showed which men were chargeable with the possession of these guns on that night. All these guns were thus looated except only one. All the men chargeable with these guns were brought before the committee, and each man accounted for himself and his gun on that night beyond the possibility of doubt or question by anybody. Not one of these guns with which they were chargeable could have been fired in Brownsville that night. This left only one other gun to be accounted for, and that was found, not in the hands of a soldier, or any other individual, on that fateful night, but in an arm chest, located in the storeroom with a lot of heavy baggage piled on top of it, and the storeroom locked. It had been placed in that arm chest at Fort Niobrara before the company left there for Brownsville, and there the arm chest containing it and nine other rifles was closed and securely fastened, and not again opened until the company commander undertook to verify his rifles and locate each and every one of them immediately after the firing occurred. That rifle never was fired, except only at Fort Niobrara. It never was in the possession of any soldier of the battalion except only at Fort Niobrara, where it was issued to Sergeant Blaney and carried and used by him in target practice* until he re-enlisted and took his re-enlisting furlough shortly before the company went to Brownsville, when he turned in his rifle to the Quartermaster-Sergeant, who put a paper with his name on it in the magazine of the rifle, smeared the rifle with cosmoline to protect it from rust, placed it in the arm chest with other surplus rifles, where it was found when the chest was opened by Lieutenant Lawrason the night of the firing, and where it continued to remain until the battalion reached Fort Reno where, when Sergeant Blaney returned from his furlough it was taken from the chest and returned to him.

I might dwell upon other facts established by the testimony to show that the so-called circumstantial evidence, instead of convicting the soldiers, absolutely acquits them. But I haven't time and it isn't necessary, for if what I have mentioned is not sufficient to acquit these men to the satisfaction of any mind, it is simply because there is something the matter with that mind. (Applause.)

It was upon such testimony as this that the officers of the battalion who, when the charge was first made, believed their men were innocent, then reluctantly concluded, before this circumstantial evidence was explained, that some of their men must have been guilty, finally changed

Before this microscopic investigation was made or any such question was foreseen, it was established by uncontradicted testimony that Company B took with it to Brownsville as a part of its baggage a box containing from 1,600 to 2,000 exploded shells, with a proportionate number of clips, and that after arrival at Brownsville this box, opened, stood on the back porch of B barracks, where anyone passing might have access to it and remove shells and clips from it. The microscopic report says that the shells picked up in the streets of Brownsville and put in evidence were, beyond a reasonable doubt, fired out of these four guns belonging to B Company. If so, then it also follows that they were fired, not in Brownsville, but at Fort Niobrara, and that they were found in the streets, not because they fell there when fired, but because they had been placed there by persons unknown, who had secured them from this box of shells standing on the back porch and easily accessible to anyone disposed to remove them therefrom. In other words, the microscopic inspection shows conclusively, not that the soldiers were guilty of the firing, but that the soldiers were free from such guilt. (Minority Report.)

their opinions, and are now of one mind that none of their men had anything whatever to do with the shooting up of Brownsville. (Applause.)

In view of the lateness of the hour, I will not pursue this subject further, except only to say beyond investigating as to the guilt or innocence of the soldiers, I have made no effort, neither has any one else, to find out who did shoot up Brownsville. If the soldiers did not do it, and I am sure they did not, I am not concerned as to who may have done it. No court ever required, at least not without committing error, that a defendant charged with crime should go with his proof beyond showing that he was not guilty, and, also show, to acquit himself, who was guilty. I might turn away from this subject at this point, but one or two other thoughts come into my mind, and I must speak of them.

One of your speakers spoke of the fact that the Government has been pursuing these men with detectives to find the perpetrators. That is true. Recent developments in the Senate have established the fact that the authorities spent at least fifteen thousand ($15,000) dollars, in payment to detectives to pursue these men, and if possible find some evidence of their guilt. But so far they have found nothing. The trouble is, they are not looking in the right place. (Applause.) While they have spent fifteen thousand dollars to convict the soldiers, they have not spent fifteen cents to convict anybody else. I do not think it would take half of fifteen thousand dollars to find the fellows who shot up the town, if they would look for them in the right place. (Applause.)

But now, speaking to you about these men. The Committee on Military Affairs of the Senate was ordered to conduct an investigation. I shall never forget how those men impressed me, as they were brought into that committee room and examined and cross-examined in the presence of that committee; examined in the most rigid and exacting manner. Many of them had never been to the Capitol before; many of them were what you might call illiterate men; there was much to awe them and confuse them in what they had to meet. But as they marched into that room, one after another, each testifying for himself, and each accounting for his whereabouts to the satisfaction of every one, I shall never forget the impression they made. They demonstrated the majesty and overwhelming power and force of simple truth, for they had nothing in their favor except only the truth, but with that they met successfully all the efforts of this great, mighty Government. (Applause.)

