The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1909-01-12
Questions Right to Use the AID.
preparation.
ARRAIGNS WORKERS.
Charges That They ResOrted to
Misrepresentation.
Can Not Use Appropriate Lam
guage aud Be Respectful.

Washington, Jan. 12.-IllegaI diver
sion of public funds by the president
and William H. Taft, while secretary
OF war, to pay for the investigation by
private detectives into the Brownsville
affair was charged by Senator Joseph
3. Foraker of Ohio in the senate to-
DAY In a speech in reply to state
ments OF Herbert J. Browne of this
city and William G. Baldwin of Roam
oke' Va, who were employed by the
secretary of war to secure evidence of
the guilt of negro soldiers of the
TWenty-f1fth infantry, u. s. A., in
shooting up Brownsville on the night
of August 1874, 1906 The govern
ment use of the private detectives was
.c:Inaracterized by Mr.. Foraker as
atroeious. shocking and revolving"
This charge of illegally diverting
$4,000 from the war fund of $3,0O0,-
600 appropriated by the deficiency act
Foraker in concluding his remarks
winch consisted of a very careful con-
sideration of certain legal phases of
the Brownsville affair and the reading
of a number of affidavits by soldiers
whose testimony and Confessions Mr..
Browne alleged he had secured to un-
ravel the mystery of the identity of the
men who did the shooting, and these
afddavits denied with great particular
ity nearly every statement of import
ance by the detectives.
Speaking of the $3.O0O,0O0 war fund
OF 1903, appropriated as an emergency
to meet unforeseen contingencies. con-
stantly arising to be expended at the
discretion of the president, Mr.. For
aker said:
1T will probably be surprising in
formation to the appropriations COM
mittee, as it will be to most senators,
that this appropriation made ten years
ago at the close of the SpaniSh-Amer-
lean war, to enable the president to
ff1Ser x1faieae
such as were then arising in connSc-
ton with our military establishment,
should have been construed to be a
permanent appropriation"
Mr.. Foraker declared that the stat
utes dfreet-the-ehead of each depart
ment to make an annual report to con-
gress, giving a detailed statement of
the manner in which the contingent
fund of his department has been ex-
pended.
This appropriation" he said, being
for the war department, the report
should have been made by the secre-
tary of war. But so far as I can aScer-
tain no detailed or itemized reports to
congress of expenditures from this fund
have been made: but only general re-
ports"
The contingency under which this
use of the war fund of 1899 was used,
Mr.. Foraker declared. was "the remote
one that men should be required to
prove their innocence of a crime before
a
them guilty under a bill then pending
in the senate >"
Senator Foraker says that waving all
technical or doubtful objections and
assuming FOR the sake of argument. that
the constitutional provision quoted does
not apply, "the question remains
such payments now under
are legitimate and pro-
per to be made from it. 1t would seem
that granting all have indicated, they
are yet nevertheless clearly illegal and
in fiat violation of the following sta
tutory provision: That no employe of
the Pinkerton detective agency or SINH
lar agency shall be employed in any
government service or by any officer of
the District of Columbia
The Use of Detectives.
Speaking of the use of private detec- |
tives in investigating the Brownsville |
affair, Mr.. Foraker declared that 'it is
to find language with which
to fittingly characterize such a proce- |
dure as this detective business has been
from its incipiency down to the mon
strous stages it has reached. 1t is
atrocious, revolving, shocking to every
sense of fairness, Justice and even COM
mon decency.
Mr. Foraker reviews the statements
made by the president in his messages
TO congress on the Brownsville affair ct
will be noted" he said. that the guilt
of these soldiers, as charged by the
president was, according to the presi |
dent 'concluSively' established by the
testimony first submitted" The sena- |
recognized the necessity for strength ,
ening his case, and thereupon dispatch |
ed Mr.. Purdy and Major Blockson to
to secure the evidence re- |
ported by them.
when he submitted these affidavits |
to the senate, he again, as in his for |
mer message affirmed that it con- |
clusively and Overwhelmingly estab- |
lished the guilt of the men, as charg- |
ed by him.
''In the message he sent to the SEN
ate after the report of the committee |
on military affairs, he reiterated that |
the facts claimed by him had been by |
that testimony thoroughly estab- |
lished.
When the committee reported, SEN !
ator Foraker said, everybody appar- |
emily supposed the investigation was
ended
He continued:
'sBut not so. As though conscious |
that, Notwithstanding all his asser- |
tions and declarations as to the suf- |
hciency of the testimony it was in /
fact, unreliable and insufficient to /
Justify his order of discharge, we were |
December IA. 1908. in which we were |
Informed that detectives had been |
employed by the war department and !
that they have been at work for
months"
Sneaking of the reply of the presi- |
senate resolution, calling for infor- |
nation on the detectives investiga- |
tions. Mr. Foraker said:
Questionable Methods.
s'This message of the president with |
its exhibits and this report of the sec
retary of war present a new and most |
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