four at least-with the numbers effaced had been sold to citizens of Brownsville by the quartermaster-sergeant of one of the companies of the Twenty-sixth Infantry only a short time before the negro soldiers arrived there. In addition, Mayor Combe testified that the Texas Rangers were, until recently, armed with Krag carbines.

8. The bullets taken from houses and put in evidence, as already pointed out, may have been fired either from Krag carbines or Krag rifles, or they might have been fired from Mauser rifles.

9. The location of the 6 shells and 5 clips found by Captain Macklin on a circular area not more than 10 inches in diameter indicates that they must have been placed where he found them, and no one has suggested any purpose the soldiers could have had in placing them there.

10. The bullet cut from the post in front of Crixell's was not a soldier's bullet and could not have been fired from any gun the soldiers had.

11. The microscopic investigation and report.

All these several points are absolutely inconsistent with the theory that the soldiers did the shooting. But in addition to what such evidence proves, there is the improbability of soldiers with such a record as these soldiers had forming and executing any such conspiracy, and especially in the way claimed.

In the first place, the formation and execution of such a conspiracy would require a higher order of ability than any of the men of the battalion possessed; but it is not possible that men capable of planning such a raid and so managing its execution as to defy detection would be so absurdly stupid as to commence their operations by firing from their own quarters and grounds, and then, after they had thus aroused the town and fixed their identity as soldiers, and not until then, jump over the wall and start on their errand of outrage and murder.

NO MOTIVE.

In the second place, there was no sufficient motive. To begin with, the only motive suggested is one of revenge-revenge by indiscriminate murder of men, women, and children-because some of the saloons would not sell to the soldiers except at separate bars, and because one of the soldiers, Private Newton, was hit over the head with a revolver by Customs Officer Tate and knocked down and badly injured without any adequate excuse therefor, and because one or two others of the soldiers had been unfortunate enough to have some petty difficulty. As to this provocation, the testimony is conclusive that the soldiers made no complaint because they were denied the equal privileges of the saloons, and it is further shown that Newton showed no special resentment and took no steps beyond reporting his trouble to his commanding officer, who promised to have it investigated, with which Newton expressed himself as entirely satisfied. The testimony shows, moreover, that Newton is a quiet, inoffensive, peaceable-minded man, who was on guard duty that night, but off post and asleep in the guardhouse when the firing commenced. His character was such that he would be most unlikely to conceive the idea of organizing a conspiracy, or induce men to join one, to shoot up the town in the way alleged, especially one to avenge his wrongs, but of which he was not an active participator.

STARCK'S HOUSE NOT MISTAKEN FOR TATE'S HOUSE.

It has been said, as evidence that the motive of the soldiers was to revenge Newton's wrongs, that the raiders fired into Starck's house, adjoining the house in which Customs Officer Tate lived, evidently mistaking it for Tate's house. This is thought to be a strong point to indicate that it was the soldiers who did the shooting and that they were seeking to revenge Newton's wrongs by shooting up the house of the man who had wronged him. The testimony shows that some months prior to the shooting, Starck, whose house was shot into, and who was also a customs officer, had undertaken to arrest a smuggler by the name of Avillo, who lived in Brownsville and who had worked for Starck, and was perfectly familiar with Starck's house and its location, and that Avillo resisted arrest and Starck felled him to the ground with his revolver almost in the identical way that Tate had felled the soldier Newton. The testimony further shows that this smuggler, who was thus knocked down by Starck, was put under bond to appear at court, and that he had forfeited his bond and was at the time of this shooting affair an outlaw and fugitive from justice. It would seem far more likely that Avillo, the outlaw and fugitive from justice, remembering his injuries, had something to do with the shooting up of Starck's house than that Newton, who appeared as a witness, and who showed that he was on guard duty that night, was out with a lot of raiders, or that a lot of raiders were out, on his account, without him accompanying them, trying to shoot up Tate's house, of the location of which there was no evidence to show they had any knowledge whatever, and that they fired into Starck's house by mistake. The probabilities are that the men who shot into Mr. Starck's house knew whose house they were shooting into and knew why they were shooting into it. Mr. Starck's testimony was to the effect that he had arrested during the term of his service as a customs officer more than 600 smugglers at Brownsville.

