The Montgomery tribune. (Montgomery City, Mo.) 1892-1910, 1908-12-18
NEGRO TROOPS
PROVED GUILTY
ROOSEVELT REITERATEs DEcLA-
RATION WITH REGARD TO
BROWNSVILLE RIOT.
few EXCEPTIONS NAMED
In Special Message Recommends That
Those Not Guilty Who DivuIged
knowledge Be Allowed
to Re-Enlist.

Washington, D. c. - President
Roosevelt. in his special message
Monday accompanying the report of
Investigator Herbert ]. Browne into
h shooting up of Brownsville, Tex,
reiterates his former declaration that
the shooting by colored soldiers has
been established beyond any posi-
bility of doubt"
He again recommends the passage
of a law by congress offering the dis
charged soldiers an opportunity to re-
enlist in the army if they can clear
themselves of responsibility for the
murderous attack to the satisfaction
of the secretary of war.
The investigation will be continued,
the president says. in order to sep
arate the less guilty from those
whose guilt was %heinous,' for he be-.
lieves there were hardly any innocent
among the colored men stationed at
Fort Brown.
Among the documents accompany
ing Browns report are the confession
of Boy Conyers, a private in Company
B, Twenty-ifth Infantry, who claimed
to be a leader in the affair; the affi-
davit of William Lawson, a detective
to whom Conyers made his confess
sion; a summary of the testimony In
volving Conyors, Private Carolina de
Saussure, Sergt. j. R. Reid and 9th
ers, and the opinions of experts as to
the identity of the ammunition used in
the raid.
The letter which is incorporated in
the message follows:
"To the Senate: l inclose herewith
a letter from the secretary of war
transmitting a report of the investiga-
ton made by Mr.. Herbert j. Browne,
employed by the department in con
junction with Capt. w. G. Baldwin to
investigate as far as possible what
happened at Brownsville or the 18th
and 14th of August, 1906.
THE report and documents contain
some information of great value and
some statements that are obviously
worthless, but l submit them in their
entirety.
"This report enables us to fix with
tolerable definiteness at least some of
the murderous shooting of private cit
liens of Brownsville.
Negroes Did Shooting.
"1t establishes clearly the fact that
the colored soldiers did the shooting;
but upon this point further record was
unnecessary, as the fact that the col
ored soldiers did the shooting has al
sibility of doubt.
1.-THE investigation has not gone far
enough to enable us to determine all
the facts, and we will proceed with it;
but it has gone far enough to deter
mine with sufficient accuracy certain
facts of enough importance to make it
advisable that / place the report be-
fore you.
at appears that almost all the mem
bers of Company B must have been
actively concerned in the shooting,
either to the extent of being partici-
pants or to the extent of virtually en-
couraging those who were partici-
pants.
"As to Companies c and D there
can be no question that practically
every man in them must have had
knowledge that the shooting was done
by some of the soldiers of B Troop,
and possibly by one or two others in
one of the other troops.
This concealment was itself a
grave offense, which was greatly ag.
gravated by their testifying before the
senate committee that they were ig-
norant of what they must have known.
Nevertheless, it is to be said in
partial e~xtenuation that they were
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
wrongdoers.
Moreover, there are circumstances
tending to show that these misguided
men were encouraged by outsiders to
persist in their course of concealment
and denial.
,.-."T feel, therefore, that the guilt of
the men who, after the event, thus
shielded the perpetrators Of the wrong
by refusing to tell the truth about
them, though serious, was in part due
to the unwise and imprdter attitude of
titude of others, and that some meas
ure of allowance should. be made for
the misconduct.
Theodore r. Is a Colonel Now.