Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1908-12-16
FAvORS WARNER BILL
Mr.. Lodge Addresses Senate
on Brownsville Affair.
FRIEND OF COLORED RACE
But Declares Wrong Any Move for
Special Treatment. {.
NO DOUBT ABOUT GUILT
Only Those Who Are Innocent De-
serve to Be Restored to
the Army.

/
of speech made in the Senate today by
Senator Lodge. who is member of the
committee on military affairs, which in
vestigated the charges that soldiers of
the 18th regiment shot up the town.
Mr. Lodge opened his remarks by say
ing that he would make no reference
whatever to the report of the investiga-
ton referred to by the President in his
recent message to Congress
| The Senate galleries were filled when
Mr. Lodge began his speech, very many
of the visitors being negro men and wom-
en-. Rather more democrats than republic
cans remained In the chamber. while Mr..
| Lodge was speaking. In accordance with
his request he was not interrupted while
speaking.
| In opening his speech Senator Lodge re-
| ferred to two questions to be discussed
| in this connection, one relating to the
| guilt or innocence of the soldiers and
| the other to the bill presented by Sena-
tor Foraker compelling the President to
restore these soldiers to the army.
Satisfied as to Shooting.
After hearing and examining all the
evidence, not only that taken by the
Senate committee, of which I was
| member but that taken before the Pen
| committee" said Mr. Lodge, referring
| the night of August IL. 1906. Il have come
| to the clear conclusion that the shooting
| was done by soldiers of the 18th Infantry.
| stationed at Fort Brown
| This, he said. was also the conclusion
of the citizens committee of Brownsville
| and of the Penrose court-martial 1t
| was also the opinion of a decisive ma
jority Of the Senate committee on mill
| tary affairs.
| The proposition he said, declaring
! that the weight of the testimony shows
! that none of the soldiers of the 18th
| United States Infantry participated in the
| shooting ARRAY was rejected by a vote OF
eeven to two and the proposition that in the
| opinion of the committee. the shooting
was done by some soldiers belonging to
the 18th Infantry was adopted by vote
| of eight to four, one senator not voting.
THUS 1t will be seen that every official
| body which has heard the testimony has
| decided that the shooting at Browns
vile on the night of the 18th of August,
| 1905, was the work of soldiers of the
25th Infantry
| Mr. Lodge declared that while there is
| a great deal of evidence that the shooting
| was done by the soldiers there is no
| evidence whatever that it was done by
| anybody else. There is. he said no
| physical impossbility OF time distance or
| alib to prevent our attributing the shoot
! ing to the soldiers.
Motive Not Lacking.
I'm fact" he said cit was easier for the
soldiers to do it than for anybody else
because they were both armed and or
ganized Motive was not lacking. Some
of the soldiers had had trouble with some
of the inhabitants. Justly or unjustly.
some of them had been maltreated by
some Of the inha bitants and they had felt.
in greater or lesser degree. the bitterness
of race prejudice. Their freedom of
movement had just been curtailed owing
to an affair in which white woman was
| involved. They were suffering. therefore,
at the moment from the troubles which
had arisen between them and some of the
| people Of Brownsville
Mr.. Lodge referred to testimony OF wit
nesses to show that eleven appearing be-
fore the Senate committee before the
Blocksman and Purdy inquiry or in the
Penrose court-martial testified that the
men who did the shooting were recog-
nized by them as soldiers and negroes
Five witnesses recognized them as SOL
diers and six witnesses recognized them
as negroes by their voices. II submit -
said Mr.. Lodge that that is a mass of
direct evidence sufficient to sustain any
affirmative proposition in court and not
to be done away with by suggestions
about the darkness of the night in infer
ences that all these witnesses were lying
because the artificial lights were few and
there was no Moon"
Mr. Lodge reviewed essential features
of the testimony in the Brownsville affair
and said that the bullets found in the
houses and the shells in the streets. taken
together. could have been used in only
one rifle. and that was the Springfield
new model, and there were no new
model Springfields in the possession of
any one except the troops of the United
States. He spoke Of the testimony of the
: soldiers constituting "a uniform de-
NAL"
Testimony Strangely Uniform.
''That which renders all this testimony
to me of doubtful value, and deprives it
Of the weight which it would otherwise
have said Mr. Lodge lis it's extraordi-
nary uniformity. 1t Is possible for lJO
or 200 men to tell without exception a
story agreed upon beforehand but no
two witnesses can tell the truth as they
understand it. in precisely the same way
about the same event. The soldiers have
the strongest possible motive for denying
participation in or knowledge of the shoot
ing. There could not have been any
strong. personal motive to induce the
witnesses on the other side to testify
otherwise than truthfully."
Mr.. Lodge declared that he was
bred UP with a profound sympathy for.
and interest in. the negroes of the
United States and has always tried to
aid and serve them. the bill which he
reported and which passed the House
of Representatives representing the
last attempt made to secure to them