Twice-a-week plain dealer. (Cresco, Howard County, Iowa) 1895-1913, 1907-01-15
president Scored
ON NEGRO AFFAIR
SENATOR TlLLMAN TERMS HIS
ACTION AS NOTHING LESS
THAN LYNcHlNG."
VIOLATED PRINCIPLES
OF LIBERTY AND LAW
Southern Statesman Admits Guilt of
colored Soldiers in Brownvile
Outrage, But objects to Punish
ment of Innocent Ones.

Washington, Jan. Ex-senator Till
man spoke on the Brownsville Incl
dent in the senate Saturday. He
characterized the presidents action
in Diminishing the negro troops "as
nothing more nor less than a lynch
ing" He challenged anyone to pro-
duce in the army regulations or ar
hcles of war any foundation for the
charge of conspiracy of silence, mu-
tiny and treason made against the sol
diers, although he declared there was
no doubt that the soldiers were re-
Bponsible for the Outrage at Browns
VILE"
Senator Tillman held that it was
contrary to the fundamental princi-
pies of liberty of English and Amer
lean law that the innocent should suf-
fer because of the sins of the guilty;
also he declared that man shall be
considered innocent until he is proved
guilty.
In this case," he said, "167 men
have been punished, while not more
than 20 have been charged with par
hcipation in the crime"
6hould Not Have Been Sent to Texas.
Senator Tillman maintained that the
negro troops should not have been
sent to Texas. They were sent there,
he said, against the protests of one
Of the Texas senators and the con-
gresham from that district They
were sent there, he continued, with
wholly inadequate number of officers,
Rs there were only five officers for the
three companies.
This was done," Senator Tillman
exclaimed, without any thought or
care on the part of the president or
secretary of war as to results. The
first thought of the president was
to protest the negroes and to punish
the citizens by abandoning the post.
Especially Maj. Penrose and Capt.
Macklin," Senator Tillman said, ARE
shown to have acted with gross neg
lect and incompetence"
All the soldiers who got in trouble
were from Macklin's company, said
Senator Tillman. He asserted that
Macklin did not believe that a negro
had seized Mrs Evans by the hair
and that he made no effort to detect
the soldier. This, he believed, raised
the question as to whether or not
Capt. Macklin was in sympathy with
the men in their scheme of re-
venge
Takes Rap at Foraker.
Turning his attention to Senator
Foraker, Tillman declared the Ohio
senator had belittled himself by at
lacking Maj. Blockson as a man
whose father was a copperhead.
1T is useless to deny that the race
question lies at the bottom of
this.
ut is equally useless to say that
these troops were not discharged be-
cause they were negroes. If the ne
groes had been treated the same as
white regulars were treated at Ath-
ems o., the civil authorities would
have arrested those believed to be
guilty and decided the matter in the
courts In that instance the war de-
partment defended the regulars al
though they had committed murder,
and 1t was declared the troops were
the wards of the nation, very prop
or and right position to take
President "Made Mess of It,"
The whole issue involved is one of
race and the president is primarily
more responsible than any other man
for the position the negroes in the
south have taken on the cues
ton of negro rights. He gave recog-'
milton to Booker Washington in SO.
cial way. He did it knowing he was
flying in the face of caste feeling
among 100000 southern whites and
against the same feeling of two
thirds or three-fourths of the north
ern people. He does not understand
the negro or the deep and vital char
acter of the issues involved He made
mess of it in the first instance and
has made a worse mess of it in the
last.
He spoke of suggestion in his re-
cent mes. ge as motive to crime.
What would calculate to provoke the
negroes to crime more than those
words?
The well-known attitude of the ad-
ministration on the social question
has been the cause of a great and
notable change in the demeanor and
action OF the negroes throughout the
south and the greater question of re-
latlonship between the races cannot
be much longer kept down.
Other Shots at President.
during the course of his address
Senator Tillman also fired the follow.
ing shots at the president:
DO any senators believe that the
Caucasian, noblest of races. shall min.
gle with the lower races until pure
white blood shall disappear from the
face of the earth and all the men
shall be of one skin and of one
type?"
rs President Roosevelt ready to act
up to his own theory and have his
children marry men and women Of
other races? Would he accept as
daughter-in-law Chinese. Malay,
an Indian or a negro, in accord with
the doctrines of his message?"
~Are things to drift until direful
tragedies multiply and blood shall
flow like water? Conditions are more
threatening now in some aspect than
they were in 1861"
Il am ready to go to battle under
the slogan: America for. the Amer
leans, and this is a white mans conn-
Try, and white men must govern it,
Ava Nra,a.dod