At Swords' Point

ARMY & NAVY

Last week in Walter Reed General Hospital, Washington, eleven swords in highly polished scabbards lay neatly spaced upon a horseshoe table. Behind each sword sat a general officer of the Army in full-dress uniform. In front of the table, nervously eyeing the eleven swords, sat an undistinguished, heavy-set man named Joseph Silverman Jr. who had made his everlasting fortune buying & selling surplus Army equipment. Also in front of the table, eyeing the eleven swords even more nervously, sat Colonel Joseph I. McMullen, long time legal adviser to the Assistant Secretary of War. Opening was a general court-martial of Colonel McMullen on charges of having accepted bribes from Silverman.

For two years the names of Joseph Silverman and his brother Nathan have been ringing notoriously around Washington in connection with the sale of Army goods. Congressional committees have investigated, and grand juries have probed. Nine months ago Colonel Alexander Elliot Williams, onetime Assistant to the Quartermaster General, was cashiered for accepting a "loan" from a salesman on a large automobile contract (TIME, June 3). Two months ago Colonel Williams and the Silvermans were indicted for conspiracy to defraud the Government in connection with the same contract.

Last week Joseph Silverman's friend, Colonel McMullen, was tried on four counts, ranging from bribery to acceptance of railroad tickets "wrongfully, dishonorably and to the discredit of the military service." The whole trouble arose over some 700,000 woolen union suits which Silverman bought from the Government for 14 1/2-c- apiece, contracting to resell them abroad. Later he got his contract changed so he could resell them in the U.S.

The Government called Assistant Secretary of War Woodring and his Republican predecessor, Frederick Huff Payne, who signed the contracts in question. Both testified that they took full responsibility for the contracts and still regarded them as in the best interests of the Government. Then the Army prosecutor produced two used round-trip railroad tickets to San Francisco which, including Pullman tickets, cost $369.70 and were charged to Silverman's account at the Hotel Mayflower.

Colonel McMullen did not deny he had accepted the tickets from Silverman but declared that he had done so only because his son was seriously ill in San Francisco and because they were in part payment for an automobile he had sold Silverman.

Chief witnesses for the defense were Silverman's onetime potent Washington lawyer-lobbyists: Ralph Thomas O'Neil, onetime (1930-31) National Commander of the American Legion; Robert Jackson of New Hampshire and Arthur Mullen of Nebraska, both Democratic National Committeemen until President Roosevelt objected to mixing politics and lobbying (TIME, Jan. 29; March 26, 1934). All three testified that as representatives of Silverman they had dealt chiefly with the Assistant Secretary of War, had been shown no favors by Colonel McMullen.

The eleven Army officers picked up their swords, retired to weigh the evidence, returned to lay their swords down once more. Their verdict: Colonel McMullen was innocent of bribery; guilty of discrediting the military service by taking the railroad tickets. Their recommendation: Colonel McMullen should be demoted to the bottom of the list of Colonels, docked $150 a month pay for two years, reprimanded by the reviewing authority. In all courts martial the recommendations of the court must be reviewed and approved by the judge advocate, the Secretary of the Navy and the President.

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