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SAYS MITCHELL CASE IS GETTING NOWHERE
Small Finds Washington Weary Of Trial That Appears Endless.
Baltimore Sun - 11/28/25 
JUDGES' NERVES ON EDGE
Defendant And His Counsel Described As "Having Time Of Their Lives."
By Robert T. Small
[Special Dispatch to The Evening Sun.]
Washington, Nov. 28 - This Mitchell case is getting on Washington's nerves. It has been going on for weeks and weeks and as yet there is no end in sight. Every now and then a lull in the proceedings causes the court-martial to be all but forgotten. Then comes a flare-up, like that precipitated by General King, who blurted out that a cross-examination by Colonel Mitchell's counsel was "damned rot and ought to be stopped," and everybody remembers that the incident is not closed - as yet.
No officer of the army ever served on a court like the one trying Colonel Mitchell. Usually the army is hard-boiled, but in this instance it seems to sense a national political aspect to the case, and it may be said in all truth that the generals composing the tribunal are suffering untold agonies in permitting the proceedings to drag alone in an indefinite and indeterminate manner.
Army Seldom Delays.
Whatever else may be said about the army, it generally makes its courts-martial short and snappy. Delays usually may be laid to the reviewing authorities here in Washington. The military courts themselves usually hew to the line and let the shoulder straps fall where they may.
But with the Mitchell case it has been vastly different. The entire court probably echoes the unwitting remark made by General King, but it sits stoically by its job, lets down the bars and the trial rapidly is developing into a legal brook which may run on forever.
Unquestionably the court would have made short shift of the Mitchell case if it had not been for the defendant's counsel. This attorney is not only a civilian but a Congressman. The ordinary civilian lawyer might have been not a little awed by the dignity and pomp of this unusual array of generals, but not a Congressman. If there is anything toward which a Congressman is contemptuous, it is a subordinate of some other branch of the Government service.
Reid Called Rude.
The Congressman feels that he has the power of life or death over all subordinates, including generals of the army and admirals of the navy. This attitude plainly has been shown by Representative Frank Reid, of Illinois, counsel for Colonel Mitchell. In fact, the Congressman has not treated the court-martial as a court at all, but as just a sort of committee of officers whom he calls "you men."
Mr. Reid probably would be more or less informal with any court, but with a court-martial he is positively rude. It is difficult to say which has derived the greater enjoyment from the trial - the accused colonel or his defending counsel. Both appear always to be having the time of their lives.
Hard On The Judges.
The ones who are irked are the soldier judges. They are being held here away from their duties and in many cases away from their families. They are here on their own expense. The Government gives them travel pay and nothing more. Naturally, they have grown a bit peevish and it has been surprising that "damned rot" has not interjected itself before this. The remark was decidedly unjudicial [[spelling]], but it was army talk and after all is said and done there has been very little army talk, and very little army tradition in the trial.
Military courts-martial have received a decided blow. Probably there will be less respect for them in the future and once more the department wishes the case had been tried somewhere else instead of in the political atmosphere of the National Capital on the even of a session of Congress. The department probably also wishes Colonel Mitchell had not selected a Congressman as attorney.

[[Photograph]]
TESTIFYING TODAY FOR MITCHELL
Wash. Times - 11-13-25
[[Photograph]]
International News Reel Photo.
[[Caption]] Practical fliers today continued their defense of Colonel Mitchell's court-martial. Those scheduled to testify this afternoon (shown above) are: Captain W. H. Hale, Major H. M. Hickam, Major L. H. Breseton, Colonel L. E. Cassilry, Lieutenant D. Duke, Captain C. P. Clark, and Lieutenant H. L. George. [[/Caption]]

[[Photograph]]

Wash Times 11/19/25 
International News Reel Photo
[[Caption]] MAJOR EDDIE RICKENBACKER
American war "Ace of Aces," who startled the Mitchell court-martial here today when he ranked the United States eighth, lower than Poland, in the list of national aviation development. He said army world war equipment is out of date, dangerous and should be scrapped. [[/Caption]]

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