Bismarck daily tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1881-1916, 1911-12-21
LAWLESSNESS
CONTINUED from page ~

(IOntlnueQ from page H.
law was one of the keynotes Of Sena'
tor Borah's address. Obedience to the
law he saia, was the bedrock on which
powerful governments are built, and
he believed this a time when a politi'
cal party could afford to make 1t a
cardinal tenet of it's faith. In no
other first rate nation he sai0. is law
so disregarded as in the United States.
s'There is no place where life Is
so insecure against bomb or bullet,
where criminal laws are so ineffect.
ually enforced, where corruption is SO
little condemned in public opinion
and where defiance of law in the high
est walks of criminal life so general
w prevails. To leave law unenforced
to cultivate a disregard for it's obliga-
items is but to fallow the ground SO
that in after years there may be one
law for the poor and another for the
rich," said Mr.. Borah.
He added that the Mcnamara cases
and the trust cases were strong and
uncontroverted evidence of what is
fast becoming a national disease. He
said he had no sympathy with the
prosecution of business men who
erred unknowingly.
II refer alone" he said. ito that
class who sit in their Offices with
trained lawyers and plan how they
can evade the law and its penalties.
If a man lies in wait for his adver-
sary and Stays him, unwarned. will
it be q defense for his lawyer to say
to the court that his client has always
ihad difficulty in distinguishing be-
tween voluntary and Involuntary man.
slaughter?
1T is not only the things condemned
by the rule of reason but by the die
tates of conscience and common hon.
esty that the public complains. l
do not enter a defense of our anti
trust law; I am frank to say doubt
both its efficiency and completeness.
But it is the law and if half the ener-
gy and ingenuity OF our business men
had been put forth to perfect 1t. that
has been expended to successfully v1o-
late it and make it worthless, we
would long ago have had law which
would protect all legitimate business
and make all business legitimate"
II sympathize sincerely with the
man who in his hunger or his dis
appointment, in encouragement or de-
spair, thinks he can better conditions
by taking the law into his own hands.
In the hour in which order shall be
driven from it's high place in the tenn
pie of liberty and in which lawless-
ness and might shall come In It's
stead, in the fearful struggle to fol-
low, the first man to go to the bottom
and remain there will be the man who
tolls.
"But how shall we excuse or long
sympatlize with the man of influence
and position, of wealth and prestige,
who still by word and deed teaches
disrespect for or defiance of the law!
Does he not know that it Is useless
to long expect law and order in the
common walks of life when lawless-
ness reigns supreme in the upper
air?
"The danger lies in procrastination.
We learned once at tremendous cost
Of life and blood that you may have
your fugitive slave law, your MIS-
souri, compromise, your bred Scott |
decision, your fiatt of government
your compromise with wrong, your
barter with justice, but the hour OF
reckoning and readjustment comes
tardy, but memorable. 1t is possible,
nv friends, to go on until men OF
great fortunes, whether justly or I'M
Justly earned, will stand stripped like
the slave master of the South, not
alone of his slaves, but stripped OF
his wealth, earned through two CEN J
turtles of sunrequited toll
LET us not trifle too long with
that widespread passionate sense OF
wrong. even among the more con.
servative, arising out of the BELIEF
hat large fortunes have been built up
Id the expense Of the poor, and that
men. women and children 90 hungry
while others revel in waste and lux
ury It IL possible to 20 on until the
soldier called into the street to pro-