New-York tribune., 1907-06-17
THE BROWNSVILLE INVESTIGATION

THE BROWNSVILLE INVESTIGATION.
The Senate committees investigation into the
Brownsville incident has contributed very ltt!e
20 public knowledge of the riot in the town
No new evidence of any particular Importance
supporting one conclusion or another was
brought out. The evidence as whole points
convincinGly TO the conclusion that the negro
soldiers raded the town, but il has not as
closed the individual perpetrators. This was
what the earlier army investigation of the
outrage developed. The effort to show that
the people of Brownsville fired the shots In
the town in order to discredit the negroes and
induce the War Department 10 send them TO
another station failed completely. The sug-
geston was preposterous on the face OF IT. anu
not scintilla of evidence was adduced IN sup
port of 1t.
The motive for nm attack by the negro sol
djers on the town was made perfectly clear.
They had been Disseminated against by the
white townspeOple and tradesnen. 1helr
patronage was repuiSed at certain saloons anu
nj one of them, Tillman's, II Jim Crow bar
had been set up for the soldiers There had
haen street brawls arising from race prejudice
\ negro soldier had been knocked down by
white man named Tate for jostling white
woman In the street. These were the motives
md the raiders apparently, amid q lot of i'll
discriminate shooting. bore the soldiers grlev-
ances in mind. Tillmans saloon was riddled
with bullets and its bartender shot dead at the
door The house next to the one in which Tate
lived was fired into, few of the raiders
making a detour from the section chiefly raided
10 fire upon this house, apparently under the
impression that it was Tate's residence.
Strong direct evidence was brought out to
the effect that the raiders were negro soldiers.
The party was seen close at hand by con-
10 Of RpoNVOGVlla residents.
agree that they wore the khaki uniform. Some
witnesses who heard the voices Of the raiders
near hy testified that they were voices of
negroes. and other witnesses who We're close
enough to distinguish the color Of the raiders
swore that they We're negroes. Some witnesses
saw shots fired from the barracks toward the
| town. and also saw the negroes jump from the
| wall surrounding the fort and run into the
| town. shooting as they went The raid took
| place at only short distance, about four city
| blocks from the fort and it would have been
| perfectly possible for the raiders to return 10
| the fort and form In line with their companies
| who were called to arms. The lights in the
| fort were extinguished, and in the confusion it
was possible for the raiders to return unob-
! served. The white officers were under the i'm
preston that the people OF Brownsville were
making a demonstration against the negro SOL
| diers and were firing upon the fort. SO no
| watch was kept to detect struggling raiders re-
| turning to the fort, and no inspection OF the
| soldiers rifles was made until the following
| morning 10 see if any had been in use. At
that time all were clean. They could easily
have been cleaned after the raid, provided that
the negro sergeant having the keys of the gun
racks was privy 10 the raid
None of this direct evidence was in any way
! impeached No motive shown which
would explain thirty or forty Brownsville resi-
dents perjurng themselves TO put the blame If
! the raid upon the negroes. Several OF these
! witnesses who swore that the raiders We're
! negro soldiers were persons of the highest
standing in the community. All of this direct
! evidence and the clearly established motive
were met only by the denial Of the negroes that
they had any knowledge of the raid. The sub
! stance of the whole case is this The natural
| in fact the only conceivable-eXplanatOn OF
| the raid is that il was perpetrated by the
; negroes. This presumption is made Il certainty
! by the volume of direct. unprecedented teSti-
| mony that the raiders were negroes from the
| fort.
+; The Senate investigation merely>sought the
/ facts, and naturally did not go into the ques-
ton of the penalty. On the necessity of the
dismissal we have already expressed Op!n-
| ion, and no subsequent development has caused
/ Us to view differently the need of preventing
the development in the army of Il system"
which puts privatcs ION honor" to conceal their
comrades misdeeds from their superlors.