Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1907-01-03
WHITES STARTED ROW
Col. Bacon Makes a Statement
About Brownsville Affair.
CHALLENGES THE DISMISSAL
Their Discharge Without Honor is IL
legal, Says Troops Counsel.
DECLARES ACT A CONSPIRACY
Sterling" Whites, He Asserts, Want
ed Negro Soldiers Taken Away
and Began Trouble.
CHALLENGES THE DISMISSAL
DECLARES ACT A CONSPIRACY

NEW YORK, January 3.-Col. Alexa nder
5. Bacon, who has been retained TO act as
counsel for the Afro-American Council, with
| ]. Douglas Wetmore. in the matter of tho
dismissal of the battalion of the 18th lnfan-
| try, growing out of the riot at Brownsville
| Texas, made public his opinion yesterday.
| After reviewing the evidence presented in
the RESIDENTS message. Col. Bacon declares
| that the discharge of the men without
honor was illegal, and would not be up
| held by the courts If brought before them
under writ of certiorari
The report will be sent to Senator Fora
ker and the members of the Senate and
congressional committees on military afr
falrs. 1t Is not proposed by either Col.
Bacon or Mr.. Wetmore to invoke the aid
| of the courts until all other means fail. Col
Bacons report is in part as follows:
1t Is my opinion that discharge with
out honor Is wholly unwarranted by the
! statute, and is libel. 1t is my opinion that
| the part of the order which debars these
soldiers from employment In any civil ca
pacity under the government is without au-
thorlty, and Is null and void, and won DO
! so declared by the courts in a proceeding to
| review the legality of this order by cer-
| tiorari or otherwise.
There is a mistaken idea prevalent today
| that the President of the United States as
| comma nder-in-c can inflict punishment
within his discretion.
Court Should Have Acted.
Under the English and American cons
stitutions no person except minors. pris-
! oners, &cD can be punished in time of
peace except by the judgment of court.
A father can, of course, punish his child,
| but q judge cannot punish a man sumdar-
| lily in the street. Neither the commanders
| ln-chlef nor colonel, captain, even q
| high and mighty corporal, can infiict d pun
| rpcrnt ont
| can only be inflicted by a court-martial
1T is needless to bubble with words. The
| Presidents dismissal of these men WAS ir-
| tended to be a punishment, and was pun
lshment. He may have the arbitrary right
| to dismiss any enlisted man. If he ui.Iixas
the color of his hair, but he has no riga; to
| libel him by saying that such dismis sal Is
| without honor, nor can he infiict the adced
punishment of debarring him from civil en-.
| ployment under the government.
The proper proceeding would have been
| for the President to have ordered cour-
| of inquiry to sit at Brownsville and else
| where as might be niece ssary. in order that
| the exact facts should be obtained, Ider
the sanction of an oath and the 'aing
| inquiry of cross-examination. Then the
| facts having been elected by court of in
| quiry, a court-martial should have been
convened to inf1ict punishment.
The Fundamental Cause
| THE fundamental cause for this Distress
| ing episode is easy to discover. The best
| people of Brownsville csterling' people,
Major Blocksom calls them) had predeter-
| mined not to have colored troops stationed
at Fort Brown. The reason was doubtless,
| commercial. White soldiers spend their
| money with white merchants while negro
! soldiers spend theirs with MeXicans and ne
| groes, with whom the whites have little to
| do. The soldiers a source of large rev.
| enue to the town, and if the people had an
| ticlpated public clamor over the affair and
| the abandonment of the fort altogether, no
| trouble would have occurred.
The people first exercised political infiu-
ence through Senator Culberson on June 1,
to keep the colored soldiers away. That fail
/ ing they resolved to make life a burden to
| the soldiers and force their removal Not
succeeding after two weeks of nagging GER
| tain fellows of the baser sort conceived the
| idea of creating an episode while the 'ster-
| people were asleep.
IF the secret service men sent to Browns
| vile by the War Department would devote
! their attention to getting at the facts in
| stead of bolstering up theory advanced by
| the citizens two months before the arrival
of the troops they would doubtless look into
the career of the chief inquistor Capt Nc
| Donald of the State Rangers, who is also a
detective, to whom the committee prac-
| tically delegated its authority They might
! find that the ARRAY created for the ben
eft of, if not at the suggestion of. the 'ster-
! ling people, not intending probably. the
| ter of removal Of all the troops"
/