The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1919-03-18
Bringing the Court-Martial Law Up to Date

The court-martial law under which $4,000
trials were held in the last eighteen months is to
undergo examination by a civilian committee of
the American Bar Association to ascertain its
Justice and adequacy. This investigation fol-
lows wide spread discomfort among the soldiers
with the operation of the law. The Bar Asso-
cations investigation will have the cooperation
and assistance Of the army authorities, indicating
that they themselves feel that something is
wrong with law which infcts severe punish
ment for trfling violations Of the military code.
The scope of the investigation will not in
clude examination of individual cases but will be
of a general nature to discover if the present
court-martial law is up to date, adequate and
just. The instructions of the committee set OUT
Eve must know whether it meets actual con-
ditions. To reach in this case of court-martial
law our general purpose, it will no doubt be nee
essary not only to make an examination into the
law itself, but also to investigate the manner and
the results of it's administration"
The severe sentences that have been imposed
under the court-martial law during the war, made
many people conclude that mistakes were made
without anyone being to blame and that the
fault lies inherently in the law itself and not
much in the officers who administered it. This
Of course can be ascertained only after the law
has undergone a close scrutiny by the investigat-
ing committee.
Three factors present themselves in discus
sion of the court-martia trials. First, the spirit
of the soldiers; secondly, the attitude of the old
West Point officers toward men who are not
professional soldiers; thirdly, the nexperience
of young officers administering discipline for
the first time.
The American army as it was made up dur
ing the war contained boys who were accustomed
to think and act for themselves. Many of them
had never been under rigid discipline of any kind
and they were unable for long time to grasp
the idea back of an ORDER namely, to make each
individual automatically and quickly act in con-
junction with the whole mass in executing the
decision of the officers Many of the cases of
disobedience tried under the court-martial law
were attributable to the fact that our high
spirited boys did not know what they were asked
to do and that instantaneous obedience to orders
is absolutely essential to military success.
Perhaps the old West Pointers accustomed
to dealing with professional soldiers, expected
too much from the men who composed the new
army. The professional officer often can't
understand why the recruit who has just entered
the army after years of civilian life cannot readily
pick up the spirit of the establishment and alb
sorb the principle of army discipline. Sentences
imposed by these officers probably were due to
their over-emphasis on discipline and their own
inability to see that the boys did not intention
ally commit breaches of the army regulations
Many officers had had no military training
except few weeks in the officers training
camps. Even in civilian life they had not been