The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1906-12-06
MAY CONE BACK.
Secretary Of War Taft Discusses
the Brownsville Affair
In His Animal Report Submitted
to Congress.
UPH6LDS DISCHARGE
But Says the Guiltless Ones May
Be Re-enlisted.
Declares That the Governments
Course Was Necessary.
DISCHARGE


able space to a defense and explanation
of the course of the war department in
connection with the discharge without
honor from the military service of the
battalion of the Twenty-flfth lnfantry-
which was stationed at BROWNSVILLE,
I! Texas, last summer.
Il The secretary details the events OF
i the night of August 13. involving the
shooting up of the town OF Browns
| vile by anywhere from nine to twenty
| members OF this battalion He Is very
severe in his condemnation of the non
| commissioned officers of the battalion
for falling to discover and report the
! perpetrators of the outrage, and or
the enlisted men of the battalion who
| by maintaining silence when, as he
says, they must have known the guilty
] parties connived at the crime.
He insists that no obligation of com
radeship should prevent the men from
telling the truth. but indicates that
such of the men as are guiltless may
be re-enlisted.
Reasons for Discharge.
THE order has attracted much at
tention," the secretary says, and mas
| been severely criticized as unjust be-
cause it condemns many innocent men
to undeserVed punishment. 1t Is not
! improper, therefore, in this report TO
review the case and state the reasons
which not only justified it but made 1t
.sF'irst-Out of battalion of 10. en-
| listed men in the army of the United
| States from nine TO twenty IlGH LOlAA-
ed preconcerted plan to revenge
themselves upon the people Of town
! in which they were stationed for the
insults they felt that the townspeOple
had heaped upon them. In accordance
with the plan, they left their barracks
under cover of darkness-about MID
highland proceeded to discharge their
Wea mons into the houses of the town Tor
the purpose of killing those against
whom they felt a grievance. They came
very near killing some one or more OF
the three women and seven chlldren
who were sitting or sleeping IN Two
of the lighted rooms into which they
fired. They, in fact did XIII one man,
wound another. and seriously injured
the chief of police. They accompanied
their firing with expressions indicating
the malice which prompted their action
There can be no doubt, therefore, that
the squad of men who moved together
from the fort to the town and did this
shooting We're guilty of murder ana
murder in the first degree, and that II
they were discovered they could. be pro-
perly subjected to capital punishment
The purpose Of one was the purpose of
all.
.-Second-Within ten minutes or more
after this crime was committed, when
the whole garrison was aroused by the
noise Of the fusillade and by the call to
arms which followed it, the guilty men
returned to their places, and must nave
been among the last men to take their
places, for the reason that the firing
continued dIT6r the LOTHaLlDIS Ao4 DC-
gun The absence of the rifles from the
racks could not have escaped the atten-
ton of the sergeants who had the keys
of the racks, If indeed they had the
keys and yet all the sergeants swear
that the rifles were in the racks. un-
touched Before the next morning, all
the guns were clean 1t is Impossible
that many of the battalion who did not
take part as active members or the con-
spiracy to murder were not made aware
Nv 1fr.O another of the
identity of the persons who committed
this heinous Offense-
.Third-Instead of giving to their Off
GERS. or to the military inspectors who
were directed to make the examination,
the benefit Of anything which they
knew tending to lead to the conviction
Of the guilty persons, there was a con-
spiracy of silence on the part of the
many who must have known something
of Importance in this regard. Thus the
murderers were taken back into the
battalion and protected entirely from
punishment
Only Way to Reach NTurderers-
sUnder these circumstances the
question arises. is the government
helpless? Must it continue in its SER
vice a battalion. many of the mem bers
of which show their Willingness to con-
done a crime of capital character
committed by from ten to twenty Of its
members, and put on front OF silence
and Ignorance winch .endDleS the GRIM
inaIs to escape just punishment2 These
enlisted men took the oath of ale
glance to the government, and were to
be used under the law to maintain Its
supremacy. Can the government prop
erly, therefore. keep IN its employ for
the purpose of maintaining law and
order any longer a body of men, from
to 10 per cent of whom can plan and
commit murder, and rely upon the
silence Of number of their compan-
ions to escape detection
1T goes without saying that If the
guilty could be ascertained they should
and would be punished. but the guilty
can not be ascertained. and the very
impossibility Of determining who are
the guilty makes the whole battalion
useless to the government as an instru-
ment for maintaining law and order. /
The only means of Kidding the mill |
tary service OF band OF would-be |
murderers of women and children. and |
actual murdererS of one man. is the |
discharge of the entire battalion.
1T is a mistake to suppose that this
order is in itself a punishment either of
the innocent or Of the guilty There is /
distinguish the discharge from a dis /
honora Bile discharge. which is -orIy i'm
posed by sentence by cOurts4s1This Is |
a punishment. But the members of I
this battalion were dfschHrged for the /
good of the service. as the technical /
phase is. without honor. 1t is not a
fortunate phrase. because so easily I
confused with a O1SnOnOra Die as |
charge It is called without honor to /
distinguish the discharge from a ds-
charge with honor. or an honorable
discharge. which indicates the termina-
ton. in due course, OF satisfactory 4
service.
Much sympathy has been evoked |
for those who have been so long in the /
n11hlic service as some of the nOncorn-
rr-issioned officers and others of this 4
battalion of the Twenty-fifth infantry. +
It is to be said with respect to these I
noncommissicned officers that upon I
them especially falls the duty of MAIN
tanning tie .dfscinline of the com pa mics