San Antonio light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1911-1993, 1923-03-02
MEMBERs OF THE ASSOCIATED PRESS.
SNAP JUDGMENT OF GEN. ELY


notably some of those representing Tex
as and Okahoma-had been as eager
to do justice to Brigadier General Ely
as they were quick to accept an uncon-
firmed report discreditable to him, they
would have saved themselves consider
able trouble and that officer no little
embarrassment if not temporary dishon-
or. 1t would have been so easy ior them
to ascertain whether General Ely had,
indeed, made slurring remarks about the
Thirty-Sixth Division and its services in
France. But instead of going quietly
about the inquiry-it could have heen
completed in a few hours, by telegraph
or tclephone-they acted in such man
ner that General Ely may have been
done a permanent injury even though
they should cause to be published broad
cast statement that the charges made
against him were utterly false.
The address to which exception was
taken was delivered to the Kiwanis Club
of Kansas City. Did any of General
Ely's immediate hearers get the impress
sion that he was trying to defane the
Thirty-sixth Division? Apparently the
ineensed lawmakers made their charges
first-publicly-and then leisurely set
about ascertaining the facts.
Leisurely, because several days prior
to the indignation meeting held in Wash
ington by members of the Texas and
Oklahoma delegations in Congress to
take measures to prevent the confirma-
ton of General Ely as major general,
the Kansas City Star, which had pub
lished the report which gave rise to the
charges, said editorially that there was
not the slightest basis in fact for the
idea that he had spoken i'll OF the Texas
Oklahoma soldiers. The erroneous i'm
preston, The Star explained. must have
been due to the brevity OF the news re-
port of his speech.
"The address," the editorial goes on,
twas simply a plea for adequate pre-
paredncss. Had The Star been able to
print it in full those who are now CEN
surfing the general would have under
stood, as his hearers understood, that
he was illustrating his contention by a
reference to the lack of training of one
division that resulted in unnecessary loss
of life when the division went into ac-
ton. The criticism by General Ely was
not directed at the personnel OF the
'Thirty-sixth Division. 1t was directed
at the hasty preparation it had received
that caused unnecessarily heavy losses
when it went under fire. This was un-
derstood by all who heard him."
Yet, with this reinsurance easily avail
able, the Texas-Oklahoma Statesmen"
did in principle, what they accused Cen
eral Ely of having done. They bore
false witness against km
General Ely deserves naught but praise
for his efforts to preclude the possibility
of recurrence of the pitiable scenes
which caused hardened French officers
to wiring their hands specifically
trained young men going to the laugh
ter.
What General Ely was initiating
against was the state Of affairs which
would prevail If Bryan's advice--"a mil
lion men between sunrise and sunset"
should become this countrys military
policy. He was urging exactly what
George Washington urged in the days
of the republics neutrality-suspicious.
in times of peace.