Birmingham age-herald., 1895-07-13
"DIDN'T KNOW IT WAS LOADED"

sDIDN'T KNOW IT WAS LOADED"
 The Tuskaloosa Times of Thursday contains the following:
 MT. Editor: There appears in the Age Herald this morning certain resolutions purporting to be from the field staff and line officers of the Second regiment. The resolutions referred to simply excuse the recent editorial which appeared in the Daily State, refecting on the conduct of the state troops in Mobile, and in no wise condemns said article.
 There were not present all of the field or line officers of the Second regiment, and in my judgment the resolutions in no wise set out the sentiment of the rank and file of the regiment.
 The resolutions seek to excuse the ac- tion of the State rather than condemn it. Is it for these officers to say what the motive or intention of the State was in publishing such an editorial? Would it not be better for the one who wrote the article to come out and state his informa- tion and upon what facts he founded the article? As a member and officer of the Second regiment I did not "disclaim any political preference by declining to indorse for speaker of the next house of representatives, for in fact I heard of no candidate, nor did I know of such ac tion by the regiment. The resolutions are weak and f1imsy. and are intended to condone or excuse the States action and pass it as mistake. This, in my opin- ion, is not the sentiment of the Second regiment. It may suit those officers who live in Birmingham to thus let such a slanderous article go unnoticed except to pass resolutions regretting it and eXcus- ing the State, but it is not the feeling of those upon whom the attack was made to submit too such treatment without giving vent in a more emphatic manner. It may be that the "State intended to have reference only to those few younger members of the military who were guilty of disorderly conduct" etc. If this were the case it is the privilege of the State to make the correction, and not the prerogative of the Birmingham officers to apologize for the editor of the State
 Truly the editorial was i'll advised and so far as 1t applied to the general conduct of all men in camp is unjust" I main- tain that the editorial was unjust to every man who wears the uniform of the Alabama state troops, and that it was a direct thrust at every officer and man who compose the Alabama state troops. l further maintain that the citizen sol diery of Alabama, from the commander in-ehief to the lowest private in ranks, are gentlemen and that no hoodlums are among our number; and a failure on my part to resent such an assertion would be disloyalty to those with whom I am associated as a soldier The resolutions simply say that it was unjust and i'll advised We do not plead with any one to befriend the military, but we demand respect of every one, and while the Bir- mingham officers may have thought they were condemning the editorial, a second reading will prove that they only excused it, and in manner defended it. Let the one who is responsible for the article give his information and make his defense, but do not let the officers who are the repre- sentatives of the rank and file dictate the apology or map out the defense of any such production. Respectfully,
 w. w. BRANDON
 For the information of all parties inter- ested the Age-Herald offers the follow ing explanation of the whole affair: The young journalistic novice who ground out the abusive editorial was not aware that it was loaded and as the Mobile end of the editorial department of the State was in the saddle and had it's little aX to grind the abusive article was print ed. Last Saturday night the Birming- ham contingent was "to the fore" and hastened to whitewash the unpaid or gam to the queens taste. Mobile comes promptly to the wire in Thursdays issue and reiterates its loaded attempt to in- jure Governor Oates and the Democratic party by it's Populistic abuse of the State military.