The Birmingham age-herald., 1921-11-06
WATSON VENTS HIS SPLEEN ON WEEKS AND GEN. PER'e'.s.;''!!G
Reiterates Hir ~ssss se About Nurses ? 4 Names of. lnfot & ; Regarding
 Adangings
By Associated Press

night, in the Senate. turned 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 War Secretary that mo
 decent man would make charges
 with respect to army nurses such as
 made several days ago in the Sen
 ate, Senator Watson, while disclain- ing any intent to attack the nurses
 as q whole, said he would leave to
 any impartial tribunal to judge
 whether he or Mir. 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 his charge as originally made was that officers in too many cases made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"
 And 1 can prove It," he exclaimed.
 Reading General Pershings state-
 ment as made yesterday in Nashville, Tenn, that the Watson charges of
 illegal hanging and inhuman .reat-
 ment of privates by officers was a
 most outrageous and untrue accu- l sation," the Georgia senator declared
 When the general denounces a
 senator as a liar he had better re-
 member that 1t Is within the power of the Senate to bring him here. and a time may come when we will GO
 that. If he talks that way about
 more senators 1t may be done. We
 have as yet no Kaiser that says.
 Me and God
 Wouldn't "LOwer Himself''
 q am not going to lower myself.
 Senator Watson continued, to the
 level of either. Secretary Weeks or
 General Pershing by indulging in ,h .{V saying that it was a great impro-
 priety for either of these gentlemen
 in the public service to publicly con- demn another without the slightest
 investigation"
 Senator Watson then read letter from an unidentified Richmond, Va, woman, who said she had served 12
 months as an army nurse The let ter said that officers made courte-
 sans of the nurses wherever possible, and nurses who resisted were subjected to personal indigni- ties" MT. Watson also said he had | been told personally by a former nurse that she had been compelled 1 to repel the assault of an officer. More kilograms and letters in sup | port of his illegal haging charge es also were presented by the senator
 He submitted another photograph of what he said was an army gallows in France, which photograph he said had been smuggled into the country by a Huntington, w. Va, private.
 Apparently there were as many l gibbets as hospitals" said the sena- l tor, who for the first time gave the
 rame-Clifford E. Aver. Jr.-of the man he said had told him of learning | from gallows guard that 2i soldiers had been hanged without court-mar- | tials. He presented telegram from Aver stating that an affidavit was l being forwarded for the use of the special committee that will .neet
 Monday to determine procedure of the | investigation of the sena or 8 | charges. The senator promised to protect his witnesses If any attempts,
 he said, were made to brow beat or | intimidate them."
 Declares Charges True
 Another telegram presented by the l senator was from George Carbor- 1 ough, Arron, Ga. who said he served
 in the Six Hundred and Fifth engi- | neer corps and declared that Mir. | Watson's charges of illegal hangings were true. Senator 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 l closed, which asked that the Senate | investigation include the case of AL
 bert Purcell of Cincinnati" about | which the informant said he was able | to learn nothing from the war depart ment. The message said Purcelis death occurred at a camp at San An | tonic, Texas.
 l William Gibbons of Cleveland, had written MT. Watson said. that he had | two photographs. one taken before and the other after the hanging of | a soldier against whom the writer said the charges lacked definiteness. l The Senate also was told by the 1 Georgia senator that former ser vice man now living in Washingt ton had given him statement as to the hanging of four negro soldiers lon | one gallows at one time, each clad in | the uniform that General Pershing i, wears" The same soldier had in- formed him he said. that these men
 were hanged without court-martisl, | Saw Negro Hanged
 | Another soldier had informed him, Mir Watson said, that the body of a negro convict. the black cap sti!' over his face" had been exhumed anu | sent to the home of a white woman l in Rochester N. r., whose son had been killed in action.
 | Just such a case happened in my home county in Georgia the senator | said.
 William T. Collins of Titusville, | Penn, in a letter presented by Sena- i tor Watson, said he saw negro I hanged, but did not know If there was
 a court-martial. Another cores | pondent from Elmira, N. l.. said that I he had seen two negroes hanged in | France" and Harry Waldon, New York. an ex-sergeant in the army l service corps. the Senator said. of fered to give evidence of cold blood ed murder" in the American expe- ditionary force and destruction 0. l files of the Bastile prison.
 l Finally, after presenting an affi- | davit from Joseph D. Conwell of Phil l adelphia. stating that he saw a negro l hanged in uniform Senator Watson said the executions cited by him al-
 ready had passed the figures given by the war department and Chairman | Wadsworth of the Senate military af- l fairs committee. The further we go the worse il gets" he concluded. The more We l stir 1t the worse it stinks."
 l FATHER AND SON BOOSTED Huntsville, November 5.-(Special.] l The members of the Huntsville Civ.