The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1906-12-06

silence to prevent the detection of the
offenders; and whenever such facts are
shown in respect 10 any one Affected by the
order they will he brought 10 your attention
and, | understand, will render such presons
eligible to reenlistment."
Because Of the great criticism the order
Of dismissal has brought forth, Seere-
tary Taft says thai IL is not improper there
fore in this report to review the case and
state the reasons which not only justified
II 1.-THE order, but made IL necessary
He then continues:
First Out of a battalion OF ITO enlisted
men in the arm of the United States,
from nine TO twenty men formed a pre-
concerted plan to revenge themselves
upon the people of a town in which they
that the t~ownspeople had heaped upon them.
In accordance with the plan they left their
barracks under cover of the darkness
about midnight and proceeded to dis
charge their weapons into the houses OF
the town for 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 children
who were sitting or sleeping in two of the
lighted rooms into which they fired. They,
in fact, did kill one man., wound another,
and seriously injured the chief Of police.
They accompanied their firing with ex-
preesions 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 were guilty
OF murder, and murder in the first degree,
and that il they were discovered they could
properly be subjected to capital punish
ment. The purpose OF one was the purpose
Of all.
"Seoondly-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 have
been among the last men TO take their
places, for the reason that the firing con-
tinued after the formations had begun.
The absence of the rifles from the racks
could not have escaped the attention of
the sergeants who bad the keys of the
racks, il indeed, they had the keys, and
yet all the sergeants swear the rifles were in
the racks untouched. Before the next
morning all the guns were clean. II il
impossible that many OF the battalion
who did not take part as active members
OF the conspiracy to murder were not
made aware by one circumstance or another
OF the identity of the persons who COM
mitted thish einous offence.
"Thirdly-Instead OF giving to their
officers, or to the military inspectors who
were directed to make the examination, the
benefit OF anything they knew tending
TO lead to a conviction of the guilty PERSONS,
there was a conspiracy OF silence on the
part Of the men who must have known
something Of importance in this regard.
Thus the mlrderers were taken back into
the battalion and protected entirely from
punishment.
1T may be that in the battalion are a num-
Der of men wholly innocent, who know
neither who the guilty men are nor any
circumstances which will aid in their de-
lection, though this can not be true Of
many. Because there may be innocent
men in the battalion, must the Government
continue TO use IL 10 guard communities
OF men, women n children, when II con-
tains 50 dangerous an element impossible
of detection? Certainly not. When a man
enlists in the army he knows that, for the
very purpose of protecting itself, the
Government reserves the absolute right
OF discharge, not az a punishment, but FOR
the public safety or interest. In such a
case IA this the inconvenience and hardship
TO those innocent of participation or knowl-
edge, arising from arbitrarily terminating
the contract or enlistment in accordance
with the right which the Government by
statute reserves, must be borne by them
in the public interest. IL goes without
saying that II the guilty could be ascer-
tanned they should and would be punished,
but the guilty can not be ascertalned, and
the very impossibility of determining who
are guilty makes the whole battalion
useless to the Government as an instru-
ment for maintaining law and order. The
only means OF Kidding the military service
of a band of would-be murderers of women
and children, and actual murderers of one
man, is to discharge the entire battalion.
Might not any community into which
the War Department should Send this bat
talon, in which it is \ known hat there are
from nine to tw enty murderers, justly COM
plain that the battalion il not a proper in
-trument for maintaining the supremacy
# the lawp Could we properly send such
"A battalion to the Philippines or Cuba to
maintain peace or furnish al example of
orderly conduct? If a similar outbreak
were there TO occur, could we relieve our
selves from responsibility for it Oh the
theory that We could not detect the par
ticular ten or twenty who were guilty OF
the first murder?'