New-York tribune., 1907-01-15

deliberately killed Frank Natus. the bartender,
shooting him down from distance Of about
fifteen yards. They shot at man and a woman,
Mr.. and Mrs. Odin. and their little boy as they
stood in the window of the Miller Hotel one
bullet going less than two inches from the head
OF the woman. They shot down the lieutenant
or police. who was on horseback, killing MS
horse and wounding him so that his arm had TO
be amputated They attempted to kill the two
policemen who were his companions shooting
one through the hat They shot at least eight
bullets into the Cowen house, putting out
lighted lamp the dining room table. Mrs.
Cowen and her five children were in the house;
they at once threw themselves prone on the moor
and We're not hit. They fired into the Starck
mouse, the bullets going through the mosquito
bar of a bed from eighteen to twenty inches
above where little children were sleeping. There
was light In the children's room.
The shooting took place near midnight The
panic caused by the utterly unexpected attack
was great. The darkness of course, increased
the confusion. There is conflict of testimony on
some of the minor points, but every essential
point is established beyond possibility of honest
question. The careful examination Of Mr. Purdy,
assistant to the Attorney General, resulted
merely in strengthening the reports already
made by the regular army authorities. The
shooting, 1t appears, occupied about ten MIN
utes. although it may have been some minutes
more less 1t is out of the question that the
fifteen or twenty men engaged in the assault
could have gathered behind the wall Of the fort,
begun firing. some of them on the porches of the
barracks. gone out into the town, fired in the
nelghborhood of two hundred shots in the town
and then returned-the total time occupied from
the time of the first shot to the time of their re-
turn being somewhere in the neighb0rhOod or
ten minutes-without many of their comrades
knowing what they had done Indeed, the fuller
details as established by the additional evidence
taken since l last communicated with the Sen
ate make 1t likely that there very few, II
any. Of the soldiers dismissed who could have
been ignorant of what occurred. 1t is wellnigh
impossible that any of the commissioned
officers who were at the barracks should not
have known what occurred. The additional evil
dence thus taken renders 1t. in my opinion, inn
possible to question the conclusions upon which
my order based.
PART OF ORDER REVOKED.
have gone most carefully over every issue OF
law and fact that has been raised. l now
satisfied that the effect of my order dismissing
these men without honor was not to bar them
ment. and therefore that the part of the order
which consisted OF declaration to this effect
was lacking in validity, and I have directed that
such portion be revoked. AS to the rest of the
order, dismissing the individuals In question
without honor and declaring the effect of such
discharge under the law and regulations TO be
bar to their future re-enlistment either IN the
army or the navy, there is no doubt of my con-
stitutional and legal power The order was
within my discretion, under the Constitution and
the laws and cannot be reviewed or reversed
save by another executive order. The facts did
not merely warrant the action l took-they rem
dered such action imperative unless l was to
prove false to my sworn duty.
If any of the men discharged hereafter shows
shielding the guilty I will take what action is
detailed most certainly put upon any such man
the burden Of thus clearing himself
THEODORE ROOSEVELT.
The White House, January IA. 1907.