The county record. [volume] (Kingstree, S.C.) 1885-1975, 1922-02-02
SERVICE MEN SEEK
ACTION ON BERGDOLL
MOVEMENT IN CONGRESS TO
UNEARTH COMMITTEE
REPORTS.

A Washington dispatch to the
Charleston Sunday News says: Some
six months ago there were laid be-
fore the House of Representatives the
majority and minority reports of the
special committee of FIVE members
which was appointed to investigate
the circumstances Of the escape of
the country's best-lnown Stacker,
Grover Cleveland Bergdoll, of Phila-
delphia, who sought and obtained
refuge in Gernany-the enemy's coun-
try at the time he fed.
Now that we have made a treaty
of peace with Germany and have
resumed diplomatic, relations, many
members of the House, and particu-
larly those with service records, de-
sire to seek the extradition of Berg
doll without any further loss Of time.
They want to put it up to Germany
to return this breaker Of his coun-
try's laws. In order to ventilate the
matter they will seek to pull the re-
ports of the special investigations
committee out of the pigeonholes in
which they have been reposing fot
half year or so.
There will be some hot debate over
the disposal Of these reports though
it would probably have been hotter
If Representative Henry D. Flood, Of
Virginia, had not died. Mr.. Flood
submitted scathing majority report
signed by himself and Represents
tives johnson, Of Kentucky, and
Luhring, of Indiana, recommending
the punishment Of certain army of
fcers responsible for the safe-keep
ing of Bergdoll and in calling for the
disbarment from federal practice OF
former Gen. Samuel T.. Ansen, who
was one of the counsel for Bergdon
and had given personal assurances
to the War Department thst it was
al: right to let the Stacker 60 with
two guards in search Of a pot At
gold" which Bergdoll claimed to have.
hidden somewhere IN, MarylaBd.
Bergdoll induced the two guards 10
accompany him to his mothers Home
in Philadelphia on the way, and dnrs
ing that visit he made his eelebrat-
ed escape. & &
For some time during the war
period Ansell had been Acting Judge
Advocate General of the army. He
had a bitter controversy with Sec-
retary of War Baker and Judgc-Ad
vocate- General Crowder over the adE
ministration Of army justice and ;re
signed to enter tie private practice
of law, becoming counsel soon after
wards for the special committee which
the Republicans Of the House ap-
pointed to investigate the conduct 6
the war by the Wilson Administra-
tion.
The minority report CT the special
Bergdoll committee was signed by
J its chairman, John A. Peters, of
| Maine, and by one other Republican
member, Representative Macarthur,
oe Oregon. This report wac very
much nilder than the F!ooG-Johnson-
Luhring report, and that was why
Representative Luhring, IN Indiana
Republican, parted comrany with his,
two Republican colleagues and went
over to the two Democrats, thus
making the latter's report the ma
jority finding of the committee.
But for the actir gid
turning his back upon the Peters
Macarthur report as inadequate to
the situation, the report Of the spe-
cial committee on the Bergdoll case
would have assumed = straight
partisan aspect, with the three Re.
publicans signing what is now the
minority report and the two Demo
crat signing what is now the ma
jority report. But the course of this
Indiana Republican member broke up
the prospect for straight party
fight and embarrassed some OF the
Republican leaders not a little. They
did not mind letting the subject slu,n-
ber in the desk of the Clerk of the
House just as long as. it could. &
In the meanwhile, ! Bergdoll has
plenty of time to move with his"pot
o. gold" into Russia if he fears that
Germany might deliver him over to
the country from whose justice he
is fugitive. -
.