The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1908-12-16
The Brownsville Affair Is Dis
cussed at Length.
ROOsevelt'S Stand in Matter Is
Endorsed.
NOT A RACE QUESTION
Does Not Want Sympathy Be-
cause of Color.
FaVOrS Warner Bill and Not For
aker's Measure.

Washington, Dec. 16.-The Browns
vile affair was discussed in the senate
today by Senator Lodge who was {
member of the committee on military
affairs which Investigated the charges
that soldiers of the Twenty fifth regi-
ment shot up the town.
Mr.. Lodge remarked that he would
make no reference whatever to the re-
! port of the investigation referred to By
| the president in his recent message tC
| congress.
| The senate galleries were filled.
| In opening his speech on the Browns
Vile affair. Senator Lodge referred tc
| two questions to be discussed in this
connection, one relating to the guilt OF
innocence of the soldiers and the 9TH
er to the bill presented by Senator
/ Foraker compelling the president to re-
store these soldiers to the army.
After hearing and examining all the
! evidence, not only that taken by the
senate committee of which I was a
member but that taken before the Pen
| rose cOurt-mart1al and before the c1tl-
! ZenS committee said Mr.. LOdt1a, re-
ferring to the shooting affray in
Brownsville on the night of August IL,
1906, Il have come to the clear con-
clusion that the shooting was done by
soldiers of the Twenty fifth infantry
stationed at Fort Brown
This, he said, was also the conclusion
of the citizens committee of Browns
vile and of the Penrose cOurt-martial.
1t was also the opinion of a decisive
majority of the senate committee on
military affairs.
1.-The proposition he said, "declar-
ing that the weight of the testimony
shows that none of the soldiers of the
Twenty-fifth United States infantry
participated in the shooting affray,
was rejected by a vote of IL to and
the proposition that in the opinion of
the committee the shooting was done
by some soldiers belonging to the
Twenty-ffth infantry was adopted by
a vote of s to 4, one senator not voting.
Thus it will be seen that every official
bodv which has heard the testimony
has decided that the shooting at
Brownsville on the night of the 18th of
August. 1906. was the work of soldiers
of the Twenty-f1fth infantry.
Mr.. Lodge reviewed essential fea-
lures of the testimony in the Browns
vile 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 Springields
in the possession of anyone except the
troops of the United States. He
spoke of the testimony of the soldiers
as constituting "a uniform denial"
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 their political rights in the
south.
Il have encountered criticism.
odium, and political attack in their
behalf, which cannot be said of many
of those who outside of this chamber
have for one reason or another busted
themselves with this affair and sought
to make capital out of it. I speak
therefore as their friend when 1 say
that no greater misfortune has hap
pened to them in late years than this
effort to make a race issue out of a
case of military discipline"
Se1f-selected champions of these
soldiers in various parts of the coun-
try sought, he said, not for equality
ment for the Brownsville soldiers on
the ground of race LAS a friend of
the negro race deplore the agitation
which had this end in view,''J he said,
these soldiers are entitled to the same
treatment as soldiers and citizens that
white men would be entitled to, neith-
more nor less He deplored any ap-
peal to sympathy for criminals, which
he said has become the fashion of the
time. If action in this matter is to be
determined by sympathy, he said, his
sympathy would not go to the men
who did the shooting, but to the
harmless boy who was killed, to the
lieutenant of police dangerously
wounded and injured for life in the
performance of his duty and to the
women and children, covering on the
floor while bullets crashed through
the thin walls of their dwellings.
Brushing aside the question of SYM
pathy he wished exact justice so far
as it could be attained. The crime of
these men was made greater because
they were United States soldiers en-
ployed for the protection of the peo-
pie.
He favored the Warner bill which
allows the president to restore the in
nocent to the army whenever he is
satisfied that any of them were blame
less He condemned the Foraker bill
which he said attempts to force back
into the army not only innocent men
but men who were guilty of a serious
crime. He made an exhaustive argu-
ment on the unconstitutionality of the
Foraker bill which obliges the presi-
dent to re-enlist these soldiers wheth-
er he thinks they ought to be re-en-
listed or not Such an act would be
an encroachment upon the constitu-
tional rights of the president. 1t would
be subversive of discipline in the