The Birmingham age-herald., 1909-01-13

objections, and assuming for the sake of argument that the constitutional proyis- ions quoted do not apply and that the ruling of the treasury department, that the appropriation is permanent, is cor rect, and that it continues to stand and will stand as an available appropriation for such purposes as those for which it was intended, until entirely exhausted the question remains whether such pay ments as are now under consideration are legitimate and proper to be made from it. It would seem that granting all l have indicated they are yet nevertheless clearly illegal and in flat violation of the following statutory provision:
 " That no employe of the Pinkerton Detective agency or similar agency shall be employed in any government service or by any officer of the District of Co lumbia
 Law of the Land.
 This provision was enacted in 1892 and has been in force and effect ever since But inasmuch as it was found in ar appropriation bill it was thought proper in 1893 to re-enact it. amended so tc employ the word hereafter to the end that there might be no question what ever about its being the continuing law of the land until repealed.
 This re-enactmert was in 1893 and reads as follows:
 "'That hereafter no employe of the Pinkerton Detective agency or similar agency shall be employed in any gov ernment service or by any officer of the District of Columbia
 This statute is still in force and effect unrepealed and unqualified. It was in full force and effect at the time when these contracts with Brown & Baldwin were made by the Secretary of War
 "In view of these statutes, all these pay ments are clearly illegal, not only with out warrant or authority of law, but in plain violation thereof.
 Private Detectives.
 Speaking of the use of private detectives in Investigating the Brownsville affair Mir Foraker declared that "it is impossi- ble to find language with which to fitting ly characterize such a procedure as this detective business has been from its in cipiency down to the monstrous stages il has reached. It Is atrooious, revolting shocking to every sense of fairness, jus tiee and even common deeency. MT Foraker reviewed the statements made by the President in his messages to Congress on the Brownsville affair Il will be noted" he said. that the gull of these soldiers, as charged by the Pres ident, was, according to the President 'ccnclusiy ely established by the testi
 mony first submitted. He took occasion to repeat this ir his first message ovel , and over a2allL Why he should so ofter repeat it is inexplicable except upon th' theory that he is, after all, like all other men, and that notwithstanding all he hat said, he had some doubt about the sur ficiency of the testimony upon which h' had acted; for. if he had no doubt, there | Lnn Yan nanaCci1V SllGl unusual repetition of the statement oi that fact. lt would at least appear to th' ordinary mind that after the weakness and insilfficency of this testimony wal pointed out he recognized the necessity
 for strene thening his case. and thereupoI dispatched MI. Purdy and Major BLOCK
 som to Brownsy file to stcrre the evidence reported hy them.
 Guilt Established.
 "Nhen he submitted these affidavits t' th, Senate he again. as in his former message, affirmed that it 'conclusivel1 and overwhelmingly established the gull of the men, as charged by him, and wen so far as to say that there was no room left for any honest difference of opin ion, and to intimate that men who pro fessed to have doubt had some unworthy motive prompting that doubt, or that they merely pretended to have doubt in ordei that they might accomplish some uh worthy purpose.
 "In the message he sent to the Sehat' after the report of the committee on mlll tary affairs he reiterated that the 1act claimed by him had been by that lesel
 mony thoroughly established sA :. l "Hence it was that when the commit 1 tee reported, everybody apparently sup
 posed the investigation was ended ant l if any one had thought about it at all n l surely would have supposed that the Fres l ident. who had formally In his message to the Senate over and over again, nor than a dozen times, asserted that the tes
 timony overwhelmingly and conclusive ly' and beyond difference Of opinion about it. established the guilt Of the sol diers, would be content to rest upon .ii' testimony that had in these numerou' ways been gathered together.
 A Second Message. "Rut not so. AS though conscious tha
 notwithstanding all his assertions ah' declarations as to the sufficiency to Jus tifv his order of discharge, we were faV cred with the further message or DeceH her IA. 1908, in which we were lnforme' that detectives had been employed oy th
 war department, and that they nave peer at work for months-ever since Aprli 10 1eOS-trayeling about over the country visiting these discharged soldiers, tryinl to secure from them discriminating state , ments and confessions of guilt, and that as a result, we now have another patci of conclusive testimony.
 Speaking of the reply of the Presloen and of the Secretary of War to a oenat' resolution calling for information on th' detectives investigations into the Browns vile affair, MT. Foraker said:
 Serious Feature.
 "This message of the President wltf it's exhibits and this report of the Secre tary of War present a new ana more serious feature of this unhappy business They not only disclose determined effor on the part of the President to agair holster up the case against these mel of Q1a nIlmerQlls