The Montgomery advertiser., 1906-12-06

been among the last men to take their
 places, for the reason that the firing continued after the formations had be- | gun. The absence of the rifles from
 attention 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, untouched Before the next morning all the guns were clean. It is impos- | sible that many of the battalion who | did nos take part as active members of the conspiracy to murder were not other of the Identity of the persons
 who committed this heinous ofense. Tnird-Instead of giving to their of ficers, or to the military inspectors who were directed to make the examination, the benefit of anything which they knew tending to lead to conviction l 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 "1t!rely from
 Under these circumstances the aues- tion arises, Is the Government help
 less Must 1t continue in its service which show their willingness 10 con done a crime of capital character:
 committed by from ten to twenty or its members, and put on front of si- lence and ignorance which enables the criminals to escape just punishment? These enlisted men took the oath Of all
 to be used under the law .c maintain it's supremacy. Can the Government properly therefore keep in ts employ for the purpose of maintaining law and order any longer a body of men, from five to ten per cent. of whom can plan and commit murder, and rely upon the silence of number of their compan ions to escape dettecion?
 It may be that in the battalion are q number of men wholly innocent. whn know neither who the guilty men arc, fin their detection. though this can not be true of many. Because there may
 be innocent men in the battalion, 1pust
 the Government continue to use 1t to guard communities of men, women and children when it contains so dangerous an eleent impossible of detection Ger
 tainly not. When man enlists in the Army he knows that, for the very pur- pose of protecting Itself, the Govern ment reserves to itself the absolute right to discharge not as punishmen but for the public safety or interest. In
 such a case as this. the inconvenience and hardship to those innocent of par ticipaticn or Knowledge. trising from aorDitrarily terminating the contract
 of enlistment in accordance with the right which the Government bv stat ute reserves, must be borne by them in
 saving that If the guilty could be as certained they should end would be punished. but the guilty can not be certained they should and would be punished, but the guilty can not he as- certained. and the very impossib,lity uf determining who are the guilty makes
 the whole battalion useless 70 the Gov ernment as an instrument for main talninR law and order. The only means
 nf ridding the military service of a
 hand of would-be murderers Of women
 and children. and actual murderers oF
 one man. is the discharge of the en-
 tire battalion.
 Might not any community into which
 tl War Department should send this
 battalion. in which it is Inown that
 t-.ere are from nine to twenty mur
 derers. justly complain n.It he bat
 talion Is not a proper ins rument for
 maintaining the supremacy of the law7
 Could we properly send such a battal-
 ion tn the Philipplurs or Cdba to main
 tain peace or furnish an example Of
 orderly conduct If a similar outbreak
 ourselves rom responsibility for 1t on
 Inc theory that we could not detec'
 tie particular ten or twenty who were
 ~uiIt.- of the first murder
 Suppose a dozen men of ihe battai-
 | n stationed at Fort Brown in time of
 war with Mexico carried plans and
 ,mmunitinn to the enemy on the other
 fe of the Rio Grande River. and then
 returned under circumstances which
 n- Q 1t clear that a large number of
 men in tho battalion must have known
 who they were, but that every man in
 the battalion denied all knowledge of
 1t, and thus all means of detecting the
 guilty were lacking. Would cOmpe-