Omaha daily bee., 1909-08-28
PettifogRing.


Our amiable democratic contem-
porary. the World-Herald, comes
bravely to the defense of the accept
ance by n of the nonpartisan demo-
cratic candidates for supreme Judge
of a retainer from a hated foreign COR
poration to help nullify M Of the
good laws put on the statute books by
the late democratic legislature. The
World-Herald's argument would do
credit to a Philadelphia lawyer. This
is the way 1t runs:
On the present occasion he (the nonpar-
tisan candidate for supreme judge) appears
for a client who attacks a state law. That
client has the same right to appear in
court. to be represented BY counsel, that
the state has. Any reputable attorney has
the same right to appear in behalf Of an
individual that he has to appear for the
state. In appearing before the court a hti-
giant is entitled to summon an officer Of
the court to speak for him, and, unless
conscientious reasons forbid. It is the duty
Of that officer of the court to respond to
the This is all a part of our
judicial system. To say that because he
(the nonpartisan democratic candidate for
supreme judge) happens to have been
named for an important public office he
should not perform this service. is to say
that he should be such & coward as to re-
fuse the performance Of . professional
duty because 1t might work injury to his
candidacy.
Most beautiful But IT sounds
- ItIro A. woAno 90 a1rn@,k1o-
Esau than the mouthpiece of a reform
Jacob,
Yet, come to examine It closer, there
is this saving clause, unless conscien-
tious reasons forbid" This. Of course,
is no case where conscience should
prick. A nonpartisan democratic law
yer might just as we'll take the tainted
money, which the corporate nulliiers
hang up in a contingent fee, as to let
some rank partisan republican lawyer
get It.
But If money does not count and
no conscientious reasons" enter in,
why should not the n%onpartisan demo-
cratic candidate have volunteered for
the people to help defend a good and
wise law placed on the statute books
by the late democratic legislature in
stead Of hiring out to a corrupting cor
poration to work it's undoing?
Still another question of conscien-
tious scruple might be raised by point
ing to the democratic platform which
endorses in general terms all the re-
form legislation enacted this year
bearing the democratic label. Ae-
cording to the democratic oracle at
Fairview, every candidate running on
a platform is under moral obligation
In the nature Of a contract to uphold
1t in spirit as we'll as In letter. Can a
conscientious lawyer run for supreme
judge on a platform endorsing a law
which he is at the very momen re-
tanned by an odious corporation 10
help nullify?
There Is more in it. therefore, than
mere verbal dialectics as to whether a
iitigant, however wrong, is entitled "a
the assistance of legal counsel, and
whether a lawyer has a moral right tC
accept a fee to represent a client with
whose cause he has no sympathy. The
democratic candidates for supreme
judge are posing as high-minded non,
partisans occupying a moral plane
elevated far above the ordinary com.
monplace lawyer, and they are asking
for votes in disregard of party lines on
the claim that they are much holiel
and better thar their opponents. Wher
the World-Herald tries to picture it,
n~onpartisan democrats as standing OF
lofty pedestals and then suddenly dis
covers n OF them down on he bot
tom step reaching for filthy lucre from
any old client. no wonder it finds 4
hard to keep up the delusion.