Guilty

It was dinner time and people were beginning to get hungry--6:30 in the evening. The Court filed into the courtroom. Major General Robert L. Howze, President of the Court, spoke:

"The Court is ready to make an announcement, and it is desired that there be no demonstration of any kind."

He then read a verdict:

"The Court, upon secret, written ballot, two-thirds of the members present at the time the vote was taken concurring in each finding of guilty, finds the accused guilty of all specifications and of the charge.

"Upon secret written ballot the Court sentences the accused to be suspended from rank, command and duty, with forfeiture of all pay and allowances, for five years.

"The Court is thus lenient because of the military record of the accused during the World War, two-thirds of the members present at the time the vote was taken concurring."

Colonel William Mitchell was found guilty of conduct "to the prejudice of good order and military discipline" for his statements criticizing the War and Navy Departments made in September after the Shenandoah disaster and the failure of the Hawaiian flight.

The last days of the trial which led up to this conclusion were not undramatic. Two incidents of especial interest took place:

1) The prosecution called Major General Charles P. Summerall, who was originally President of the court martial and withdrew (TIME, Nov. 9) when Colonel Mitchell made charges against his fairness. He was reputed at that time to have said: "I thought Colonel Mitchell was my friend. Henceforth he and I are enemies." The defense asked him whether he had made such a statement.

"I have no recollection of ever making that statement and I am sure I never did."

"Are you now friendly toward the accused ?"

"I am indifferent toward the accused."

General Summerall's testimony was in rebuttal to that given by defense witnesses that the lives of flyers had been endangered by his orders: "No air officer or soldier has ever been hurt in an attempt to carry out my orders. On the contrary, I have restrained them from carrying out missions which I believed unnecessarily hazardous."

2) Major General Dennis E. Nolan, Acting Chief of Staff, was called by the prosecution. He read a letter dated March 24, 1925, signed by John Wingate Weeks, then Secretary of War, which had been taken from the White House files. It was written to explain why the Secretary had not recommended Colonel Mitchell's reappointment as Assistant Chief of the Air Service. The letter said that Colonel Mitchell had told a committee of Congress that the U. S. had but 19 planes fit for war, whereas the Government had 829 planes in use, 763 in storage, 209 on order; that the spending of the appropriations for the Air Service had been done on the recommendation of the Air Service, of which Mitchell was Assistant Chief; that there were general orders to the Army, and specific instructions to the officers of the Air Service, to present their views without reservation to Congressional committees; that Colonel Mitchell had testified that officers endangered their careers by telling the truth. The letter closed:

"In addition to these matters. General Mitchell's whole course has been so lawless, so contrary to the building up of an efficient organization, so lacking in reasonable team work, so indicative of a personal desire for publicity at the expense of every one with whom he is associated that his actions render him unfit for a high administrative position, such as he now occupies. I write this with great regret, because he is a gallant officer with an excellent War record, but his record since the War has been such that he has forfeited the good opinion of those who are familiar with the facts and who desire to promote the best interests of national defense."

The final day of the trial began with Colonel Mitchell speaking for himself:

"May it please the Court: My trial before this Court martial is the culmination of the efforts of the General Staff of the Army and the General Board of the Navy to depreciate the value of air power and keep it in an auxiliary position which absolutely compromises our whole system of national defense. . . .

"To proceed further with the case would serve no useful purpose.

"I have therefore directed my counsel to close our part of the proceeding without argument."

The prosecution then summed up:

"Is this man a Moses, fitted to lead the people out of a wilderness which is his own creation, only? Is he of the George Washington type, as counsel would have you believe ? Is he not rather of the all too familiar charlatan and demagog type--like Alcibiades, Catiline, and except for a decided difference in poise and mental powers in Burr's favor, like Aaron Burr? He is a good flyer, a fair rider, a good shot, flamboyant, self-advertising, wildly imaginative, destructive, never constructive except in wild non-feasible schemes, and never overly careful as to the ethics of his methods."

The prosecution asked for the Colonel's dismissal from the Army for the sake of the Army, for the sake of the young officers of the Air Service whom he misled, in the name of truth, finally "in the name of the American people, whose fears he has played upon, whose hysteria he has fomented, whose confidence he has beguiled and whose faith he has betrayed."

The Court retired for 30 minutes and then returned to ask whether there were any records of previous convictions against Colonel Mitchell. There were none. Again the Court returned, to come back more than two hours later with its verdict.

Colonel Mitchell heard the verdict read with calmness. His wife stayed close by him. When it was done, numbers of persons rushed up to shake his hand. After a moment he turned to the Court and exclaimed, "Why these men are my friends." He went up and shook the hand of General Howze. The General said, "Goodbye, Billy!" Then the other members of the Court put out their hands to be shaken.

The sentence must yet be reviewed by the Judge Advocate General, the Secretary of War and the President before it can become effective.