Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1921-11-08
WATSON ANSWERS
WEEKS, PERSH|NC;;
READS MORE WIRES

charges tnaC American SOlQ16rS were
hanged overseas without court-mar-
tial, Senator Watson, Democrat
Georgia, Saturday in senate turn
ed his fire on Secretary Weeks and
General Pershing because of their
denial of the senator's assertions.
Alluding to a statement made to-
day by the secretary that mo de-
cent man" would make charges with
respect 20 army nurses such as were
made several days ago in the sen
ate, Senator Watson, while disclaim'
ing any intent to atrack the nurses
as a whole, said he would leave to
any impartial Tribunal to judge
whether he or Mr.. Weeks was the
mere decent" The senator said
that his charge as originally MADE
was ''that officers in too many cases
made, courtesans of the nurses.
"Ard I can prove it," he exclalm-
ed"
Reading General Pershing's state
ment as made yesterday IN Nash
vile, Tenn, that the Watson charges
Of illegal hangings and 1nhuman
treatment of privates by offlcers
was a 'most outrageous and untrue
accusation" the Georgia senator de-
declared:
Quotes the Kaiser.
"When the general renounces
senator as a liar he had petlef re-
member that it is within the power
of the senate to bring him mere anu
a time may come when we Will oo
that. If he talks that way about
more senators it may be zone. we
have as vet no kaiser that says:
Me and Cod ,svo
ator Watson continued, 10 tne leVeA
of either Secretary Weeks or 'Tel'
eraI Pershing by indulging IN ABUSE.
7 simply content myself with saying
that it was great Improperly TOT
either of these gentlemen in the pup
lie service to publicly condemn an
other without the slightest lnvestl'
cation"
Senator Watson then read letter
from an unidentified Richmond, Va,
woman who said !. she had served
twelve months as an army nurse.
The letter said that "officers made
courtesans of the nurses wherever
possible. and nurses who resisted
( were subjected to personal in
dignities.n Mr.. Watson also said he
had been told personally by a former
nurse that she had been compelled to
repel the assault of an officer.
More kilograms and letters in
support of his illegal hanging
charges were presented by the sena-
tor. He submitted another photo
graph of what he said was an army
gallows in France, which photograph
he said had been struggled into the
country by a Huntington, w. Va,
private.
Apparently there was as many
gibbets as hospitals" said the sena-
tor, who for the first time gave the
L. Aver, Jr.-of the
man he said had told him of hearing
from gallows guard that twenty
one soldiers had been hanged without
He presented tele-
gram from Aver stating that an aft
davit was beng forwarded for the
use Of the special committee that
will meet Monday to determine pro-
cedure in the investigation Of the SEN
ators charges. The senator promis-
ed to protect his witness if any at
tempts, he said, were made to brow
beat or intipidate them" y
J. GeOrgian's Telegram Read
Another telegram presented by the
senator was from George Carborough
Aaron, Georgia, who said he served
in the 6O5th engineers corps and
declared that Mr.. Watson's charges
of illegal hanging were true. Sena-
tor Watson said this witness would
appear before the committee and
face the nabobs Of the general
staff"
The senator read another telegram,
the sender of which was not dis
closed, which asked that the senate
investigation include 1.-The case of
Albert Purcell, of Cincinnati" about
which the informant said he was
able to learn nothing from the war
department. The message said Pur.
cells death occurred at a camp at
San Antonio, Texas.
William Gibbons, Of Cleveland,
had written, Mr.. Watson said, that
he had two photographs, one taken
before and the other after the hang.
ing of a soldier against whom the
writer said the charges lacked def
niteness.
The senate also was told by the
Georgia senator that a former SER
vice man now living in Washington
had given him a statement as to the
hanging of four negro soldiers ION
one gallows at one time, each clad
in the uniform that General Pershing
wears" The same soldier informed
him, he said, that these men were
hanged without courtmart1al.
Another soldier had informed him,
Mr.. Watson said, that the body of ga
negro convict, the black cap still
over his face" had been exhumed
and sent to the home of a white
woman in Rochester, N. Y, whose
son had been killed in action.
Just such case happened in my
home county in Georgia." the SEN
ator added.
William T. Collins, of Titusville
Pa, in a letter presented by Senator
Watson. said he saw a negro hanged
but did not know if there was a
courtmartial. Another correspondent
from Elmira, N. Y, said that he had
''seen two negroes hanged in France,
and Henry B. .Waldron, New York
an eX-sergeant in the army service
corps, the senator said, offered to
give evidence of "cold- blooded muir
der" in the American expeditionary
force and destruction of files of the
basti1e prison.
Finally, after presenting an affi-
davit from Joseph D. Conwell. of
Philadelphia, stating that he saw a
negro hanged in uniform. Senator
Watson said the executions cited bv
him already had passed the figures
given by the war department and