Jasper County Democrat, Volume 22, Number 34, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 26 July 1919 — NEW CRUELTY CHARGES [ARTICLE]

NEW CRUELTY CHARGES

OHIO SENATOR SUBMITS EVIDENCE TO COMMITTEE. Dishonorably Discharged Soldier Write* of Experience While Serving in Prison Camp. Washington, July 25. Further charges of cruelty to American soldiers In France were made In a letter presented by Senator Harding of Ohio nnd referred to the senate military committee for consideration in connection with the bill of Senator Chamberlain proposing cancellation of all military sentences offenses not felonies under,the federal statutes. The letter was from Frank Woods of Youngstown, 0., who was dishonorably discharged after having served ten months of a three-year sentence. He declared he suw a Lieutenant Disjordan, n prison officer, knock down prisoners with a blackjack. “I also saw Lieutenant Colonel Maul take a prisoner out, handcuff and shackle his feet, gag him nnd spread the eagle with him because he tried to get a letter to his 'people, telling them of the treatment he received at the prison camp,” said Woods, adding that he himself got 20 days’ solitary confinement on bread and water for trying to advise his relatives of Ins sentence. Prisoners fell down from starvation, Woods declared, and-were glad to get bread from Chinese laborers. A Captain Dewey of the Eleventh marines, who were doing guard duty at one camp, Issued blackjacks to his men and ordered them “to go as far at they liked,” Woods wrote. "You could see dozens of men going to the hospital every day to have their heads from the frequent use of these blackjacks,” said the letter.