Great Falls tribune., 1921-12-24
THE WATSON SCANDAL


lieves that the high officers of the
American army were set OF mur-
derers who ordered men hung by
the score, in France, without trial
and merely to satisfy brutal in
stincts or crafty personal spite,
And, then, the public knows Tom
Watson and his character pretty
well, and does not get excited over
his charges. At the hearing the
other day, he threatened to 60 down
into the audience and slap an army
officer in the face, because he said
he had an insulting look" on his
countenance. He did not like the
look and demanded that he be put
out, or he would undertake personal
chastisement in order to change that
expression Of the officers face that
he complained Of. The chairman,
Senator Brandegee, of Connecticut,
called the belligerent senator from
Georgia down. Later Watson want
ed all officers in uniform expelled
from the hearing because witness
he had brought before the commit
tee did not like the American Off
GERS uniforms, and as he was sub
ject to epileptic fits, he was afraid
that his witness might go into such
a fit at the sight of the uniform.
This witness said that he had
personally seen three soldiers hang
ed. Then, he said, he had seen a
larger number hanged, and finally
raised the number to II soldiers
hanged. The war department rec
ords show that eleven soldiers, in
all, were hanged by sentence Of
courtmartial. Rape was an element
in these cases, and several of them
were sentenced for both rape and
murder. In one case, the victim
was an eight year old French girl.
The epileptic witness of Senator
Watson also fell down on the SEN
ator by testifying that he did not
know whether any of the soldiers
he had seen hanged had had trial
or not. Senator Watson had declar-
ed on the floor Of the senate that
he had conclusive proof that more
than twenty hangings had taken
place without any court martial pro-
ceedings or any other form of trial.
His epileptic friend was to be one
of his star witnesses, we under
stand. .....
The Georgia senator RACES and
snarls a good deal about his not be-
ing on trial before the committee.
but he really is on trial before pub
lie opinion in the United States,
and if he fails to support his most
sensational statements with evi-
dence, he will be held morally guilty
of slandering the army system
even if there is no way of reaching
him legally for such statements
made without good evidence of their
truth in the senate. The chairman
Senator Brandegee has excited the
wrath of the Georgia senator often
but he keeps cool and the Georgia
senator explodes and rants. The
Hartford Times in commenting or
the selection of the Connecticut
senator to preside over the investi.
cation of the Watson charges, says.
1T is by no means likely that
mere accident put Senator Frank B
Brandegee at the head of the senate
committee which is engaged in dem.
onstrating that tom" Watson fired
at half cock or something less when
he charged that American soldiers
were executed in France without
trial. Watson has the reputation OF
being a bad actor, vituperative
abusive, belligerent, pugnacious, q
regular rough and tumble forensic
artist. The senate has had several
such characters-men like pitch
fork Ben" Tillman, Vardaman ano
others, but Watson is commonly
supposed to -Tillman Tillnar
and out-Vardaman Vardaman.
ANY ordinarily meek and mild.
hammered senator would be in grave
danger of being brow-beaten or bull.
lied by Watson, and his hearings
turned into a field day exhibition
of political and oratorical Watsonia
Of course, the senate did not Intend
to let Watson get away with any.
thing by bulldozing tactics, and in.
vestigating his charges had gooo
deal Of dynamite attached to it un.
less rightly handled.
"It is easy to imagine, therefore
that the decision to let Frank
handle it, was arrived at for much
the same reason that Brandagee
was made chairman Of the commit