And if a motive be demanded for the shooting of Dominguez it would seem more likely that he received his injuries at the hands of some of the numerous criminals he had arrested and enforced the law against during his long term of service as a municipal officer than that he was singled out by the soldiers to be shot by them, with whom he had had no trouble whatever of any kind. But however all this may be, we are of the opinion that

1. The testimony wholly fails to identify the particular individuals, or any of them, who participated in the shooting affray that occurred at Brownsville, Tex., on the night of August 13-14, 1906.

2. The testimony wholly fails to show that the discharged soldiers of the Twenty-fifth U. S. Infantry, or any of them, entered into any agreement or so-called "conspiracy of silence," or that they had among themselves any understanding of any nature to withhold any information of which they, or any of them, might be possessed concerning the shooting affray that occurred at Brownsville, Tex., on the night of August 13-14, 1906.

3. The testimony is so contradictory, and much of it so unreliable, that it is not sufficient to sustain the charge that soldiers of the Twenty-fifth U. S. Infantry, or any of them, participated in the shooting affray that occurred at Brownsville, Tex., on the night of August 13-14, 1906.

4. The weight of the testimony shows that none of the soldiers of the Twenty-fifth U. S. Infantry participated in the shooting affray that occurred at Brownsville, Tex., on the night of August 13-14, 1906.

5. Whereas the testimony shows that the discharged men had a good record as soldiers, and that many of them had by their long and faithful service acquired valuable rights of which they are deprived by a discharge without honor; and

Whereas the testimony shows beyond a reasonable doubt that whatever may be the fact as to who did the shooting, many of the men so discharged were innocent of any offense in connection therewith; therefore it is, in our opinion, the duty of Congress to provide by appropriate legislation for the correction of their record and for their reenlistment and reinstatement in the Army, and for the restoration to them of all the rights of which they have been deprived, and we so recommend.

J. B. FORAKER,
M. G. BULKELEY.

As indicating the character of legislation that should be enacted, as above recommended, we attach hereto Senate bill 5729, of which the following is a copy, and recommend its passage

A BILD

To correct the records and authorize the reenlistment of certain noncommissioned officers and enlisted men belonging to Companies B, C, and D of the Twenty-fifth United States Infantry who were discharged without honor under Special Orders, Numbered Two hundred and sixty-six, War Department, November ninth, nineteen hundred and six, and the restoration to them of all rights of which they have been deprived on account thereof.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That any noncommissioned officer or enlisted man belonging to Company B, C, or D of the Twenty-fifth United States Infantry, discharged without honor under Special Orders, Numbered Two hundred and sixty-six, War Department, dated November ninth, nineteen hundred and six, on account of the shooting affray that occurred at Brownsville, Texas, on the night of August thirteenth-fourteenth, nineteen hundred and six, who shall make oath before any duly authorized enlisting officer of the United States Army or Navy that he did not participate in said affray, and that he does not know of any soldier belonging to any of said companies who did participate in the same, and that he has not at any time heretofore and does not now withhold any knowledge with respect to that occurrence which, if made public, would or might lead to the identification of any participator in said shooting affray or any accessory thereto, either before or after the fact, and that he has answered fully to the best of his knowledge and ability all questions that have been lawfully put to him by his officers or others in connection therewith, shall be, and hereby is, made eligible to reenlist in the military or naval forces of the United States on his application therefor at any time within three

