The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1921-02-28

PECK is PICKED
Army Officer Who Made 35th
Angry Gets His.
Must Stay Major, Says Commit
tee of Senate.
CAPPER PROTEST NOT MILD
Aided by Spencer, of Missouri,
Strikes Name From List.
And They Will Try to See He's
Never Promoted.

Washington, Feb. 2S.-The ex-
doughboys and officers of the 35th
division. out in Kansas and Missouri, o
hast have even scores. The senate mill
tary affairs committee Friday de-
MED promotion in the army to Lieut..
Col. Robert G. Peck, an officer in the
inspector generals department, who
wrote a report on the division after
the Argonne that made every mothers
son in it fighting mad.
1t was October l. two years ago,
when it all started. The fighting divi-
sion from Kansas and Missouri had
just been withdrawn from the Ar
gonne, after going thru five days of
what the doughboys termed hell"
They had left hundreds of their COM
rades dead; thousands were wounded.
They were tired. hungry and worn to
fragile.
Peck Picked Once Too Often.
About this particular moment Lieu
tenant Colonel Peck arrived in a mo-
tor car and inspected the outfit. He
sion. its appearance and condition
and, above all. added what the divi-
sion claimed was the worst insult of
alI'-the statement that 'it bore the
earmarks OF a national guard outfit"
Some time later, when the nature OF
the report became known to the d.
vision, a good many thousand kansans
and Missourians swoEe by all the eter-
nal that if once they got home they
would live to see the day when they
evened things up with that particular
officer They had a long, long wait.
but their time came today.
When the war ended, Lieutenant
Colonel Peck returned to his old rank
of a major but some time ago he was
promoted to a lieutenant colonelcy-I
this time in the regular army. His
name was before the senate military
affairs committee today along with
four thousand other promotions in the
regular service that had accumulated
for the last six months.
Unless these names were confirmed
before March 4. the officers would
lose their promotions. so the commit
tee was about to take favorable action
on the whole lot, when both Senator
Capper of Kansas and Senator Spen-
Ger of Missouri, who are members or
the committee, inquired if there was a
Lieutenant Colonel Peck in the list.
There was.
Senator Capper's Protest Not Mild.
Senator Capper then explained to
the committee about the Peck report
on the 35th division. And to cinch
matters, he read a resolution that had
been adopted last fall at the reunion
of the division at Topeka. The COM
mittee listened intently as the follow
ing resolution was read:
Whereas. = INN ediately following
the withdrawal of the 35th division
from the front lines in the Argonne
Forest on the morning of October 1,
1918, one, Lieut.. Col. Robert G. Peck,
sent by general headquarters to inspect
the division, rendered to the said gen.
eral headquarters such a scurrilous
and scandalous report, a little part of
which was typified by the words,
this division has all the earmarks of
a. national guard outfit, which it is
wi Nx1Q n tT0ct to n
officer in the division, and was snap
Judgment of West Point minionette,
fresh firm his limousine, his boots well
polished and without the knowledge of
what a gun fired in anger meant;
Now, therefore, in memory of our
comrades who lost their lives and their
health in actual service, be it resolved,
that the United States senators from
the states of Kansas and Missouri be,
and the same are hereby urged to re-
fuse and prevent any promotion being
accorded the said Lieut.. Col. Robert G.
Peck in the future, if thru a. mistake
in the policy of the war department
such a promotion ever will be awarded
him"
And His Troubles Not Ended.
After the resolution had been read
there was not an objection when Lieu
tenant Colonel Peck's name was
stricken from the several thousand
that were ordered reported favorably
for confirmation. This means that he
won't be confirmed before March 4 and
goes back to his old rank as a major.
To finish the job off, both Senator
Capper and Senator Spencer filed a
protest with the committee against any
favorable report ever being made on
promotion for Lieutenant Colonel Peck
while they were members of the COM
mittee. And as things stand, both
senators promise to be on the commit
tee good many years to come.
So it was that the 35th division got
even for something that happened over
in France that gloomy morning after
the fierce Argonne combat.