Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1919-02-18
FIRES HOT SHOT
AT BREST CAMP
Congressman Siegel Calls
for Rigid Inquiry Into
Conditions There
PICTURED AS HE'LL HOLE
Other Army Conditions De-
scribed as Fatal to Volun-
teer Enlistments
By a staG Correspondent


Washington. Feb. 1s,-Congressman
Isaac Segel. Of New York. warned the
rules committee of the House of Repre-
sentatives today that 1t il going to be
very difficult for the United States TO
raise a volunteer army unless Congress
goes on record as favoring a correction
of the abuses of the war by ordering
a fun investigation of the charges made
regarding conditions at Brest camp and
other army matters regarding which Sc
rious charges have been made.
. Mr.. Siegel appeared before the COM
mittee today to urge adoption Of his
resolution calling for appointment of
select committee of eight members of
the House to investigate the charges that
Brest camp il a terrible hell hole and
numerous other unsavory charges made
10 various quarters regarding the army.
After citing Governor Aliens descrip-
tien of conditions which marked the
Argonne Forest battle and a statement
by Colonel Hayward, of the 369th In
fantry, that in the three weeks that his
command was at Brest he had lost more
men and officers than in the ten pre-
vious months when they had been fight
ing and that some of his men had not
been paid for eight months, Congress
man Siegel said:
"A week ago Representative Cooper.
of Ohio, and, myself interviewed two
men, respectively Alfred w. Larson, Of
Ogden, Utah, and Victor F. Harr, Of
Mccook, Neb. They had come back the
Saturday previous from Brest. They
told us that the camp vas a living hell
on earth and that the men had to
stand from one and a half to two hours
in rain and mud in order to obtain
meals. That they had to sleep in
water and that the men were not per-
mitted to purchase food at the Y. NJ.
e. A. and specifically told they must
make no complaints.
The newspapers have carried numer-
Gus stories describing the alleged con-
dition of this camp. The newspaper pic
lures apear to confirm those narrowing
conditions.
THE complaints about the mail serv-
ice are on the increase. One outfit Of
the Second Pioneers, stationed perma-
nently near st. Naza ire. has sent to me
"A complaint i'm behalf of $50 men from
| Harlem. that from thirty to forty days
elapse before mail gets to them, and
! that some of the men are going insane
over not hearing from their folks.
More than 100 men who had been
drafted complain bitterly. over the fact
/ that at st. Ellzabeths Hospital they
/ have to work in the insane wards from
/ G. n. M. to s p. IN. one day, and on
the following day from a. IN. TO 3 p.
NJ. besides having 10 eat in the wards.
| These men complain that they never
We're orderlies in their lives and that
unless they get relief they will go In
/ sane themselves
Five thousand six hundred crippled
men have been permitted to go to their
homes without the government having
/ arranged to pay to them the monthly
/ allowance provided by Congress.
/ THE charges made on the floor OF the
/ House touching the efficiency and fair
ness Of many officers in courts-martial
and i'm the treatment OF men and officers
/ by their superiors cry to heaven for a
/ thorough and earnest investigation.
The 22.000 cases tried by courts
martial have created in the minds of the
/ privates and their friends the impression
/ that we are indisposed to face the truth
! and expose to public view the sore spots
! in the military service"