stroy the self-respect of the men under you,
General Wood says striking human note
That is principle that guides most of the off
GERS of the army even the West Pointers, who
are supposed to be such martinets There have
been hasty trials and long sentences. but in the
mass the number was small, and in almost every
instance the sentences have been reduced
In order to impress army of nearly
100000 men, many of whom were crude and
Irresponsible it was necessary to stand no nom
sense from the worst of them and to make the
punishment on the record fit the crime But in
the end the army authorities exercised Glenn
ency in almost every case. Civil courts might
not have been SO kind Nevertheless, the sys-
tenn needs overhauling being far from perfect.
like most mundane things. The revision of
1916 was not as liberal as it might have been.