months from and after the passage of this act, any statute or provision of law or order or regulation to the contrary notwithstanding; and that upon such reenlistment he shall be allowed full pay, according to the rank he held and the pay he was receiving at the date of discharge until his reenlistment: Provided, That all the rights and privileges to which the soldiers reenlisting under the provisions of this act were entitled, respectively, at the time of their discharge shall be, and hereby are, fully restored to them, and the record showing their discharge without honor shall be, and hereby is, annulled, set aside, and held for naught, and the time elapsing since their discharge without honor until the date of such reenlistment shall be computed in determining all rights to which they may be respectively entitled on account of continuous service as though they had been in the service without interruption, and they shall not suffer any forfeiture of any right or privilege by reason of such discharge: Provided further, That in any case where the regular term of enlistment which the soldier was serving at the time when discharged without honor has in the meanwhile expired, his record shall be, and hereby is, corrected so as to show an honorable discharge at the time of the expiration of such enlistment, and he shall be allowed full pay and all rights and privileges until that time; and in the event of the reenlistment of such soldier under the provisions of this act his term of reenlistment shall be deemed to have commenced as of the time when his previous enlistment expired, and his service under such reenlistment shall be without prejudice of any kind by reason of his former discharge without honor: And provided further, That in case any of the noncommissioned officers or enlisted men belonging to said companies and discharged without honor shall have died since they were so discharged and before the passage of this act, but who shall have testified under oath or made affidavit before their death that they did not participate in said shooting affray or have any knowledge with reference thereto, their respective records shall be, and hereby are, corrected in accordance with the provisions of this act and their legal representatives shall be entitled to all pay that would have become due to them from the time of their discharge until the time of their decease.

SEC. 2. That nothing in this act contained shall be construed to prohibit the prosecution and punishment of any soldier reenlisting under the provisions hereof as to whom it may at any time hereafter appear that he did participate in said shooting affray or have knowledge thereof which he has withheld.

SEC. 3. That all reenlistments under the provisions hereof of soldiers who at the time of their discharge without honor were serving terms of enlistment which have not yet expired shall be held to be for only the remaining portion of said unexpired terms, respectively.

O

PUBLIC BUILDING AT POCATELLO, IDAHO.

MARCH 11, 1908.-Ordered to be printed.

Mr. HEYBURN, from the Committee on Public Buildings and Grounds, submitted the following

REPORT.

[To accompany S. 124.]

The Committee on Public Buildings and Grounds, to whom was referred the bill (S. 124) to establish a Government building at the town of Pocatello, county of Bannock, State of Idaho, have considered the same and recommend its passage with the following amendments: Strike out all after the enacting clause and insert the following:

That the Secretary of the Treasury be, and he is hereby, authorized and directed to acquire, by purchase, condemnation, or otherwise, a site and cause to be erected thereon a suitable building, including fireproof vaults, heating and ventilating apparatus, elevators, and approaches, for the use and accommodation of the United States post-office and other Government offices in the city of Pocatello and State of Idaho, the cost of said site and building, including said vaults, heating and ventilating apparatus, elevators, and approaches, complete, not to exceed the sum of one hundred and twenty-five thousand dollars.

SEC. 2. That proposals for the sale of land suitable for said site shall be invited by public advertisement in one or more of the newspapers of said city of largest circulation for at least twenty days prior to the date specified in said advertisement for the opening of said proposals.

SEC. 3. That proposals made in response to said advertisement shall be addressed and mailed to the Secretary of the Treasury, who will then cause the said proposed sites, and such others as he may think proper to designate, to be examined in person by an agent of the Treasury Department, who shall make written report to said Secretary as the result of said examination and of his recommendation thereon and the reasons therefor, which shall be accompanied by the original proposals and all maps, plats, and statements which shall have come into his possession relating to the said proposed site.

SEC. 4. That the building shall be unexposed to danger from fire by an open space of at least forty feet on each side, including streets and alleys.

Amend the title as follow:

To provide for the purchase of a site and the erection of a building thereon at Pocatello, in the State of Idaho.

The following letter from the Acting Secretary of the Treasury to the chairman of the Committee on Public Buildings and Grounds,