Bisbee daily review., 1919-04-18
NO EXACT JUSTICE IN ARMY, SAYS
 GEN. GLENN
Impossible to Be Sure of
 Fair Deal for All and Still
 Have Good Army, He Says Court-Martial Sytsem as It
 Now Exists Only Efficient
 Methods, Lawyers Told

WASHINGTON, April 1T. = The system of military jurisprudence is de- signed to produce an efficient, de pendable fighting army, not to do ex- act justice to individuals, according to the views vigorously presented today to the committee of the American Bar association by army officers of field experience, including Major Gen. eral Edwin F. Glenn, organizer and commander of the 83rd division and now in general command of Camp Sherman. In attaining the objective, the officers contended, the present machinery for enforcing military dis cipline had proved both efficient and fair, the final product of the system closely approximating justice to the Individual in addition to producing what General Glenn described as the best disciplined army in France.
 Cases of court-martial sentences SO excessive in the penalty awarded as to be ridiculous were freely admitted by the officers. Such sentences only served, General Glenn insisted, to prove, even in the early stages of the military legal proceedings, the action of the courts in no case being final, that fairness was the general rule
 Judge Gregory, chairman of the committee, and General Glenn engag- ed in considerable argument which brought out that the officer, just speaking from his military experience and his special training in civil law as graduate of the law school of the University of Minnesota, saw little in common between the purposes of civil justice and it's military equivalent. Major Charles H.a Macdonald, Gen. eral Glenn's divisional judge advocate at Camp Sherman, but who is tenn porary officer and before the war was counsel for the federal trade com mission, followed his chief and ex- pressed the same views
 You are not looking for exact jus tice," Major Macdonald declared, "when you are building an army of the siez of that of the United States was building. Suppose men did get sentences of 20 years or 40 years. The dishonorable discharges were suspended and they went to the dis ciplinary barracks, probably to be restored to service if they were wor- thy of restoration. It was the lesson involved.
 "When exact justice interferes with the building up of the army, exact justice must be sacrificed"
 There is, of course,' Major Mac Donald added, some room for i'm. provement. There always is in any system of law or taxation; but the present army justice system is a very efficient machine. We have felt that we could attend to the question of exact justice after the war"
 The officer submitted a record of 174 general court martial cases tried at Camp Sherman. He called atten- tion to one sentence of twenty-five years imposed on a man who refused to obey lawful order from an off cer. On the face of the record he said. the sentence seemed excessive; but that it was justified by facts and as reviewing judge advocate he had regretted only that the prison term had not been longer. Explaining the case, he said the soldier had been ordered to work at the base hospital on Saturday during the influenza epidemic and had refused on account of religious ccvruples, alleging he was a member of faith that set that day aside for worship. On that particu- lar Saturday, the officer said, there had been 40 deaths at the hospital and there were hundreds of very sick men to be cared for