Mitchell

ARMY & NAVY

A stir was made and the seething has not yet subsided. The stirrer was Colonel William Mitchell who two weeks ago denounced the "incompretency, criminal negligence and almost treasonable administration of the national defense," by high officers of the Army and the Navy (TIME, Sept. 14); and pointed his remarks by references to the Shenandoah disaster, the attempted flight to Hawaii, the MacMillan expedition, etc.

Of course many factions and many feelings were stirred up. High officials of the Army and Navy were angered by his language toward them. Some congressmen were aroused to a feeling that something must be done to revamp our national defense. The public and the politicians all viewed with alarm one aspect or another of the Mitchell statement.

It was undoubtedly only a matter of time until some action would be taken in Goverment circles. Last week the action began:

1) The War Department undertook an investigation of Colonel Mitchell's statement with a view to court-martialing him. His immediate superior General Hinds, Commandant of the Eighth Corps area, including Texas where Colonel Mitchell is stationed, had the Colonel certify that the statement was authentic and then sent it off to Washington where the Adjutant General will decide on what grounds Colonel Mitchell will be tried, if at all.* The court-martial will necessarily ignore the Colonel's charges against the War and Navy Departments and confine itself simply to the question of whether he was guilty of any infraction of Army rules in issuing them. If he should be found guilty and ordered dismissed from the Army the President would have finally to pass on the sentence.

2) Acting Secretary of War Dwight F. Davis was in favor of another separate investigation into Colonel Mitchell's charges against the War and Navy Departments, holding that those departments had no right to investigate themselves. Secretary of the Navy Wilbur was inclined to feel that such an investigation was unnecessary, but after a conference with Mr. Davis and Secretary Hoover, he joined Mr. Davis in recommending such an investigation by outsiders. President Coolidge promptly acted on the suggestion. He named a board of nine: Major General James G. Harbord, retired, President of the Radio Corporation of America; Admiral Frank F. Fletcher, retired; Dwight W. Morrow, partner in J. P. Morgan & Co.; Howard E. Coffin, consulting engineer, aeronautics expert; Senator Hiram Bingham of Connecticut, formerly in the Air Service, now a member of the Senate Military Affairs Committee; Representative Carl Vinson of Georgia, of the House Naval Affairs Committee; Representative James S. Parker of N. Y., Chairman of the House Committee on Interstate Commerce; Judge Arthur C. Denison of Michigan, of the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals; William F. Durand of Los Angeles, President of the Institute of Mechanical Engineering and member of the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics. The President asked these men to meet him in Washington to study and advise on the development and use of aircraft.

It is not impossible that in addition to these two inquiries there may be a Congressional inquiry--Senator King of Utah is urging it, and other Congressmen have expressed their agreement.

Unbashed by the stir he had caused in Washington, Colonel Mitchell invited other airman stationed with him in Texas to spend the weekend on a wolf hunt south of San Antonio--a region where the wolves have been annoying cattlemen.

*The Articles of War under which Colonel Mitchel may be tried include:

The 63rd: "Any person subject to military law who behaves himself with disrespect toward his superior officer shall be punished as a court-martial may direct."

The 95th: "Any officer or cadet who is convicted of conduct unbecoming an officer and a gentleman shall be dismissed from the service."

The 96th: "Though not mentioned in these articles, all disorders and neglects to the prejudice of good order and discipline, all conducts of a nature to bring discredit upon the military service and all crimes or offenses not capital, of which persons subject to military law may be guilty, shall be taken cognizance of by a general, or special or summary court-martial, according to the nature and degree of the offense and punished at the discretion of the court."