Evening star., 1921-07-19
NEWPORT SCANDAL
INQUIRY SCORED
Senate Committee De.
nounces Former Navy
Chiefs in Report.

Former Secretary Daniels and for
mer Assistant Secretary Roosevelt of
the Navy. are denounced for the
methods used in investigating the
wartime scandal amog enlisted men
at the Newport training station in
the majority report of Senate sub
committee made public today.
The charges made by clergymen of
Newport and the Providence journal.
the report says, have been proved to
the satisfaction of the committee
ard both the clergy and the Journal.
says the report. deserve the thanks
Of the people at large"
AT the same time today, MIR. Roose-
veTt issued a statement declaring that
Senators Ball of Delaware and Keyes
of New Hampshire, the two republi-
cans. who constituted the majority
of the investigating committee. had
issued their findings without giving
him a hearing. after promising to do
so. which Mr.. Roosevelt in his state
ment contended SHOWS premeditat-
ed and unfair purpose of seeking
what they mistakenly believe to be
a partisan political advantage"
Senator King of Utah. the demo-
cratic member of the investigating
later.
Details Unprintable.
Most of the details of the Newport
scandal as it is disclosed in the in
vestiga ton are of an unprintable ma
ture. The cruX of the majority re-
ports charges is that with hte knowl-
ports charges is that with the knowl-
welt. enlisted men of the Navy were
improperly used as participants in
immoral practices for the purpose of
securing evidence on which to dis
miss offenders from the Navy.
Mr.. Roosevelt. under whose office
the investigating was conducted, is
held by the majority to be morally
responsible" for the orders.
The findings of naval court-mar-
tial which investigated the scandal
are introduced in che record for the
first time. 1t held the action of Mr..
Roosevelt unfortunate and i'll ad-
vised." Secretary Daniels disapprov-
ed the portion of the findings which
condemned the method of investiga-
tion, and on that point the committee
report today says: THE committee
agrees that Franklin D. Roosevelt's
action was not only unfortunate and
and Mr.. Daniels disapproval of this
opinion of the court is to be severely
condemned"
Sent Orders to "StOp It,"
Mr. Roosevelt in his statement said
vestigating supervised by him person
ally, and that when, in September,
1919, he and the acting chief of the
bureau of navigation were informed
that members of the investigating
squad had used highly improper and
revolving methods IN getting evil
dence," Immediate orders were sent
out that day to stop it."
The inSinuationS that I must have
known, that I supervised the opera
tionS, that I was morally RESPONSE
ble," said Mr.. Roosevelts statement,
ARE nowhere supported by the evil
dence, directly or indirectly"
On that point, however. the majority
findings of the investigating commit
tee hold that Mr.. Roosevelt was pres
ent at conferences which determined
the methods of the investigating and
of the committee how the methods to
be used could have been entirely
eliminated and forgotten at the con-
ferences." If Mr.. Roosevelt did not
inform himself of the methods used.
the majo5ity ars5ity n report p3r dty says ne
"It is probably true" says the
majority report. "as contended by
both Secretary Daniels and Assistant
Secretary Roosevelt, that they were
not officially informed regarding
acts of operators or detectives" until
later, adding that "all through the
records before this committee strenu-
Gus and strained efforts were made by
naval officers to differentiate between
official knowledge and knowledge as
the ordinary layman has it,"
Hits Mt Lieut.. Hudson.
Lieut.. Erasmus N. Hudson of the
Medical Corps, who was in direct
charge of the investigation, the re-
Fport says, Showed utter lack of
moral responsibility" should have
been court-martialed. The naval
personnel would be benefited" the
report says, If the name of Chief
Machinists Mate Erwin Arnold. Hud-
sons assistant in the investigation
were stricken from the roster of the
Navy" The report notes that no
commissioned officer of the regular
naval establishment was involved.
Mr.. Roosevelt in his statement on
the majority report summed up his
reply this way:
Throughout their report 1 accuse
them of deliberate falsiflcation,of evil
dence, Of perversion of facts. Of mis-
statements of the record and of q de-
liberate attempt to deceive.