The National tribune., 1906-11-29
THE CASE OF THE NEGRO SOLDIERS.

-
ing hysteria of sentimentalists has en-
tered into the comments upon the cas-,
of the 25th U. S. As all our reader!
know from experience camp rows ant
outbreaks are among the most annoy
ing things in Army life and the mos
difficult of proper adjustment. Ever,
one has to be settled upon its merit.
without much reference to genera
principles. Wherever there is a lot OF
vigorous young men in camp in time
of peace there is likely to be some.
where in the neighborhood rascals who
are selling whisky and playing cards
with other devices to get the soldiers
money. There is also pretty certain to
be lot of toughs who pride them
selves on being physically superior to
the best of the soldiers. As every com
pany or squad of soldiers naturally con-
tains some men who think pretty well
of their own muscles and fiStic ability
| the elements for a row of frst-class
dimensions are always present, and
need only little bad whisky and few
decks of cards to precipitate a cyclone
of trouble. This gunpowdery condition
must be greatly intensified where young
| Negro soldiers are stationed in Southern
| towns, and collisions are almost un-
avoidable between the more pugnacious
of them and the bullies of the neigh
borhood, who are professional Negro
haters. AS soldiers are enlisted for
4 fighting men, it is not to be expected
that any one of them will submit very
tamely to any insulting arrogance from
neighboring toughS The dives which
are in the neighborhood of every camp
of soldiers in the United States Army
are the most fruitful sources of trouble
and the hardest thing that the officers
have to contend with in maintaining
discipline. We have constantly reports
of trouble from these vicious places.
| and there seems no way to avoid it SO
| long as the officers in command of the
| troops are utterly powerless TO suppress
or even control the location of thes.
! dives within easy reach of their men.
There have been many instances in
~
vengeance upon the keepers and in
mates of dives who have robbed, NAL
treated, possibly murdered their COM
! rades. The dives have been burned
down, the keepers maltreated and
! sometimes killed, with the officers of
the garrison being able to maintain tho
most uncompromising ignorance of the
occurrences. At other times the SOL
diers are decidedly in the wrong, and
the officers should have known all about
it and been able to find the perpetrators
| of the outrages and properly punished
| them one of these two conditions
happened at Brownsville, Tex. and
from all of the evidence which has "a.
yet been presented to the public the
Negro soldiers We're decidedly in the
wrong. and some one should have been
severely punished. From what the
President has said of the facts laid
before him, the Negro troops, at least
some of them. were strongly to blame
We must assume that he and those ad-
vising him have given these facts the
most thoro consideration and that his
conclusions are right This seems to
be confirmed, since no other facts an
tagoniZing or mitigating this judgment
of the President have been presented.
The whole plea for the soldiers has
been because they were black, which
is as little pertinent as 1t would be TO
exculpate other soldiers because they
We're white. Both pleas would be ex-
ceedingly irrational, and not TO be toll
Grated in administering military JUS
tice. The next step is to enlist public
sentiment in general for the Negroes
for their manly stand in refusing to tell
tales on their comrades. This also has
| its weak side There are strong limits
to this fealty to one another in rela-
tions of men, and everywhere that feal-
ty must stop short of completely with
crime. No moralist, no thinker will for
moment favor that loyalty to ones
| friends and companions which goes SO
far as TO protect them from the conse-
quences of committin ga felony. This
| is the case of the Negro troops in it's
simplest form. 1t is alleged that in the
shooting up the 1DWn tnere was n man
killed and other crimes committed al
most as grave. Now, if murder was
committed it is the duty of every man
to help bring the murderer TO justice,
and when the battalion refused to give
the facts in relation to the crime they
made themselves all accomplices in it,
and stood in the position of conspira-
tors against the laws of Texas and of
the United States. This is all there is
of it, and it is a matter about which
there is no To om for Mysteries. If the
Negroes have offended. as alleged, the
order of disbandment was entirely
proper and is small punishment for the
ofcnse. If the facts are not as alleged,
it is for the friends Of the Negroes TO
disprove them and SGT forth the miti-
eating or contradictory facts, which
they have as yet failed to do
The official canvass of the Ohio vote
has been completed. and 1t shows that
the Republican candidate for Secretary