FORAKER BILL
for Restoration of Discharged Soldiers
An Issue
in Approaching Campaign
letter of Senator Joseph B. Foraker
to
Mr. John B. Milholland
Concerning1 the Postponement of Vote on
Brownsville Matter.
Washington, D. C-, May 22, 1908.
Dear Sir: I have your letter of May 18, and do not
know how better to answer your inquiry in regard to the
postponement of the Brownsville bill than by quoting from
a letter written by me a day or two ago to Mr. Richard D.
White, of Cambridge, Mass., in answer to a similar inquiry.
On this point I said to Mr. White :
"With the President active in his opposition, personally
importuning Senators, I was unable to get a vote, even if
I succeeded in getting the bill before the Senate, and,
unable to pass the bill if I did get a vote. At most I could
get assurances of only thirty-five votes, and some of those
were wavering. It was necessary to have forty-seven.
VOTE THEN MEANT DEFEAT
"A vote at this time, therefore, meant defeat, and the
end of all hope of restoring the soldiers. Postponement
was better because, in the first place, it could not be
worse; and, in the second place it keeps the subject alive
and in a practical form for consideration during the pres¬
ent campaign. The whole country knows that the Browns¬
ville subject has been narrowed down to a question of my
bill, which means complete restoration, or the Warner
bill, which means whatever the whim of the President
may seem fit to allow, and that, I am satisfied, would be
very little, if anything.
"As late as April 24 he wrote to Senator William Alden
Smith, of Michigan, that he thought many, if not all, the
soldiers guilty, and that there was no more excuse for
sympathy for them than there would be for sympathy with
Czolgosz or Guiteau, and that my bill meant only to force
a lot of murderers and perjurers back into the army, and
that he would, feel it his duty if we passed the bill to veto
it, and if we passed it over his veto he would refuse to en¬
force it.
SUKE OF SUCCESS LATER
"I have no doubt of passing the bill in December, be¬
cause enough Republicans have promised me that if I
would allow the bill to go over until then they would at
that time vote with me to pass it, but in view of the Presi¬
dent's frame of mind, and his expressed purpose to veto
the bill, we must, if possible, have a two-thirds vote, and
this brings up a feature of this newly made situation
that will, I hope, enable us to get this additional strength.
"If the bill had been voted upon and defeated at this
session the colored voters of the country would not have
had any means of showing their displeasure, except by
voting against the party in a spirit of revenge.
"Now, with the bill postponed, they have at least a
living issue, and they have a right; to demand of Republi¬
can candidates for office, including our candidates for
President and Vice President, and all other candidates for
re-election to the Senate and to the House of Representa¬
tives, that they will pledge themselves to support the
Foraker bill.
CAN AID RACEAND SOLDIERS
"In this way the 10,000,000 colored people of the
United States can greatly help, not only the soldiers, but
the whole race by causing themselves to be felt and appre¬
ciated as they never have been before. When they come
to realize their opportunity I think they will all be proud
to take a direct and effective part in what should be to
them a labor of love.
"I am a firm believer in the intervention of Divine
Providence in the affairs of men. While postponement
was to me a bitter and reluctant conclusion, yet I feel that,
after all, it was of God's ordering, and that in due time
we shall all see and appreciate that what now appears to be
so disappointing and discouraging is for the best.''
Hoping this quotation from my letter to Mr. White will
answer your inquiry and that the answer may be satisfac¬
tory, I remain, very truly yours, &c.
J. B. Foraker.
Mr. John E. Milholland,
Chairman of Executive Committee
of the Constitutional League of the
United States, Nezv York