The Montgomery advertiser., 1907-04-19
NEGROES POWERFUL
HOLD BALANCE OF POWER IN THE
 STATE OF OHIO.
Both taft and Foraker are Jockeyfns for Their Vote and Brownsville Outarage is Playing
 Stellar Role.

Washington, April )- With scarcely an exception the politi- cal pilgrims from ohio who have reached this city within the past week say that the fight between the Foraker ana Taft factions promises to be among the most hotly contested that ever took place in 'Buckeyedom.
 The situation, they assert. has been intensified since Senator Dick came out squarely for Senator Foraker. For time the junior Senator was supposed to be sitting on the fence. and 1t was predicted by many of the leading Ohio people here that General Dick could not afford to line up with his colleague in a battle ip which the President Is 60 much interested.
 The puzzling question now is where will the Ohio negroes stand in this hghtf Census returns and poll lists show that Ohio has a large negro vote. And 1t is almost solidly Republican. The number of Democratic negroes in the State Is so small as to hardly be worth taking into consideration. It is too early to form a correct idea as to how these Republican negroes will vote when the test Is made between MT Foraker and the administration candidate for the Presidency.
 Brownsville Case Figures.
 
 after President Roosevelt discharged without honor three companies of ne- gro soldiers in connection with the Brownsville shooting the negroes of this city, of New York, Philadelphia and most of the big places in which feeling ran high outside of the South ern States held indignation meetings which were so numerous that 1t look ed as if the President had surely lost favor with the black population of the country. As Is we'll known, Senator Foraker has been the champion of the discharged negro soldiers. and through out the investigation has endeavored to prove that the President. by his action, has done a great injustice to these men. This case is still being in- vestigated by the Senate Military Af- fairs Committee, of which Senator Pettus of Alabama is the ranking Democratic member.
 In his recent Canton speech Senator Foraker strongly intimated that on &C., count of the testimony of most of the white officers stationed at Brownsville it would be shown that the negro sol- diers did not do the shooting as charg- ed. He also intimated that the Demo- cratic members of the committee had been so strongly impressed by the tes- timony that he even expected these gentlemen to sign a report favorable to the negroes.
 Ohio people, on account of the stand taken by Senator Foraker, generally suppose that the negroes of the Buck eye State are disposed to support him in preference to Taft. At the same time attention is called to the fact that while President Roosevelt was in Pan- anna Secretary Taft was bold enough to temporarily hold up the order of the Executive. True. the President as soon as he heard of this action. com municated with the Secretary and vir- tual1y instructed him to keep his hands off and the Secretary in effect. while he had to retreat, curried considera- ble favor with the colored voters in Ohio.
 Some people incline to the belief that his intentions at the time mem toned will probably give the Ohio negroes a valid excuse to vote for him. The argument advanced Is they can say: "Oh. we'll we condemn the president for his action for if Secretary Taft could have had his way justice would have bssn done our -nrathran of the 18th infantry" In other words the negro. strongly welded to the Republican party, will be only too willing to support the administration even though they are given precious few offices out In Ohio, and in the face of the fact that they would se- cretly much prefer to come out in the open and support Foraker on account of the bold stand he has taken in be- half of members of their race. Ohio politicians who have been going over the lists contend that if the negro VOL ters were to almost solidly support Foraker he would certainly defeat Taft in the coming struggle for the State delegation to the next rational convention of the Republican party.
 TyIer's Appointment.
 The negro Tyler. recently appointed by President Roosevelt to be auditor of the treasury for the Navy Depart ment. Is understood to have little pop- ularity among the negroes of his