The Daily Ardmoreite. [volume] (Ardmore, Okla.) 1893-current, 1911-12-21

New YORK, Dec. EO,-S SeIldloI w II
| liam f.. Borah, of Idaho, at the Young
Republican Club tonight, made an ad-
dress that breathed fire in every
word for "lawless big business" and
little violators of the law as well
He drew a significant comparison
between the McNamaras, the con-
fessed dynamiters, and the old Stand
ard Oil and Tobacco companies.
ITO save their worthless lives he
said, referring to the dynamiters,
they entered pleas of guilty. insist
ing that they did it all for principle
and expect an astonished world to ac-
cept their whining apologies
There is another court record
which we will in RAISING, notice also.
Bound up in many volumes you Will
find the full record of two of the late
noted decisions. 1t is a tale twice
told. of selfighness and greed. eXtor-
ton and lawlcSsness. The plea of
justification is not unlike the plea of
the planters of dynamite, for although
tn eacts are clearly in violation of
law and the rights of the public, it
is claimed nevertheless, that it was
all done in the interest of business
growth and industrial progress.
This is the best plea and the only
plea that Twentieth Century business
can furnish-all that can be said by
those so rarely gifted and richly en-
dowed with this worlds goods and in
tellectual power, and of whom the
government and humanity have a
right to expect so much
Respect and enforcement Of the
law was one of the keynotes of Sen
ator Borahs address. Obedience to
the law he said, was the bedrock on
which powerful governments are built.
and he believed this time when a
roltical party could afford to make
ii cardinal tenet of its faith. In
no other first rate nation, he said, is
law so disregarded as in the United
States.
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 business life so gener-
ally prevailsTo leave law unenforced,
to cultivate a disregard for its obi
cations 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 for the pros
ecution of business men who erred
nknowingly.
Il refer alone he said Ito that
class who sit in their offices with
trained lawyers and plan how they
may eyade the law and its penalties.
If a man lies in wait for his adyer-
and slays him, unwarned, will
{ he defense for his lawyer to say
to the court that his client has al.
ways had difficulty in distinguishing
between voluntary and involuntary
manslaughter?
1T is not only of the things con
demned by the rule of reason, but by
the dictates of conscience and COM
mon honesty that the public com
plains. | do not enter defense of
our antitrust law; | am frank to say
doubt both its efficiency and com
pleteness. But it is the law and if
the energy and ingenuity of our bus
mess men had been put forth to per
feet it that has been expended so sue
cessfully violate it and make it worth