Now you give me praise for the result. But there are two colored men I ought to mention here, who gave me great help, and I hope I can do this without exciting any jealousy. They were Mr. N. B. Marshall of this city, and Mr. Gilchrist Stewart of New York. They labored as faithfully as any two men ever labored in any cause, in helping to bring the facts before that committee in a way calculated to present the cause to its best advantage. I must mention others. On that committee was General Morgan G. Bulkeley of Connecticut, who ought to have a loving cup, or something equally good. (Applause.) I love him as though he were my brother. And there were two others who should be mentioned. Senators Scott of West Virginia, and Hemenway of Indiana. They all helped, and I wish they were here tonight to receive your thanks for the contribution they made to the success that has finally been wrought. Governor Bulkeley, who served in the Civil War, made a splendid record

on the fighting line. He was born of the political conditions of that great period when Abraham Lincoln conducted the affairs of the country, and when the American people were purified in the fires of battle. He is still in the Senate. I hope he will remain there as long as he lives. When you want to give somebody else a loving cup, present Senator Bulkeley with one. (Applause.) I am really ashamed to take this without something being done for the other three Senators who stood by the soldiers on that committee. (Applause.)

I have said that I do not believe that a man in that battalion had anything to do with the shooting up of "Brownsville," but whether any one of them had, it was our duty to ourselves as a great, strong and powerful nation to give every man a hearing, to deal fairly and squarely with every man; to see to it that justice was done to him; that he should be heard.

They are now to be heard before a Court of Inquiry. I do not know what the result will be, but I do not believe any man in the battalion fears investigation, or that any man will be found disqualified to re-enlist. I do not know whether the men want to go back in the army or not. I have not asked them. That is for them to determine. My purpose was to see that they had a chance to defend themselves. In the second place to restore to the innocent all their rights and give them the privilege of re-enlisting in the uniform that had been taken off them in disgrace, and that has been accomplished. (Applause.)

Henceforth the Brownsville matter will take care of itself.

When I made these remarks two and one-half years had passed since the shooting was done. During practically every hour of that period, both by day and night, the men had been under surveillance. They had been examined and cross-examined; they had been investigated by tribunals before which, as, for instance, the Grand Jury of Cameron County, Texas, they did not appear. They had been pursued by hired detectives, who had resorted to all kinds of disreputable practices to entrap them and in some manner get from some one of them some kind of incriminating statement. But they had gone through it all unscathed. Only the panoply of truth and innocence could have so protected them.

As I spoke they were on the eve of another year of the same kind of bedevilment and harassment and suspicion and mistreatment and outrage at the hands of a body created for the purpose of making an unbiased investigation of charges involving, on the one hand, the honor of the Army and the honor of the Nation, and on the other, life, liberty and property rights of great value.

No one hundred and sixty-seven men ever lived who could have withstood successfully such efforts to unearth the truth about such a crime if they had been the parties who had committed it, or had possession of knowledge with respect thereto which they were attempting to withhold.

It is now (July, 1915), nine years, almost, since that fateful night. I do not know how much effort has been made to find some one of these poor, hapless men guilty of participation in that affray since the Court of Inquiry completed its shameful work, but I do know that now, after the lapse of this long period of time, not one single particle of testimony has ever yet been produced to identify any man who was a member of that battalion with that affray; and I feel that I hazard nothing in saying that not one particle of testimony to such an effect ever will be produced. Neither do I doubt if the Government had spent the one-tenth part to discover the men who shot up Brownsville that it did spend to convict its innocent soldiers of a crime they never committed, the truth would have been easily and long ago established.

THE

CHAPTER XLIV.

THE HEARST-STANDARD OIL LETTERS.

HE Honorable Champ Clark was right in saying that the Brownsville affray put me out of the 1908 race for the Presidency, but he was wrong in saying it also put me out of the Senate.

It destroyed whatever chance I might otherwise have had for the Presidential nomination, however, not because my course with respect to it was either wrong or unpopular, for the exact opposite was true, but because it made President Roosevelt, then at the height of his popularity and power, openly and actively hostile.

He was strong enough to nominate William H. Taft not only in preference to me, but also in preference to all the other candidates, among whom were some of the strongest and most popular leaders of the Republican Party.

He was not strong enough, however, to defeat me on that account for re-election to the Senate. My defeat was due to another cause.

After Taft's nomination for the Presidency there was all over the State of Ohio a manifestation of sentiment in favor of my re-election. This sentiment was strong enough to have overcome the combined opposition of both Roosevelt and Taft, notwithstanding they represented two administrations, the outgoing and the incoming; and this was daily becoming more and more apparent, when, like a flash, the whole situation was changed by a speech made by Mr. William R. Hearst, at Columbus, Ohio, on the evening of September 17, 1908, in which, to make it appear that I had some kind of improper relations with the Standard Oil Company, he read a number of stolen letters to me from Mr. John D. Archbold of that