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[[item 1/4]] [[newspaper clipping]] CONVICTION OF MITCHELL HELD GREAT BLOW TO DISRESPECT [[handwritten, pencil]] Star 12/20/25] Civil as Well as Military Life Declared Certain to Benefit by Result of Court-Martial—Weeks' Letter Believed "Knock-Out" for Colonel. BY FREDERIC WILLIAM WILE "Stabilization of personnel" throughout the Army, Navy and Marine Corps is considered in Washington to be the principal effect of William Mitchell's conviction. Military and naval authorities declare that the resultant good, in strengthening respect for authority and in inforcing discipline, cannot be overestimated. They say it will be of lasting benefit in both peace and war. Commentators on the court-martial verdict even go the length of asserting that Mitchell's suspension from the Army for a grave breach of discipline will ramify into American civil life. Had the court-martial been a less widely advertised affair, the results would hardly have been felt outside the narrow circle of the Army. But Mitchell was a national character, and, in the estimation of millions, a national hero for many months. Now the country that watched his ordeal with an eagle eye has had brought home to it that an idol was toppled from at least his military pedestal for established violation of authority. Believe Nation Will Benefit. Many analysts of Mitchell's fate are positive that its lesson will not be lost upon the Nation as a whole. They foresee a reawakened sense of respect for law and authority in general upon the part of the people. So, salutary as Mitchell's punishment is expected to be in "stabiliziing personnel" in the Army and Navy, there are those who believe it may be even more fruitful in its effect upon lawless tendencies in civilian life. The crime wave, iincluding the flouting of the prohibition laws, is cited as the outstanding evidence of American defiance of authority. This observer is informed there is a possibility of action by the War Department, designed to secure the greatest good from the Mitchell verdict. It is within the province of the Secretary of War to "post" the verdict at every camp and garrison of the United States Army throughout the world—from "Marfa to Nogales," as Maj. Gullion, Mitchell's hard-hitting prosecutor, put it in Kiplingesque language. When an officer is court-martialed under ordinary circumstances, it's the custom to "post" the result only within the corps area to which he is attached. Then it is read out at "formations," a more or less formal ceremony. Given "National Court-Martial" But Mitchell was subjected to a "national court-martial"—that is to say, away from his Texas Corps area and in the full glare of pitiless publicity at the seat of Army headquarters in Washington. It would be in full account with that procedure if his conviction were not to be "posted" on an equally widespread scale. The Army authorities, resenting Mitchell's final charge that they were out to "get" him, contend that the enforcing of discipline was their sole end. Having achieved it, they may deem it right an duseful to exploit the result to the full limit of the regulations. At one stage of the Mitchell court-martial, when the ex-colonel was tearing down the field and apparently carrying everything before him, Army and Navy men felt that national defense was suffering heavilly in public estimation. They feared the effect on military and naval appropriations in Congress this Winter. They were afraid the country had become convinced that inefficiency was enthroned in both services. Morrow Board Report Vital. The tide in public opinion, they now say, was suddenly turned in favor of the Army and Navy by the Morrow Air Board report. Had not this calm, considered and cautious survey been completed in the midst of the Mitchell trial and given out at the very moment when Mitchell was pouring his deadliest broadsides into the services, their leaders concede public confidence in them might have been irreparably shattered. All concerned now breathe more freely now. The Morrow report on the Air Service, and Mitchell's conviction have, in their estimation, saved the day. Once again, Americans are expected to sing the refrain from "Columbia, the Gem of the Ocean"—which reads, "the Army and Navy Forever!"—with zest and old-time fervor. John Wingate Weeks, former Secretary of War, now recuperating in South America, is acclaimed on all hands in Washington as the man who planted the final and destructive depth charge under William Mitchell. That letter of Weeks to Coolidge, read into the court-martial record in its waning hours by Maj. Gen. Dennis E. Nolan, deputy chief of staff, was an indictment of far more damaging effect than all the verbal evidence given by prosecuting witnesses. As soon as possible, after submission of the Weeks letter, Mitchell made the dramatic announcement of his refusal to make a closing argument. To more than one observer it looked as if the defendant realized that his cause now was reeling under a knockout blow. (Copyright. 