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NAVY EXPERTS AID MITCHELL DEFENSE

Wash Star - 12/3/25.

Admit Battleship Is Vulnerable From Air and Mooring Mast Unsafe.

Navy witnesses, produced by the prosecution, gave testimony alternately favorable to one side and the other in the Mitchell trial yesterday afternoon.

Comdr. Kenneth Whiting, aircraft carrier expert, admitted under cross-examination that battleships are "very vulnerable" in aircraft, if not themselves protected by aircraft. He also said that present aviation policies in the Navy were not all that could be desired with respect to development of personnel, and declared that only one or two officers in naval aviation were entirely satisfied with present conditions. 

He said that Great Britain, with its several carriers, can launch 78 planes while the United States, with its one carrier, the Langley, is launching 12.

Comdr. R. D. Weyerbacher, constructor of the Shenandoah, strongly defended the ill-fated ship against the attacks of Col. Mitchell. He denied Mitchell's charges that she was greatly overweight, saying she was less than 1 per cent heavier than her original design called for, and that this overweight added to her strength.

Gullion Is Rebuked.

When Maj. Allen Gullion endeavored to have the witness tell the effect of alcohol on duralumin, of which the frame of the Shenandoah was constructed, a wrangle ensued between the assistant prosecutor and Representative Frank Reid, Mitchell's counsel, as a result of which Maj. Gullion was severely rebuked by Col. Blanton Winship, law member of the court. Maj. Gullion persisted in shouting his arguments after the law member had tried to halt him, and Col. Winship finally burst out:

"I want this understood-when I say stop I mean stop right there!" Maj. Gullion apologized, and thereafter there was quiet.

Gomdr. Weyerbacher said that while he was connected with the Shenandoah, prior to her fatal trip, there had been no calcium chloride used in her radiators, and that while some of this corrosive non-freezing agent was mixed in the water ballast, the metal frame was lacquered to protect it against the action of the solution. Col. Mitchell has claimed that the non-freezing solution used in the Shenandoah weakened her framework.

The witness expressed his belief that the structure of the dirigible was not weakened permanently when she broke away from her mooring mast at Lakehurst. He revealed also that it was he who first ordered discarding of parachutes I originally taken aboard the Shenandoah, giving as his reason that the parachutes hampered the crew in moving about the ship and that he thought the men would be safer by sticking to the ship in the event of an accident than by jumying with parachutes.

Needed Room for Fuel

Under cross-examination he also stated that the parachutes were discarded in order to make room for more fuel and increase the cruising radius of the ship. He also asserted that a dirigible designed for helium should be larger than one intended for hydrogen.

Comdr. Weyerbacher also defended the DG type plane, termed by Col. Mitchell a "flaming coffin," but under cross-examination admitted he would select a more modern type "if they were available."

Lieut. Comdr. C. E. Rosendahl, senior surviving officer of the Shenandoah, and the Navy's foremost expert on mooring masts, took issue with Col. Mitchell's statement that masts "are an inefficient method of mooring airships." He admitted under cross-examination that masts were not entirely safe, saying "There is no real place of safety for an airship except in her hanger." The defense apparently considered this statement as favorable to the accused.

Mitchell Trial Like That Of Dreyfus, Small Thinks

Baltimore Sun 12-2-25

Court, Beginning With Pomp And Grandeur, Has Descended To Burlesque Under Prodding Of Reid And Weight Of Own Blunders.

By Robert T. Small
[Special Dispatch to The Evening Sun.]

Washington, Dec. 2.-Not so many years ago the entire United States was howling with merriment over the manner in which the French courts were trying Capt. Alfred Dreyfus. It seemed at that time that any persons connected with the trial could at any moment arise and harangue the audience. Even the jury was permitted to take an active part in the proceedings.

Now it should be the turn of the French to grin at America, for the Mitchell case is the nearest approach to the Dreyfus affair in the manner in which it is being tried that the world has ever seen. Each day brings some new and startling innovation if not sensation. Old army officers rub their eyes and ask themselves if such things can be.

Trial Atmosphere Lost.

The proceedings have lost the atmosphere of a trial completely. A French Senator or Deputy would feel entirely at home in the hubbub which daily goes on in the ramshackle old Pension Building, where a trial started some five weeks ago, but where now there is a daily Donnybrook fair. Washington is beginning to believe that it will be a miracle if the case is closed without some one taking a punch in the nose and viewing the further proceedings from the well-known horizontal position.

With one of the presiding generals referring to these proceedings as "damned rot" and another characterizing them as "disgraceful wrangling" which ought to be stopped, it will be seen that the breaking point is near. As a matter of fact, both remarks have been passed on to the War Department and it would not be surprising to observers if a mistrial should be ordered or, at least, appealed for by the defense.

[[drawing of Gen. McArthur ]]
I cant draw this man

Reid Waves Red Flag.

To those who have followed the trial it has appeared that Representative Frank Reid, of Illinois, counsel for Colonel Mitchell, has deliberately endeavored to prejudice his case, as well as to rile the temper of the stern jury in olive drab, whom he has faced day after day. Mr. Reid at the very outset of the case did everything in his power to slow up the proceedings. It was evident he was trying his case before a far wider jury than the original thirteen officers designated by the War Department, and cut to nine by the challenges of the defense. Regardless, however, of what his intent might have been, Mr. Reid has succeeded byond his wildst dreams in "getting the army's goat," and today he has every member of the court with the "heebie jeebies." That only two have lost their patience sufficiently in public to blurt out derogatory remarks has been amazing to the onlookers. Mr. Reid daily waves the red flag-and inwardly exults at the roars which follow.

The trial has passed through three distinct phases. First of all, it started as an old-time, reliable, easy-functioning court-martial. The setting, in the old Census Building, however, was all out of gear. The court should have been convened at a big army post. There should have been the sound of bugles outside, the tramping of martial feet, the blaring of the band at guard mount or dress parade, and, above all, there should have been the mess calls, for if this case hasn't degenerated into a mess Washington never saw one.

Soon Lost Its Grandeur

The appearance of Congressman Reid and his disdainful tactics soon robbed the trial of its military grandeur. Then began the Congressional investigation phase, the spreading of the old dragnet. The court itself was responsible for this development.

At last has come the free-for-all stage, with everybody wrangling and quarreling. It is not comic opera, it is nearer to the burlesque. The present situation was bound to ensue when the court first let down the bars, allowing the defense to put virtually the entire United States Government on trial, with Colonel Mitchell shouting "J'accuse" and everybody else running around in circles.

No one speculates any more as to what the verdict will be.

They just wonder if some day court isn't going to blow up and "bust."