The Montgomery advertiser., 1907-01-13
TART SPEECH
 BY TILLMAN Senator Discusses the Brownsville Incident. GOES FOR THE PRESIDENT Great Crowd in Gallery Listens to
 Debate. south Carolinian scnthing in His Answers to Foraker, Nelson and Others--Patterson Defends
 Roosevelt.

Washington. Jan. 12,--The Senate
 listened to a debate on the race ques- l tion today In which Senator Tillman | was the principal participant and Sen
 ator Patterson of Colorado his oppo-
 nent, which brought into striking con-
 trast the ideas of the South and North l on this question.
 | President Roosevelt's action in the l Brownsville matter was the subject of | discussion. Mir. Ttllman held that
 nothing was involved in it except the | race question and that the present ad-
 ministration was responsible for the l growing acute condition of the race | question in the South. The Presiden
 he said, had encouraged the negro to
 assert his equality and then had wrought vengeance on whole batal-
 Hon for following that encouragement.
 He condemned the Presidents action in
 both respects.
 | Mir. Patterson defended the Presi-
 dents right to discharge the troops.
 but believed there might be some
 ground to question its policy. He con- demned in strong terms what he re-
 garded as the radical position of Mir. l Tillman and predicted that the extinc.
 ton of the Democratic Party in the
 North would follow continuance of
 such tactics.
 The debate occupied four hours and
 was listened to with the greatest in-
 terest by throngs which filled the gall leries. On several occasions the gall | leries had to be warned against ap-
 plause by the Vice. e-President. who ffn- i ally threatened to clear them if the of- l fense was repeated.
 No action was taken on the resolu- I tion for an investigation of the Browns vile affair.
 | Senator Tillman. speaking on the
 Brownsville incident characterised the
 Presidents action in the matter as
 nothing more nor less than lSnching."
 He challenged any one to produce in | the army regulations or articles of
 war, any foundation for the charge of
 conspiracy of silence. nautiny and trea-
 son made against the soidiers. although he declared there was no doubt that Houtrage at Brownsvtlle"
 MfstaIxe Of President. Mr. TiItman held that 1t was con-. | frary to to fundataenkaf prin0iples cf | liberty of Engifall aiid American nkw that the innocent should suffer because of the sins of the guilty; also, he de- tclared that a man shall be considered innocent until he is proven guilty. In
 this case, he said. 1s7 men have been punished while not more than twenty | have been charged with participation | in the crime.
 MT. Tillman maintained that the ns- gro troops should not have been sent to Texas. They were sent there. he said, against the protests of one Texas Senator, the Congressman from that District They were sent there, he continued, with a wholly inadequate number of officers, as there were only five officers for the three companies This was done" MT. Tillman ex- claimed, without any thought or care on the part of the President, or the Secretary of War, as to results. The first thought of the President was to | protect the negroes and to punish the | citizens by abandoning the post. Especially, Major Penrose and Cap | tain Macklin," MT. Tillman said, are shown to have acted with gross neg ligence and incomptenecy.." All sol diers who got in trouble were from Macklins company. said MT. Tillman. l who added that Macklin did not be- lieve that negro had seized MT. Evans by the hair and that he made no effort to detect the soldier. This. he believed, raised the question as to whether Captain Macklin was in sym pathy with the men in their scheme of | revenge.
 Turning his attention to Senator Foraker, MT. Tillman declared the Ohio Senator had belittled himself by at | tackinR Major Blocksom as man whose father was copperhead. Are we never to have an end of the war and it's bitterness?" he exclaimed. | Are the people of the North and the South never to understand each other and to recognize the rights of both sections?'
 Race Question at Bottom.
 'Tt is useless to deny that the race question lies at the bottom of all this.
 "It is equally useless to say that
 these troops were discharged because they are negroes If the negroes had been treated the same as the white regular were treated at Athens, O.. the civil authorities would have arrested those believed to be guilty and the matter decided in the courts. In that instance the War Department defend ed the regulars. although they had committed murder; 1t was he declared, as the troops were the wards of the nation, 8 very proper ana riBht posltion to take.
 The whole issue involved Is one of race and the President Is more respon- sible than any other man for the posi- tJon the negroes in the South have taken He gave recognition to Booker Washington in a social way He did if Knowing he was flying the face of ca ste feeling among li,OOO'VOO or Soutn- ern white men and against the same feeling of three-f fourths of the South ern people He does not understand the negro or the deep and vital char acter was involved. He made a mess of if in tn ef1rst instapce, and has roado a worse mess of the last.
 "He speaks by suggestion in his re- cent message of a motive to crime. what would provoke the negro as to crime more than those words?
 "The well known attitude of the ad- m,nistration on the social question has baen the cause of a local and notable change in the demeanor and action of inc negroes throughout the South and the greater question of relationship between the races cannot be much long CT kept down
 After predicting in the near future A race conflict to determine whether the negro is the equal of the Cauca- sian, MT Tillmau continued:
 Facing a Vital Issue.
 'BroadIy stated, the white people of the United States are face to face with the vital issue to whether the Cau- casian race shall share its inheritance