ESTABLISHMENT OF MILITARY JUSTICE .

'75 3
In addition to the foregoing there were 29 assistant counsel, of whom 8
were civilians .
What has been said of judge advocate and counsel applies equally to members
of the court, except that it is an exceptional case where at least one membe r
of the court is not of field rank . Four important cases, Nos . 110751-2-3-4,
arising in France, have been the subject of considerable comment in the hall s
of Congress and in the press . Two soldiers found guilty of disobedience o f
orders and two of sleeping on post were sentenced to be shot . The sentence s
of the first two were commuted by the President and the latter two were par-
doned. The two soldiers tried for disobedience of orders were permitted t o
plead guilty . The composition of the court in the first two cases, with th e
qualifications of the officers to act as members of the court and judge advocate ,
was as follows (Exhibit 132) :
Members of the court.Colonel, 21 years' commissioned service, Regula r
Army ; first lieutenant, appointed from ranks, Regular Army, graduate of Mary -
land Agricultural School, civil engineer ; first lieutenant, appointed from ranks ,
Regular Army, high-school education, shipping clerk, salesman, farmer ; first
lieutenant, graduate of University of Vermont ; first lieutenant, Fecord no t
obtainable .
Judge advocate.First lieutenant, attorney at law, graduate of law school .
Assistant judge advocate.Second lieutenant, newspaper reporter, no lega l
education .
In the other two cases in addition to the foregoing the following officers als o
sat : Lieutenant colonel, graduate of West Point, 12 years' commissioned serv-
ice ; major, formerly quartermaster sergeant, high-school education ; first lieu-
tenant, graduate of Harvard University and Massachusetts Institute of Tech-
nology .
The counsel were, in grade and ability, as follows : Case No . 1, second lieu-
tenant, no professional, legal, or business training ; case No . 2, second lieuten-
ant, no professional, legal, or business training ; case No . 3, second lieutenant ,
chemist, high-school education ; case No. 4, second lieutenant, graduate o f
University of Maine, no legal education .
The cases were summed up by counsel as follows : Case No . 1, no summing up ;
case No . 2, no summing up, soldier's statement two lines ; case No. 3, counsel's
address six lines ; case No . 4, counsel's address eight lines.
Had the same careful review, which was submitted for the consideration o f
the President, been presented to the court, it is safe to assume that the find-
ings and sentences would have been other than as given . It is hard to believ e
that the soldiers had a fighting chance for their lives. These cases, however,
were exceptional.
he actual composition of the courts-martial, after the right of challenge
had been exercised, was, for the trial of the 1,500 cases under consideration, as
follows :

Officers' trials . Trials of enliste d

men .

Number . I Per cent . Number . Per cent.

Brigadierlene-als 14 1 .8 18 0. 1
Colonels 105 13.5 201 1.6
Lie ;'tenant colonels 113 14.6 472 3.8
Majos : 232 29.9 1,637 13 . 0
Ca)tains 262 33.8 4,4f5 35 . 6
Firstlie 'tenants 42 5.4 3,731 29 . 7
Second lieltenants 8 1 .0 2,027 16 . 2

For the trial of enlisted men, 81.5 per cent of the officers composing th e
courts consisted of captains and lieutenants, and, inasmuch as only 73 officer s
of the grade of major or above served as trial judge advocates in the 1,50 0
Rases under examination, it is apparent that the trials of enlisted men were
largely in the hands of junior officers and, in a great majority of cases, thos e
with little knowledge of military law . On numerous occasions, the court
was composed exclusively of lieutenants . In many instances, however, the
original detail contained officers of higher rank, but they did not sit a s
members of the court by reason of absence or challenge . On the other hand,
13226519PT 74