Americus times-recorder. [volume] (Americus, Ga.) 1891-current, 1921-11-21

view taken by the secretary of war,
who has written the commander of
the American Legion stating that
these charges, coming so long after
the commission of the alleged
crimes, constitute a reflection on
the entire personnel of the Ameri-
can Expeditionary Force; that the
War Department will make avail
able all Of its records, and such in
formation as may come from per-
sors under its control. However,
such persons constitute but a small
percentage of those who served
overseas and who have been at
tackled" For this reason he re-
quests the assistance of the Ameri-
can Legion toward obtaining all
facts bearing ON the case which
have been mentioned. The A. h.
F. was made up Of American citi-
zens, some of whom happened to
be officers and enlisted men Of the
regular army, others of the Ma
tional Guard, others of the Nation
al Army. In addition, there were
thousands of American citizens in
the American Red Cross, the Y. NJ.
C. A., the Knights of Columbus,
the Jewish Welfare Relief Society
and the Salvation Army who free
ly mingled with the army in all of
it's activities in all parts Of France.
If the charges made by Senator
Watson have any basis, in fact,
thousands of these American men
and women must have known it.
Yet, through some ineZplicable rea-
son these thousands have kept
silent during the two or three
years since these events must have
taken place Assuming for the mo-
ment that it was possible for two
millions of Americans to be terror
lied that not one Of them, while
in Europe during the war, had the
courage to state the facts, how
could it have happened that among
all the thousands steadily return
ing to the United States, and there
fore entirely out of the hands of
the A. E. F., not one had the cour
age to tell what he on she knew?
1t seems uncomfortable that a
man who has risen to the dignity
of being a United States senator
should so little understand his fell
low citizens, both men and women,
that he could possibly believe, ex-
cept in the face of the most over
whelming and convincing proof,
that American citizens simply be-
cause they had put on a uniform
would so forget every American
principle as to condemn fellow citi-
zens to death without trial, or that
they would permit such violation
Of our fundamental instincts to
happen without protest, and the
most violent kind of protest. Not
only must every man and woman
who served in the A. E. F. feel that
a serious charge has been made
against them as American citizens,
but also their parents and their
religious and secular teachers must
feel that the whole of the Ameri-
can people and every principle for
which it stands have been attacked.
Presumably Mr. Watson, since he
is senator, is man of sufficient
ability and brains to understand
that along with right and privi
leges in this world go responsible
ties. If he cannot prove his charg-
es, and no one with any real serv-
ice in the A. E. +. believes that
he can; if he cannot show that he
had reasonable and serious enough
evidence to warrant his indulging
in any such attack, he should recog
nize his responsibility and the
grave injustice which he has done
thousands of his fellow country
men, and leave the senate on his
own accord. Failing that, he should
be impeached. The senate of the
United States is too august a body,
and its position in the eyes of the
American people too important, to
permit it to number among its
members a man whose sense of re-
sponsibility and fair play is not suf-
ficient to prevent his making the
gravest kind of charges against his
fellow citizens with insufficient
ara n1aaoa,. auidapca &c ~ hacic