1925.) [[end item 1/4]] [[item 2/4]] [[newspaper clipping]] The Mitchell Court-Martial. To the Editor of the Post—Sir: The ending of the Mitchell court-martial has demonstrated clarly that the general staff of the army had the military court thoroughly "stacked" with officers who would render a verdict in accordance with orders from "higher authority" regardless of any testimony that might be presented. Even though three members of the court who had openly shown themselves as enemies of Gen. Mitchell were kicked off the court, yet there were at least five men left on teh court who were ready to turn in a verdict without even giving the evidence as much consideration as would have been given by a backwoods jury in a chickn stealing case. Twenty-five hundred years ago in Babylon while a great feast and celebration was in progress a hand from out of the infinite traced a solemn judgment on the wall. Today while the "swivel-chair bureaucrats" are busy celebrating their seeming victory over Gen. Mitchell, the hand of public opinion is writing in the air the solemn judgment on War and Navy Department bureaucracy, just as another hand wrote 2.500 years ago: "Thou art weighed in the balances and art found wanting." The War and Navy Department bureaucrats are apparently no more able to read the handwriting in the air than was Belshazzar to read the writing on the wall in ancient Babylon, and their arrogance prevents them from seeking a Daniel to interpret the signs in the air. J. EDWARD CASSIDY. Washington, Dec. 18 [[end item 2/4]] [[item 3/4]] [[newspaper clipping]] Cassidy Quits [[photo]] COPYRIGHT, UNDERWOOD AND UNDERWOOD COL. J. EDWARD CASSIDY Consulting engineer, senior reserve officer of the chemical warfare service, has resigned, it was learned today, over criticism of his support of Colonel Mitchell. [[end item 3/4]] [[item 4/4]] [[newspaper clipping]] EXPECT REMISSION OF MITCHELL'S PAY - Coolidge Reported Prepared to relent on Colonel's Sentence. - [[handwritten in pencil]] Star 12/21/25 BY ROBERT T. SMALL. President Coolidge is prepared to remit that part of the sentence of Col. William Mitchell which would deprive the one-time assistant chief of the aviation section of the Army of his pay during the five years of his suspension from the service. This statement has been made in quarters so authoritative that it is assumed the War Department itself may suggest this course to the President. There is plenty of precedent for such an act of "clemency" on the part of the Commander-in-chief of teh Army and Navy, and there is virtually no precedent for continuing Col. Mitchell on the Army rolls fro five years without pay. Wealth No Factor. The court-martial which imposed the unusual sentence upon Col. Mitchell—unusual in its suspension from pay and allowances for so long a term—had no right to take cognizance of the fact that the colonel is indepently wealthy and that his present wife has a fortune in her own right. Col. Mitchell appeared before the court as just an ordinary officer of the Army, theoretically dependent upon his pay and his allowances for the support of himself and his two families, for the colonel still is under heavy alimony obligations to his first wife and the children by that marriage. It is quite evident that the court either did not know or could not divest itself of the knowledge of Col. Mitchell's worldy goods, and therefore made its sentence as sever financially as it could. With the exception of the deprivation of pay and allowances, the sentence of the court generally is approved in higher Army circles and those circles will have telling influence with President Coolidge. Many officers who sympathize with the aims and intent of Col. Mitchell have been his harshest critics for the manner in which he went about his task of attracting public attention. Inasmuch as Col. Mitchell can make no headwy with his program for a unified air service without the aid of Congress, it is held he should have made his attack through Congress rather than by rising from the ranks, as it were, and denouncing all of his superior officers as well as the contituted authorities of the War and Navy Departments. Stickler for Order. President Coolidge is a stickler for orderly procedure and there is no chance that he will upset the Mitchell sentence further than to remit the loss of pay. This will be done on the ground that if a man is to be kep on the Army rolls for so long a time and is to be held subject to Army discipline during the term of his suspension, he should not be deprived of his pay. Col. Mitchell has no other appeal than the one to the President. The civil courts cannot take jurisdiction of his case, especially if his pay is not withheld. In the latter event he might obtain a mandamus to test the constitutionality of being held in the Army without compensation. Naturally, the assumption is general that Col. Mitchell will want to resign as soon as his case is disposed of by the President. It is said that members of his family had indicated his purpose to resign if he had been acquitted by the court-martial. Here again the case comes squarely up to the President. He will determine whether the colonel should be allowed to resign. If Col. Mitchell is "good" he may be allowed to quit. If he "acts up" before resigning he can be held in the Army indefinitely and be responsible for anything he may say. The chances are, however, that he will be a civilian before many months have passed. (Copyright. 1925.) [[end item 4/4]]
