The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-12-15
FURAKER AGAIN
 TAXES FLOOR FOR
 NEGRO SOLDIERS
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1.)

every man in them must have had knowl- edge that the shooting was done by some of the soldiers of Troop B, and possibly by one or two others in one of the other troops. This concealment was itself a grave offensc, which was greatly aggra- yated by their testifying before the Sem ate committee that they were ignorant of what they must have known Neverthe less, it is to be said in partial extenuation that they vera probably cowed by threats, made by the more desperate of the men who had actually been engaged in the shooting, as to what would happen to any man who failed to protect the wrong dcers. Moreover, there are circumstances tending to show that these misguided men were encouraged by outsiders to persist ill their course of conce3lment and denial. l feel therefore, that the guilt of the men who after the event. thus shielded the perpetrators of the wrong by refusing
 to tell the ruth about them, though se-
 rious, was in part due to the unwise and improper attitude of others and that some
 measure of allowance should be made for
 the misconduct. In other words, I be-
 lieve we cam afford to reinstate any of
 these men who now truthfully tell what
 has happened, give all the aid they can to fix the responsibility upon those who are really guilty, and show that they them selves had no guilty knowledge before hand and were in no way implicated in the affair, save by having knowledge of
 it afterward and failing and refusing to djvulge 4l Under the circumstances, and in view of the length of time they have been out of the service, and their loss of the benefit that would have accrued to 1 them by continuous longtime service, we l can afford to treat the men who meet the l requirements given above as having been I sufficiently punished by the consequences 1 they brought upon themselves when they
 rendered necessary the exercise of the ! disciplinary power. I recommend that | law be passed allowing the Secretary of l War, within q fixed period of time say
 a year to rcinstate any of these soldiers
 whom he, after careful examination, finds l to have been innocent and whom he finds 1 to have done all in his power to Help
 bring to justice the guilty.
 Meanwhile the investigation will be con- l tinued The results have made it obvious | that only by carrying on the investigation | as the war department has actually car
 ried 1t on is there the slightest chance of
 bringing the offenders to justice or of sep
 arating not the innocent, for there were l doubtless hardly any innocent, but the 1 less guilty from those whose guilt was
 benious THEODORE ROOSEVELT. | The White House, December IA, 1908. War Department, Washington, December 10 190S
 My Dear Ms. President:
 ] I have the honor to send you herewith
 a re-ort of Investigation made by MT.
 Herbert J. Browne, who was employed by 1 this department in conjunction with Capt. | w C. Baldwin to investigate as far as | possible the occurrence at Brownsville on August 13 and IA, 1906. Sincerely yours LUKE E. WRIGHT. The President
 General Report.
 Washington, December 5, 1908. Sir-I have the honor to submit the fol- lowing report relative to the investiga- , ton of the Brownsville raid:
 Ex-Private Boyd Conyers of Company | B. Twenty fifth infantry, now at Mon-
 roe Ga, told William Lawson, a detective l in the employ of Capt. William c. Bald
 win of Roanoke, Va, that he and three l tor four) other men of the Twenty fifth l infantry were the leaders in the Browns l yille raid This information was ob- tained at different dates during the month 1 of June, 1s0S (See Exhibit A.)
 l I submit the affidavit as presented. | There are certain discrepancies of a mi nor character, due to the fact that Law son is Illiterate and had to depend on ! his memory for details. But it should | be borne in mind that Lawson was un- acquainted with the details of the Browns
 vile raid and was given information which could have come only from one familiar with the secret history of the affair." Lawson's first report included the names of Conyers, John I1olloman, John | Brown and "another man" Subsequently | he supplied the name of James Powell, but I think the original name given was | that of Robert L. Collier, Company c, | one of the relief guard. This information was corroborated in the presence of wit nesses, but before Lawson could finish his