Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1919-08-28
ONLY 1s1 SUICIDES.
Total of Those Who Committed Self
 Murder in A. E. F.

Washington, May 17.-For the first time, the war department made available today, for publication in the Post-Dispatch, the number of suicides and executions in the American army at home and abroad. In the casualty lists these figures are concealed under the heading "Deaths from ac- cident and other causes"
 An official statement by the sur geon general covering the period from July l, 1917, to May 1, 1919, shows that there have been a total of 1S1 authenticated cases of sui eide, 154 among enlisted men and 27 among officers, in the American ex- peditionary forces.
 It is expected that publication of these figures, which are regarded as remarkably low in view of the emo- tional stress occasioned by war, will quiet rumors that large number of soldiers took their own lives.
 The army suicide rate is, in fact, lower than the civilian rate for the whole population and still lower than the rate for males of the age group .-20 to 29-the group most nearly comparable with that which formed the g1 cat bulk of the army. As esti- mated by the census bureau, the sui eide rate for all ages and both sexes iii the United States in 1916 was 14.2 per 100000 of population. Practical ly one death of every 100 was by sui eide. In the same year the suicide
 rate among males from 20 to 29 years of age was 15.7 per 100000.
 On fho hacic nf 1Q1 c,1iciHac oponn U 2,000,000 soldiers who went abroad, the suicide rate for the expeditionary forces of the army was 9.O5 per 1O0,- 900.
 In addition to the soldiers who 1 killed themselves, the surgeon gen
 eral reports 35 cases of self-inflicted
 wounds, apparently intention. Thir- ] ty-four were enlisted men and one an officer. Whether the wounds
 were inflicted with intent to kill or to maim is not set forth. There is { no way of comparing these figures with the cases of unsuccessful sui eide attempts among civilians. In the American army in this coun- ]! try, from September 21, 1917, to March IA, 1919, there were 196 sui cides, 15 more than occurred abroad.
 Divided by years they were as fol-
 lows: In 1917, 45; in 1918, 132; 1919 19. The average strength of the 1 American army on this side in 1918 was 2,498,OO0.
 Exaggerated stories have gone over the country about the number of men executed abroad. Wild tales have been told of men taken out at sunrise and shot for dese1Eion or
 other military offenses.
 Records in the office of the judge
 advocate general disclose that dur ing the entire life of the A. E. r there have been but six executions of soldiers abroad, and not a one of them for a military offense. One
 man was put to death for murder and five for crimes against women. Rumors of firing squads vanish be- fore the official information that all
 or most of these men were executed by hanging.
 1 Since America entered the war the death penalty has been executed by the army in 25 cases on this side
 Nineteen of these put to death were
 negroes implicated in the Houston
 riots. Of the six executions since that time, two were for murder and 1 four for crimes against women. None | was for military offense.-St.
 Louis Post-Dispatch.
 Auto Roads Maps 25c. Brashers