The Daily Ardmoreite. [volume] (Ardmore, Okla.) 1893-current, 1921-11-06
sen. WATSON TURNS HIS
FIRE on SECRETARY OF WAR
WEEKS AND GEN. PERSHING
Continued From Page Onel

Continued From Page One)
either of these gentlemen in the pub
lie service to publicly condemn an.
other without the slightest investiga-
ton
Senator Watson then read letter
from an unidentified Richmond, Va,
woman who said she had served l2
months as an army nurse. The let
ter said that officers made courtcsans
OF the nurses wherever possible and
nurses who resisted We're sub
icctcd To personal indignities.'
Mr.. Watson also said he had been
told personally by former nurse that
she had been compelled to repel the
assault of an officer
More Letters Presented
More kilograms and letters in sup
port of his illegal banging charges
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 was as many glib
bets as hospitals said the senator
who. for the first time, gave the
name-Clfford l.. Aver, .r.--of the
man he said had told him of hearing
from gallows guard that 81 sold
ers had been hanged without court
martial.
He presented telegram from Aver
stating that an affidavit was being
forwarded for the use of the special
committee that will meet Monday 10
determine procedure in the investiga-
tion of the senator's charges. The
senator promised to protect his wit
ness, if any attempts he said, were
made to brow beat" or ntimidate
them,
willing TO Face "NabObs Of Staff"
Another telegram presented by the
senator was from George Carborough,
Aaron, Ga, who said he served in the
60jth Engineer corps and declared that
Mr.. Watson's charges Of Illegal hang
ing We're true. Senator Watson said
this witness would appear before the
committee and face the nabobs OF
the general staff"
the sender of which was not disclos-
ed, which asked that the senate inves-
tigation include "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 Purcell's death oc-
CURED at camp at san Antonio,
Texas.
William Gibbons of Cleveland had
written, Mr.. Watson said that he
had two photographs one taken be-
fore and the other after the hanging of
a soldier against whom the writer said
the charges lacked definiteness.
The senate also was told by the
Georgia senator that a former service
man now living in Washington had
given him a statement as 10 the hang
ing of four negro soldiers, ION one
gallows at one time, each clad in the
uniform that General Pershing wears.
The same soldier had informed him,
Mr.. Watson said that the body OF
"a negro convict the black cap still
over his face" had been exhumed and
sent to the home Of white woman
in Rochester, y. Y, whose son had
been killed in action.
Just such a case happened in my
home county in Georgia the senator
added
William T. Collins, of Titusville, Pa,
in a letter presented by Senator Wat
son, said he saw negro hanged, but
did not know If there was court
martial. Another correspondent from
Elmir8, y. y, said he had seen two
negroes hanged in France, and
Harry d. Waldron, OF New York,
a eX.sergeant in the army service
corps, the senator said, offered 10 give
evidence OF cold blooded murder" in
the a. f. f., and destruction of files
Of the Bastile prison.
Finally after presenting an affidavit
from Joseph d. Cornwell, of Phila.
delphia, stating that he saw a negro
hanged in uniform, Senator Watson
said the executions cited by him al
ready had passed the figures given by
the war department and Chairman
Wadworth of the senate military af-
fairs committee.
THE further we go, the worse II
gets" he concluded. The more we
stir 1t the worse it stinks"
i