The Birmingham age-herald., 1906-11-21
NEGRO TROOPS
 CAUSE BREACH TafI and Roosevelt Disagree
 Over the Wireless, PRESIDENT STANDS FIRM
Tafts Conduct In Delaying Execution of Order Is Looked Upon as Little Short of lnsub-
 ordination.
BY WATTERsoN sTEALEY.

BY WATTERsoN STEALEY.
 Washington. November 20.-tspeeial,)-A serious breach between the President and his Secretary of War occurred over the action of few trifing negroes who "shot up" the town of Brownsville To- day, the wireless telegraph instruments between the coast and the battleship Louisiana have been kept busy all day, and their work will probably be trans ferred to the cable at Ponce tomorrow. IIness the matter is strengthened out there may be cabinet change At any rate there is now a difference of opinion between the President and his war secre- tary, which is giving plenty of excite ment to administration officials.
 Secretary Taft reached Washington from New York this evening and drove at once to his office in the war depart ment A bunch of dispatches was waiting for him and immediately General Oliver, assistant secretary of war, and General Ainsworth, the military secretary, we're
  minutes later Secretary Loeb came over from the White House and joined the group in the war secretarys ofhce
 When the conference broke up Secre- tary Taft announced at once and with emphasis that he had nothing to say about the discharging of the negro so.- ders or his action in directing suspension of execut ion of the Presidents order for the time being He further declared that he would not answer any questions on the subject and even declined to hear questions that 1t was desired to ask him. There was more electricity in the secre- tary Taft's office than there has been in q long time.
 Mir. Taft did say that so far as the war department had official knowledge, the only men of the Twenty-fifth who have been discharged up to date are seven of those who were confined in Fort Sam Houston awaiting the action of the civil authorities. No report had come to the 9 secretary of the discharge of the twenty four others at Ft. Reno yesterday, as told in newspaper dispatches.
 It is learned from good authoritative sources that there is little liklihood of the Presidents resembling his order for the discharge of the negro soldiers. It is recalled that the matter had received full attention from him before the order was issued and that the order is the result of long deliberation. Within day or two after issuing this order, and before he had time to hear anything of its reception throughout the country the President started for Panama.
 Secretary Taft was then on his western tour of inspection of forts. Everywhere he went he was deluged with protests against the discharge of men without trial. He was told that it was not D SC re deal, that the men were entitled to trial and that it would do great dam age to the republican party. Especially was this the case in Kansas, where it Al was predicted that 1t would cost the republicans the state. In Oklahoma the protests were equally vigorous and even in Texas, at San Antonio, the people urged the secretary to do nything ne could to secure a mitigation of the Presi- dents order.
 Fresh from this experience Secretary Taft returned to Washington on Saturday and here received the protest from the republican organization in New York and Ohio He was assured that the negro vote in Ohio carries the balance of power and every bit of it would be alenated from the republicans by this order. But more than this question or political pol icy the seeretarys personal sense of jus tice had been aroused and it was this that led him to telegraph the President asking a reconsideration and to suspend the discharge until he could hear from Mir. Roosevelt.
 But his action has been a facer for the army. By most of the officers in ash ington it Is regarded as little less than insubordnation. It raises the old ques- ton of when an officer is justified in dis regarding the order of his superior. At the same time. it is pointed out that in military parlance, the division con- mander Is out of his division,'' under which circumstances the next in rank takes command.
 It is remarked that if the President had not violated precedent and gone out of the country and out of reach of his office, the situation between him and the Sec- retary of War could never have arisen. Army officers as a rule commend the discharge of the negroes on the ground that they had become menace to the discipline of the army, and for that reason had to go, but they also condemn the failure to subject to courtmartial the officers who permitted such a scandalous state of discipline.
 A few years ago when men of the Nine teenth infantry wrecked couple of gin mills at the Preside at San Francisco. it was not the enlisted men who were tried, but Colonel Huston, the reglmental commander.