The Daily Ardmoreite. [volume] (Ardmore, Okla.) 1893-current, 1907-02-15
FORAKER CENTRAL FIGURE
Generally Believed Soldiers Are Not
Telling All They Know Of
Affair Foraker Has Lost
Friends by his Action.
Ardmore!te Special

ate committee on military affairs an
effort is being made to obtain the
facts Of the Brownsville affair. The
sensational expose Of the inside facts
of the occurrence. which was prumis-
ed. has not developed, thus far. al
though the investigation has dragged
along nearly two weeks. The wit
nesscs examined have been, for the
most part, members of the companies
discharged from the service of the
United States and their testimony
has thrown no light on the shooting
up" of Brownsville, Texas. last Aug.
ust
Responding to the summons Of the
committee. about iorty-dyc members
of the discharged companies are in
Washington to give their testimony
Thus far. less than a dozen of them
have submitted their evidence. At
the pesent rate, the committee
with ordinary good luck, may be- able
to submit a report to the congress
when it convcnos next December.
The committee begins its session
at 1880 a. M, continues until about
noon and then takes a recess until
.2:3O p. m, and usually sits until .
O'Clock Thus far Senator Warren
of Wyoming. chairman of the commit
tee, has given little time to the inycs-
tigation, having been engaged on
work connected with the army appro-
priadon bill In mis- absence Sena-
tor Scott of West Virginia, has pre-
sided over the inquiry While the
Investigation Is not star chamber
AFFAIR, representatives of press asso-
Citations and Interested newspaper
correspondents being allowed to at
tend the sessions, the general pub
lie Is excluded because of lack Of
accommodations
Senator Foraker of Ohio is easily
the central figure of the inquiry. In
fact. the whole investigation is re-
volying around him lie declared in
the beginning that he proposed to
prove that there was no conspiracy
of silence on the part OF the discharg
ed soldiers an dthat, further some
Of the people of Brownsville shot
up" their own town. He insists rnat
the soldiers of the Twcnty-hfth In.
fantry had nothing to do with the
incident If he can prove either one
|of these assertions he Will have
done much TO right a serious wrong,
but, thus far the evidence he has
adduced at the inquiry has been OF
very little material assistance to him
Not one of the discharged men oN
amined thus far has eyinCed any
| knowledge Of the shooting or has
admitted that he knows of anybody
who has knowledge of it. There
may be no conspiracy Of silence or
| the part Of the soldiers, hut there
certainly is a notable lack OF enlight
ening information. About the only
point that has been established tha
could be of advantage to the conten
tion Of Senator Foraker is that cart
ridges for Springfield rifles coulC
have been obtained by citizens o
Brownsville If they had wanted them
Whether they actually were %
tanned and whether they We're use'
have not been shown
Members Of the committee anO
other members Of the of the senat,
who have followed the testimon,
from day to day are becoming con
vlnced that the soldiers, who hPy'
appeared as witnesses have not tol,
all they know about the Brownsville
affair. Senators regard It as incred
.ible that so many men should hay
absolutely no knowledge Of an affra,
as serious as that Whlch happened
right under their noses It is re
garded as conceivable that some o
them may not have known OF tn,
trouble, but not all of them knew
nothing Of IT,
It has not been determined ye
whether a subcommittee Of the mill
tary affairs committee will 20 n
Brownsville TO take testimony or not
That probably will depend upon Sen
ator Foraker. He is a shrewI and re
sourceful lawyer and may be Dc
pended on to fight the case to tn
last At this time, however it /
regarded that he is up against