BRING THE BOYS HOME NOW
Frear, James A.
Bring The Boys Home Now A Trainload of Letters Is Standing on the Tracks In France. Why? By James A. Frear (Speech In Congress) A great volume of complaints are coming daily to Congress over the...
...Did the gentleman say tons or carloads...
...GREEN of Iowa...
...E., Waterviile, Ohio...
...The father writes: Received a letter from my son today, that an order was issued at his camp that no application for discharge was to be accepted, and states that he thinks the only thing to do to get a discharge is to take it up with the head of the Motor Transport Corps, at Washington...
...What have you to say of such treatment of boys we have taken from their homes by the strong arm of the law in order to give up their lives, if need be, for their country...
...The testimony is finished and court is closed...
...After a couple of days he suddenly realizes what he has done and becomes frightened and is afraid to go back...
...I have served many years in the Regular Army and National Guard myself and have a wholesome respect for discipline, but these little martinets blessed with a brief authority are trying to out-Prussianize Prussia...
...Thank God, I was in the National Guard who did the fighting over in France while the Regular Army stayed over on this side filling the prisons with homesick boys...
...I know him intimately and have known him for many years...
...I received the following from Camp Hancock several days ago...
...in fact, their minds are usually made up in advance...
...I have another letter, a third, also from Georgia, this time coming from Camp Gordon...
...But the people are demanding relief and Congress is responding to that demand...
...Missing in action 14,649...
...Press censorship has heretofore prevented these abuses being made known...
...He again applies for a pass and is told that the full number has gone and he is turned down...
...I am not giving trivial complaints...
...He remains in the house with his uniform on but not daring to go out...
...In a letter received from Wisconsin, the cashier of a bank writes me regarding his wife's brother, who served with the One hundred and twenty-eighth infantry...
...I can not give the boy's name, but he is from my home State and writes from this Georgia camp...
...I prefer not to give the name, but the writer, an officer of the camp, says: The commanding officer of this organization can fully appreciate the conditions as outlined in your letter, but no orders have been received to discharge the men now in this depot...
...Henry J. Allen a day or so ago that our troops fought for four days in Argonne Forest without artillery support, suffering casualties of one-half of the division, that was concealed by a rigid censorship as absolute as that of Germany but "lacking only the German intelligence," without pourts-martial here at home, of boys sent to Leavenworth for long terms because absent without leave from camps in this country after the war was over, with hundreds of thousands of boys unable to get out of southern camps, I say what indictment can be laid against any department stronger than that...
...The court solemnly decides that the boy is guilty of deliberate desertion in time of war...
...THE HOUSE was very much interested today when Mr...
...He continues: Some of the soldiers are of the opinion that his frequent trips to Washington are for the purpose of keeping the camp here as long as possible...
...Will we do it...
...He calmly gets out of camp and goes to his home to see his mother...
...What shall the sentence be...
...A detective places him under arrest and he is brought back to camp and to the guardhouse...
...He writes: Start a movement to get these boys in camp home...
...I have not discussed scores of complaints received against the War Risk Bureau, casualty division, allotment branch, or other recognized inefficiency in the past...
...Upon cross-examination it seems that the lad has been in the service, well say, a year, having been drafted...
...I have another matter I desire to present...
...Why can not our boys be discharged from these Georgia camps...
...A few understrapping officers who never saw real service, but who sat in solemn judgment over this kid soldier that went home to see his sick mother, these officers who would Prussianize this country by such methods, sent that boy to Leavenworth for 15 years...
...His parents, at Menomonie, Wis., never received any notice from the War Department, and the first word finally came in a letter from him...
...Every man who sat on that court-martial and who voted to railroad that boy into Leavenworth should himself be court-martialed and imprisoned, if these facts appear as stated...
...I have described an actual case, being a member of the court myself...
...Grand total of major 56,592...
...During that time he has had three operations on his leg and will have to have another to save it...
...American Losses An official tabulation of casualties by divisions for the American expeditionary forces, ninety-five per cent complete to date was made public Feb...
...Enclosed please find $2.00 for renewal of my subscription to La Follette's Magazine and' Bend prepaid to my address one copy of the Senator s Autobiography...
...Can assure you that we appreciate your magazine very much...
...upon other peoples...
...A draft for $15 sent him in France also failed to reach him...
...Responsible officers should be courtmartialed for such neglect, because it violates every pledge given that we would look after the boys properly...
...In fact, he sold his shirt to get money to look human and have his hair cut...
...As soon as such order has been received this man will be given consideration...
...Probably millions of undelivered letters have failed to reach our boys in Europe through this criminal carelessness...
...He was over there in the hot fighting with the Wisconsin National Guard Division...
...21) he states he is to be sent to Fort Snelling...
...The boys from the North need champions—see that we get a A trainload of letters is now standing on the tracks in one place in France...
...Here are three letters coming from thres camps in one State—Georgia—and men can not get released from their enforced service.They are not drilling nor working, just idling, and they all want to go home...
...Why do we sit here helpless...
...square deal...
...Who is responsible for this neglect and what punishment is to be given them...
...He asks why his boy can not be released...
...I am receiving hundreds of letters, like every other Member of Congress today, asking that soldier boys be brought home from the cantonments and camps...
...After strong protest by one member of the court, the lad is sentenced to "dishonorable discharge" and 15 years at Fort Leavenworth...
