The Farmington times. (Farmington, St. Francois County, Mo.) 1905-1926, 1907-01-04
Warning to Democrats.

or the century III IL uuuertdhtS w
defend President Roosevelt against
attacks by members of his own
party for his lawless usurpation of
power in dealing with the mutt
neers and murderers of the
Brownsville riot.
The authority to disband any
part of the army or navy by ex-
ecutlve order is not conferred upon
the President by the Constitution
or the laws of the United States.
In assuming it he has set one Of
the most dangerous precedents IN
American history. Rashly used,
or upon IL reasonable suggestion,
in lime OF war this autocratlc
power in the hands of the eXecu-
tive might bring the country 10
ruinOus defeat
The Army Regulations and the
articles of war provide that no Off.
Ger or enlisted man shall be dis
charged for au alleged ofTense until
he shall have been tried by court
martial and found guilty. By his
rash violation of this provision of
the military law OF the land, the
President has done an injury to
military service for which it might
be contended that he, as Com
mander in Chief of the army, has
made himself liable to reprlmand
by a military court.
The mutinous aud murdcrous
conduct of negro troopers of the
Ninth Cavalry both at Fort Leaven-
worth and at Fort Sheriden, is
traceable to the Presidents viola
tiOns of the raw in dealing with
the mutiueers and murderers of
Brownsville. The latter, who
richly deserve hanging il ever any
men did, have escaped justice and
are now at large through the Presi-
dents loose and unlawful course.
By the same immunity from pun.
isnment, bad negroes have been
encouraged to aggression and in
suits to whites which have lead TO
race rioting in several parts OF the
South during the last few days.
These things would not have been
if the President had dealt with the
Brownsville incident in accordance
with law. If the officers of the
battalion at Fort Brown had been
promptly court martialed for in.
efficiency and neglect of duty, aud
every enlisted man of the three
companies subjected to rigid mill
tary inquiry, the murderers and
those who by concealment became
accessories after the fact undoubt-
eddy would have been discovered
and punished.
The Democratic party, especially
that portion of it which is repre-.
sented by the South, cannot afford
to pardon and encourage such pal.
pable violation of the Constitution
and the laws. BY so doing they
would simply invite wholesale ag
gressions upon their local rights
and institutions. If the President
can, without warrant OF law, turn
negro soldiers out of the army, he
may in the same way claim the
right to force negro children into
the Southern schools, as he has
threatened to force japanese child
rem into the schools of California.
Southern Senators and Represen-
tetives must not be carried away
by emotionalism in this crisis.
There would be illimitable danger
in such a course. The safety of
the South lies in the steadfast and
unyielding preservation of the safe
guards which the Constitution
throws about the rights of the
States to administer their own af-
fairs in their own way. Departure
from these principles would spell
ruin for the South, backward and
forward.
There is a right way and wrong
way. The President has chosen
the wrong way because it was the
easiest and most spectacular. Lead
ers of his party are fighting him
with an eye single to the negro
vote. Let them fight it ont, with
every Democrat standing immo-
vable for the Constitution and the
laws, for the States rights and
local self government which they
inherited from Washington, Jeffer.
son and the Fathers of the Rpub-
est. Louis Republic.
Felix Hudgins of New Madrid county
shot aqd killed his step-son, a boy
seventeen years old, on the night Of