Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1936-02-21
M'MU[LEN'S PAY
CUTBY CONVICTION
Found Guilty on Two Counts.
Prepares to Fight
Civil Action.
BY REX COLLIER.

by hEA SOLLAEns
Convicted by a court martial of
''breach of honor" in accepting gift
from Joseph Silverman, jr, Army
goods trader Col. Joseph I. McMullen
today was marshslling legal forces to
fight charges pending against him in
civil courts.
Col. McMullen. one-time legal adj
wiser to the Secretary of War, was
found guilty by court of generals
and colonies late yesterday on two
revised specifications under the 96th
article of war, charging he acted
"wrongfully, dishonorably and to the
discredit of the military service"
The court sentenced the veteran
officer to be reduced in rank to the
foot of the list of officers of his grade"
to be "reprimanded by the reviewing
authority" and to be reduced in pay
$3.50 per month for "a months.
The penalty was administered as
punishment, specifically, for the &C
ceptance by Col. McMullen on January
20. 1884, of two round-trip railroad
tickets to San Francisco, valued. at
1910. as gift from Silverman at a
time when the surplus Army goods
dealer had contracts pending before
the War Department.
Two Acquittals.
The court acquitted Col. McMullen
on two other specifications-one charg-
ing that the tickets were accepted
as reward for legal advice" favor
able to Silverman's transactions given
Assistant Secretary of War Harry H.
Woodring, and the other that he &C
cepted the tickets as bride for in
duencing him to favor Silverman.
Maj. Gen. Upton Brine, jr., chief
, Of Cavalry, who presided over the II
officers composing the court, an
nounced the verdict in grave tones as
Col. McMullen and counsel for both
sides stood at the counsel table. Gen.
Birnie said that tWo-thirds of the
court had concurred in the findings.
1t took the court nearly two and a
half hours to reach a verdict and an
hour and a half additional to fix the
sentence.
41lC WILL NC
by Secretary of War Dern or the
President, it was said, as both are
reviewing authorities" in such cases.
Secretary Dern previously had adj
ministered his deepest censure" to
Col. McMullen in connection with
''scandalous' dealings with firms do
ing business with the Army.
Cut to $500 Per Month.
Col. McMullen's pay and allowances
total $3.50 per month, SO that his in
come will be reduced to $500 per
month for the next two years. He
has been seeking to retire for more
than year, due to i'll health.
The maximum sentence which the
court could have rendered was dis
missal from the Army-the punish
ment administered last Spring to Col
Alexander E. Williams by court
martial which convicted Williams in
another outgrowth of the "Silverman
affair" Col Williams was found
guilty of accepting $4,000 loan from
Frank E. Speicher, tire salesman.
William E. Leahy, chief of McNIul-
lens defense attorneys, made an i'm
FASHIONED appeal to the court just
before it retired to consider a ver-
dict. He declared the acceptance by
McMullen of the railroad tickets was
purely commercial transaction" in
which Silverman applied the cost of
the tickets against balance he owed
McMullen on an automobile. He
pointed out that McMullen used the
tickets to visit his son, Bruce, then
desperately ill., in San Francisco.
Interference Hinted.
When Leahy suggested that the
House Military Affairs Committee was
trying to "bulldoze the court into a
conviction" Lieut.. Col. Charles w.
Thomas, jr., trial judge advocate, pro-
tested the "side show tactics" and
declared no one could bulldoze the
court, the Secretary of War or the
President.
Col McMullen declined to make a
statement after announcement of the
verdict, but he did not appear down.
cast. He seemed relieved at the con-
clusion of the tense trial, which be-
gan last Monday.
He now faces an indictment by the
District grand jury charging him with
accepting fees from the Cuban-Amer
lean Manganese Corp. at a time when
the firm was lobbying against a tax
bill.
Col. Williams, Silverman and his
brother, Nathan, and Thomas Jeffer-
son Ryan, former Representative from
New York, also are under indictment
for conspiracy to hide Speicher from
the House Military Affairs Committee.