The Birmingham age-herald., 1909-03-08
HOBSON FORESAW
 CONTEST COMING What Congressman Said In
 Brownsville Speech W, C. DAVIS MAY MAKE RACE Captain Hobson Has Issued Statement Defending His Action in oppos- ing Discharge of Negroes
 By Roosevelt.
W. C. DAVIS MAY MAKE RACE

Although it is of course unknown whether the report that w. c. Davis of Jasper will enter the congressional fight in the Sixth district against Capt. Rich mond P. Hobson is true or not, it is known that Captain Hobson is already preparing against any political thunder which his defense of the Brownsville sol diers might furnish a prospective oppo- nent.
 Edgar L. Clarkson, private secretary of Captain Hobson, has sent out the fol- lowing statement as coming from the con- gressman. in which statement Mir. Hobson defends his action;
 ''The action of the President prevented a proper investigation of the crime com mtted by the negro soldiers. There is reason to believe a regular court of in- quiry and then courtmartial would have found out the guilty, and hanged them on the spot, which should have been done, and the innocent exonerated. At this late date this is an effort to make up as far as can be done for the miscarriage of justice in the first case Upon sober thought it must appear clear to all that voting for the bill was the right and wise thing to do.''
 It is further known that Congressman Hobson knew when he made his speech defending the negro soldiers that that ac- tion would cost him contest in the Sixth His three-minute speech which follows, taken from the Congressional Record, is introduced by statement to that effect:
 MT Hobson: MT Speaker these three minutes will cost me contest in my district, and may cost me my seat in Con- gress I wore the uniform of the United States for IS years, and I have never known a case where an officer or an en- listed man was punished severely without court of inquiry. I know that he is not allowed to be punished to the extent of 30 days imprisonment without a court martial-to dishonorably dismiss a man without courtmartial is unheard of When these crimes were committed at Townsville
 MT. Garner: Will the gentleman allow me?-
 MT. Hobson: No, sir my time is too short When these crimes were committed at Brownsville, the President of the Uni
 
 and men to remain within barracks and could have ordered a court of inquiry, fol- lowed by courtmartial, which, held on the spot without delay, would no doubt have established the guilt or innocence of all the men, and would have given a regular, legal opportunity to every inno- cent man to establish the fact of his in- nocence. If, under duly administered oath any man had refused to tell the 1 whole truth or had been found to have | concealed or abetted the guilty, he could have been punished accordingly. By such a regular legal procedure the guilty, all of them or part of them, at least, could have been brought to full punishment at the scene of their hideous crime, fulfilling the ends of justice. But the President did not proceed in this regular legal jus tice. He scattered the men, guilty and in- nocent alike, to the four winds, and thus prevented the ends of justice. This ac- tion of the President prevented the estab- lshment of the guilt of guilty and pre- vented the innocent from establishing their innocence. These men have never had a chance to appear before court of inquiry; never before courtmartial; have never been under oath. This bill pro- vides the least that can now be done for the cause of justice.
 MT. Speaker, saw black men carrying our flag on San Juan Hill; have seen them before Manila. A black man took my father. wounded, from the field of Charlottesville. Black men remained on my grandfather's plantation after the proclamation of emancipation and took care of my mother and grandmother. The white man is supreme in this country; he will remain supreme. That makes it only the more sacred that he should give abso- lute justice to the black man who Is In our midst. Loud applause) I submit it to the conscience of my colleagues. This ought not to be made a party measure. We are standing here on the field of eter- nal justice, where all are the same. It is justice that links man to the divine. Whether the heavens fall or the earth melt away, while we live let sbe just. Loud applause)."