The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1906-11-08
A Remarkable President.

In ordering the dishonorable discharge
Of a battalion OF the Twenty-ifth Infan-
try, a negro regiment, a. recommended
by Inspector-G General E. A. DARLINGTON,
President ROOSEVELT has set q prece-
dent which may be invoked in the future
against some other regiment in the SER
vice If It should fail to inform against
.ts black sheep. The conduct OF men In
the ranks Of the T~wenty-ffth at Browns
vile on the night Of August Is, 1905,
was atrocious and called for long terms
in a military prison, IL not for the
detail Of a firing squad; but it ia no new
thing for soldiers @to stand together in
a determination to resist the detection Of
the guilty" to quote from the report OF
General DARLINGTON, who was bafied
by the conspiracy of silence and main
tanned that it justified summary dis
charge Of the men Of the battalion. the
innocent with the guilty, the veterans
OF Caney with the raw recruits.
A soldierly record is no ex~tenuation OF
the black crime OF killing and wounding
civilians, whom it is the duty Of the SOL
der to protect, but should not honorable
service be taken into account in intiicting
punishment upon a whole battalion be-
cause some Of its members have been
blackguards and murderers, and others,
from a false sense Of comradeship, have
refused to testify in an investigation?
The Twenty-flfth bore itself worthily
in the Cuban campaign, wing with the
white troops OF General LAwToN's COM
mand in fearlessness and efficiency.
Colonel A. s. DAGGETT, who commanded
the regiment in the assault on Caney
reported to the Adjutant-G General that
one battalion in which were Companies
G and d, now forming with B the bat
talon which is to be dismissed in dis
grace from the service, charged ahead
of the line OF MrLEs's brigade upon the
stone fort, and that a private of ID and
another Of Company H captured the
Spanish flag. Colonel DAGGETT claimed
the honors for the Twenty-fifth; but
although recognizing the good work of
the regiment, General CHAFPEE decided
that men of the Twelfth were the first
to enter the fort. The record, however,
showed that the negroes behaved with
great gallantry.
Could not some exemplary punish
ment have been devised to teach the
offending battalion a lesson, such as BAN
ishment for a probationary period to a
remote post, for instance TO Alaska?
The assignment might have been hard
on the commissioned officers, but were
they altogether blameless for the sins
Of the men and the shortcomings Of the
non-commissioned officers whom Cen
eraI DARLINGTON condemns in his re-
port? President RoosEvELT's estima-
ton OF the negro regular is high. 1t is
proved by his order that Colonel WILLIAM
l.. PITCHER OF the Twenty-seventh In
fantry be court-martialled for language
rejecting upon negro soldiers as a class,
il Colonel PITCHER was correctly re-
ported as saying that he did not care
TO be associated with negro soldiers and
would like TO see them out Of the service.
The President believes that such a senti-
ment, if uttered by an officer who may
be assigned to command a negro regi-
ment, merits punishment. But Colonel
PITCHER, IL he is guilty, could be pun
ished too harshly; and most people, WI
think, will believe that the men and nom
commissioned officers Of the Twenty
fifth not implicated in the murderous
outbreak at Brownsville will be pun
ished too harshly by dismissal from
the army and disqualification to serve
the Government in any civil capacity
haraaftar