...Sooner or later that department must make an accounting, and we ought to hold the Army staff or responsible officers strictly accountable for conditions such as are disclosed...
...By James A. Frear (Speech In Congress) A great volume of complaints are coming daily to Congress over the autocratic manner in which the boys in the military service are treated...
...These mistakes or neglect have caused much suffiering in individual cases...
...The wives, parents, and other relatives who have boys abroad are anxious and every Member here should take it unto himself to force a reply and determine where the responsibility rests...
...Mann discussed the failure of our soldiers abroad to get their mail...
...Unless demobilization proceeds in southern camps without delay we should investigate conditions and do more than idle resoluting when responsibility is fixed...
...The gentleman from Massachusetts has just spoken of the arrogance of Regular Army officers...
...When the arrived at Hoboken he sold his shirt to get money for cutting four months' growth of hair...
...He has asked for a pass only to be refused, receives a pitiful letter from his sister that their mother has become dangerously ill and there are doubts as to her recovery, and she wants to see her boy...
...1, by the war department...
...Why does the War Department hold them there...
...8 or 10 carloads of u delivered mail in one place...
...In the last case what treatment could be more brutal than to leave this wounded boy without a cent for six months and no letters or money ever reached him...
...Congress gave the War Department every facility with which to carry on this war...
...Prisoners 2,785...
...Died of wounds 11,396...
...He writes: My wife's brother was wounded about July 20, near Soissons, in France...
...In this way many will undoubtedly die...
...The boy has been defended by some lieutenant, who has agreed to handle the case and who laughingly says after the case is over, "Oh, I told the lad to plead guilty and throw himself on the mercy (?) of the court, because I don't know anything about the case...
...We are a patriotic people, and we have been fighting to maintain democracy and bestow it day after day in view of our avowed purposes...
...These boys might as well be in prison pens as unemployed in southern camps...
...He has not been paid a cent since June...
...Chairman, with the state of affairs I have described, with carloads—yes, trainloads—of mail undelivered to our soldier boys in France, with no pay in many cases for months at a time, with the disgraceful showing at Brest, where 70,000 boys were forced to sleep and live in rain and mud, with the scandalous conditions described in letters read to us by the gentleman from Illinois, with a widely published statement by Gov...
...Let me say, I have not heard from my own son, somewhere in France or Germany in times of peace, now for two months...
...We represent these boys and their wives and parents...
...In a letter received today (Dec...
...He has been sent to a camp in this country...
...What are they waiting for—until the cold, cold winter weather steps in and then transfer the northern boys north...
...The statement by Mr...
...FREAR...
...There are thousands of men and almost every family interested...
...Carloads...
...Consider the Senator a stauncfr defender of truth and a champion of true Democracy—F...
...During all this time he has not received any mail, though his sisters have written him every week...
...Let me read two or three letters, that carry their own message...
...Many court-martials are in order, and the men to be tried for neglect are those who wear shoulder straps and are responsible for such treatment as these boys receive...
...No orders to discharge our soldiers from different camps have been received...
...Here is another letter relating to another camp in Georgia, Camp Jessup...
...It comes from the father of a boy, who writes me from Wisconsin...
...Who issued that order refusing to discharge, and why...
...Is it not time that Congress takes cognizance of such matters...
...Other parents have not heard from their sons for several months...
...Many soldiers and dependents have been without pay for six months or more...
...However, it appears the mayor of Augusta still has influence at Washington, despite his practical admission of being implicated in camp-contract scandals...
...However small or unin-flential may be the individual Congressman, they will be obliged eventually to listen to us at the War Department if we bring our voices together in an emphatic demand, because we have the final determination...
...I have with me a short article which states that Assistant Secretary Praeger told the Senate Committee on Post Offices on January 11 that from 8 to 10 carloads of mail are now standing on the tracks in one place in France undistributed...
...The totals for all divisions exclusive of the two regiments of marines in the second division are: Killed in action 27,762...
...I give it as it comes to me, but I do know that such influences are sometimes urged to keep boys in local camps...
...Secretary Praeger, of the Post Office Department laid the blame for this tragis mismanagement directly upon the War Department...
...On December 9 he arrived at Ho-boken, N. J., and has been confined to his bed for over five months...
...Every week in the Army costs some of us $60...
...Under the circumstances nothing can be done at the present time toward relieving him of duty at this depot...
...What can we say of the facts that are given by Members on this floor Members sit here helplessly, and no one has suggested a remedy...
...but I am trying to place before the House matters that should receive certain and immediate attention...
...Let me read from another letter that confirms his statement...
...The letters are filed with the testimony of the men, and they ask for relief...
...I do not assume responsibility for that statement...
...Here is a camp that costs the Government something well over a hundred thousand dollars a day to maintain, yet demobilization plans have not taken a good step forward...
...He writes of his present duties: A general court-martial is held (I have sat on many of them) and some badly frightened youngster is brought in, and according to the accusations by the judge advocate, who is picked from among the lawyer officers, the lad is a notorious criminal...
...I am illing to overlook many shortcomings during times of war, but now that the war is over I believe those responsible for wrong conditions should be punished, no matter where it hits...
...This is from a man, a brave officer who fought at Chateau-Thierry...
...These letters are from or concerning boys from my home State who were taken from their homes sometimes with only a few hours' notice, and this is the treatment given by the Wer Department...
...Frear is as timely as it is bold and emphatic.—Editor's Note...
Vol. 11 • February 1919 • No. 2
