Los Angeles herald., 1909-01-13
FORAKER SAYS
PRESIDENT HAS
DIVERTED LAND
NOTED SENATOR FROM OHIO
, ARRAIGNS ROOSEVELT
ScATHING RE5UKE DELIVERED
BEFORE LARGE CROWD
one OF Foremost Republican Law.
makers Accuses Chief Executive
of shocking and Revolt
ing Conduct"
by Associated press1


w diversion 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 affray, was charged
by Senator Joseph B. Foraker of Ohio
IN the senate today in a speech in re-
plying to statements of Herbert J.
Browne of this city and William q.
Baldwin OF Roanoke, Va, who were
employed by the secretary of war to
secure evidence of the guilty negro SOL
dlers of the Twenty-f1fth infantry, u.
.: A, IN shooting up Brownsville on the
night Of August 13 and Ia, 1906.
The governments use of the private
: 'tectlVes was characterized by Mr..
FORAKER as "atrOcious, shocking and
revolving
Ihls charge of illegally diverting $15.-
OOO from the war fund Of $4,000 900 an
propriated by the deficiency act of
March 3, 1899, was adopted by Mr.. For
aker in concluding his remarks. which
consisted of very careful considera-
tlon of certain legal phases of the
brownsville affair, and the reading of
d number OF aff1davits by soldiers whose
testimony and confessions" Mr.
BroWne alleged he had secured to un-
faVeI the mystery of the identity of the
men who did the shooting, and these
afhdav1ts denied with great particular
10y nearly every statement of import
ance by the detectives.
Speaking Of the $4,000, 900 war fund of
1899 appropriated as an emergency to
meet unforeseen contingencies con-
stantly arising, to be expended at the
uiscretlon of the president, Mr.. For
aker said:
SURPRISING Information
1T probably will be SURPRISING in
formation that the appropriation made
zen years ago at the close of the
0panlsh-American war to enable the
president to meet emergency armv
contingencies, such as were then aris-
ing IN connection with our military es-
adjustment. should have been con
strued to be permanent appropria-
tions.'' = 90
Mr. Foraker declared that the stat
utes directed the head of each de-
partment tc make an annual report to
congress giving a detailed statement
IN which the contingent fund Of his
department has been expended.
This appropriations he said "beine
TOT 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
1und have been made, but only gen
eral reports
Senator Foraker says that, waving
sail technical or doubtful objections
and assuming for the sake of argument
that the constitutional provision
quoted does not apply, "the question
remains whether such payments now
under consideration are legitimate and
proper to be made from it. 1t would
seem that granting all T have indi-
Gated they are yet nevertheless clear
ly illegal and in flat violation of the
statutory provision: That no emplove
of the Plnkerton Detective agency or
similar agency shall be EMPLOYED in
any government service or by any Off
Ger Of the District Of Columbia
Use of Detectives
Speaking of the use of private de-
tectives in investigating the Browns
Vile affair, Mr.. Foraker. declared that
1T is impossible to find language with
which to fittingly characterize such a
procedure as this detective business
has been from it's inception down to the
monstrous stages it has reached. 1t is
atrocious, revolving and shocking to
every sense of fairness Justice and even
common decency"
Mr.. Foraker reviewed the statements
made by the president in his messages
to congress on the Brownsville affair.
1T will be noticed he said, 'that the
guilt of these soldiers, as charged bv
the president, was, according to the
president. conclusively as charged by
the testimony first submitted"
The senator said, however, that the
president recognized the necessity for
strengthening his case, and thereupon
dispatched Mr.. Purdy and Mannor
Blocksom to Brownsville to secure the
evidence reported by them.
I'm 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 established
When the committee reported. Sena-
tor Foraker said, everybody apparently
supposed the investigation was ended.
He continued: "But not so. AS
though conscious that notwithstanding
alb his assertions and declarations as
to the suff1ciency of the testimony, it
was in fact unreliable and insufficient
to justify his order Of discharge We
were favored with the further message
of December IA. 1908, in which we were
Informed that detectives had been en-
ployed by the war department and that
they have been at work for months"
Most@Sericus Feature
OpOethlIlS lHe reply Oh the preS1-
dent and Q secretary of war to q
senate ref calling for informa-
ton on Htive's Investigations,
Mr.. For ! y
'This 'ssage Tof the president with
its exf- and this report of the secre-
tary ~ war present a new and most
seri9 feature Of the unhappy business.
I -''Tney not only disclose determined
effort on the part of the president to
again bolster up the case against these
men, but he has resorted to a method
in his effort to secure such testimony
that cannot be fittingly characterized
"ithout the use of language which, IL
'-1ployed might appear to be disre-
spectful to the chief executive
''And worst of all, in this endeavor 10
secure such testimony the president has
himself committed the serious offense-
condemned by every court that admin
listers the common law that has ever
mad occasion to speak on the subject cf
holding out to these men an induce