The Montgomery advertiser., 1908-01-03
WILL TT BE SETTLED.

fantry after the Brownsville riot is to be tested in the United States Courts. A suit has been brought in the United States District Court of New York City on behalf of Oscar W. Reid. for merly of Company c. 25th Infantry for the amount of his pay since the date of his dismissal. His petition states that he took no part in the shooting at Brownsville. but was pres ent in the ranks and answered to his name at roll-call while the shooting was going on; that he was formally accused of taking part in the shooting. but never was tried or given an oppor- tunity to prove his innocence. and that the action of the President in dis charging him without honor on Mo- vember 9. 1908. was wholly illegal and void. The sections of the constitu- tion alleged to have been violated are Article l.. Section 8. in which the pow CT is given to Congress to make rules for the land and naval forces; Article H.. Section 3. in which 1t says: he tthe President) shall take care that the laws be faithfully executed;' Arti- cle VI. paragraph 2. providing that the Constitution shall be the supreme law of the land and finally the Fifth amendment, which declares that no person shall be deprived of liberty or property without due process of law.
 "Will the Suprein. Court of the United States fail 10 sustain this sol dier's contention? There is one way, however. for a decision to be avoided, and that is for President Roosevelt to revoke his order and restore Reid and all the surviving victims of the order Of November g. 1906, to the serv- ice. In view of the testimony taken by the Senate Military Committee very few people believe now that the soI- diers were guilty of the wrong ful acts of which they were accused The War Department itself has furn-
 
 ished the evidence on this point by proving that the bullets fired during tfie riot were not regular army ammu- milton. The President is not incapable of redressing a wrong which he has hastily perpetrated. and. moreover his candidate for the succession, Mir. Taft, is going to need the votes of the negro Republicans in the Chicago con- vention. and alterward at the polls. if he obtains the nomination for the presidency"
 We quote thus liberally from one of our most observant contemporaries be- cause of the information it gives. and because of it's opinions on the P eits of the case and the remedy it proposes. If the matter goes on in the regular way. Reid. we suppose the case will then go up to the Supreme Court of the United States for final adjudica- ton. If that high tribunal sustains the contention of the petitioner there will be nothing left for the President and the War Department to do but rA- instate the negro soldiers-at least. all of them who cannot be shown to have been engaged in the outrage at Brownsville. either actively or bv s'- lent complicity.
 But whatever we may think or ex- pect as to the action of the courts, and the result of that action. we think the alternative suggested by The Times Is beyond the limit of probability. It would involve a complete and absolute back down on the part of Roosevelt, and he is not built that way. He can change his mind and his policy with about as much celerity as any public man we know of but when it comes to backout and an admission thereby that he was wrong, 1t is too much to expect from a man of his habit and temperament. If the highest court de- cides against him he must yield, but we see no other prospect of his doing so.
 This Brownsville affair has been a badly tangled one all the while. In spite of all the efforts of certain ne- gro worshippers to prove that the shooting up" of the town was done by it's own citizens, or by outsiders not connected with the soldiery there is no doubt in our opinion as to the outrage having been committed by members of the 18th Infantry. All who took part in 1t should have been punished as they deserved. All who had knowledge of 1t, either at the time or previouslys or who afterwards knew the guilty par ties and who refused to give evidence or to testify against the guilty ones, should have been punished.
 We think all this will be admitted by right-thinking and fair-minded people, and so far there Is nothing about which there should be any real difference of opinion. The real point of controversy lies in the fact that it is at least possible that the innocent may have been punished equally with