The Montgomery advertiser., 1908-09-10
STILL sosprsG UP.

no little. and just now during hot campaign a disturbance of that kind causes some of them 10 lose sleep. For example, The Kansas City Journal starts off this way:
 One of those inexcusable blunders which raise a doubt whether the negro race has made as much progress In intelligent thought and individual self reliance as it's wellwIshers would like to think is being committed by the deluded members of the race who are allowing themselves to be led astray from their natural allegiance to the Republican Party by few misguided leaders. office-seeking politicians, min isters and the like, who claim that Secretary Taft is ~to blame for the dishonorable discharge of the negro troops on account of the Brownsville riots.
 Of course in the eyes of Repub- lican 1t ts "an inexcusable blunder" for a negro to vote the Democratic ticket. By the same token it is a r'ueh worse blunder for one of their own race to try to persuade them to be led away from their natural allegiance to the Republican Party" as The Journal phrases it. Just why the negroes should feel allegiance to the Republi- can Party is one of the mysteries. un- less 1t Is because that party has such large stock of promises to deal out to them.
 The Journal goes on at some length to show. to its own satisfaction at least, that Mir. Taft should share none of the blame for the discharge of the lowing:
 The official records show that MT :. Taft was in no wise responsible for the order in the case, and that his sympathies were and are with the discharged soldiers. In tfie first place, the order was issued by President Roosevelt. and Secretary Taft:s sym pathies are clearly indicated by the fact that as soon as 1t came to his until he could send cable message to Mir. Roosevelt. who was in Panaiiia. asking for a reconsideration. It was not until the President issued a second and peremptory order that Secretary Taft. with evident reluctance. but in loyal obedience to superior authority. permitted the order to be promnl- gated. These are the plain facts in the case, and while Mir. Taft is bound by every instinct of propriety and self respect to assume the responsibility, as Secretary of War, and bound by the same obligations to refrain from criti4 cising the acts of his official chief, as we'll as from attempting to absolve himself. 1t ought to be clearly mani fest to every sensible citizen that ne is not to blame in the least degree for the injustice done the innocent negro be praised for his course in the matter. for his efforts to have the or- der rescindedi for his soldleriy obedi. ence to superior authority when hts efforts had failed, for his dignifle0 above all, for his self-sacrifieing as- sumption of official responsibility n order to save his chief from censure.
 Most of the Northern newspapers both Republican and Democrat have severely censured what they call the gross injustice of the administrators course in the Brownsville matter, and are almost of one mind that the dis- charge of the soldiers was an out rage. We have no mind to discuss the right or wrong of the affair, but we do
  not see how any fair-ininded man can hold Taft wholly free from blame. Hs was Secretary of War at the time and must be held responsible for his part of the acts of the administration. If the discharge without honor of the rie- gro battalion was so outrageously un- f,raf To he should have resigned at once and thus set himself right before the American people. By remaining in the Cabinet he assumed and must bear his share of the wrong. If wrong there was, and all the arguments of his ad- herents cannot change the facts or ab- solve him from responsibility.
 The whole trouble about this matter lies in the fact that 1t has become q vital political issue in the present cam paig-.. The negro vote promises to be an important factor in the election. Little as one might think of 1t. that vote may decide the result for or against the Republicans in November: not in the old slave States. of course for their votes here cannot change re- suits either way, but in the North and West there are numbers of close dis- tricts and If the negro vote could be turned from Taft 1t might be the cause of his defeat. This is a time when there is a sure enough "nigger in the woo2 pile" and he is the cause of much perturbation in the ranks. This is why the Republicans, even to a greater extent that usual are so out ragged, as our Kansas City contempor- ary shows, because certain coIored leaders blame Taft. and why white leaders try to absolve him and con- vince tke negroes that their allegiance Is due him and the party. The proper thing for the colored people of the North to do is to vote as they please. regardless of Republican rantines and threats.