Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1911-12-21
Senator Rorah,s Speech.

| Senator Borah's Speech.
| The address by Senator Borah.
which the President said ia had been
a delight to listen to, was in part as
| follows:
ITO save their worthless lives" he
said. referring to the dynamiters
| they entered pleas of guilty.. insisting
that they did it all for principle and
| expect an astonished world to accept
their whining apologies.
There is another court record
| which we will in passing, notice also
| Bound up in many volumes you will
| find the fun record of two of the late
Noted decisions. 1t is tale twice told.
| Of selfshness and greed, eXtortion and
lawlessness. The plea of justification
| is not unlike the plea of the planters
| of dynamite, for although the acts
| are clearly in violation Of law and the
rights of the public, it is claimed new
ertheless. that it was all done in the
| interest of business growth and in
| dustrial progress.
This is the best plea and the only plea
Etnat twentieth century business can fur
nish-all that could be said by those so
| rarely gifted and richly endowed with
| this worlds goods and intellectual power
and of whom the government and hui
! mainly have a right to expect so much. =
Respect and enforcement of the law
was one of the keynotes of Senator Bo-
| rah's address Obedience to the law, he
| said, was the bedrock on which powerful
| governments are built, and he believed
this a time when a political party could
| afford to make it a cardinal tenet of its
faith. In no other first rate nation, he
said is law 50 disregarded as in the
/ United States.
There is no place where life is so in
| secure against bomb or bullet where
| criminal laws are so Intellectually enforc-
ed, where corruption is so little condemn
ed in public opinion and where defiance
of law in the highest walks of business
life 50 generally prevails. To leave law
unenforced. to cultivate a disregard for
| its obligations, 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 case and
the trust cases were strong and uncon-
troverted evidence of what is fast becom-
ing a national disease. He said he had
no sympathy with the prosecution Of bus
mess men who erred unknowingly.
I refer alone" he said. TO that
class who sit in their Offices with
trained lawyers and plan how they
may eyade the law and its penalties.
II a man lies in wait for. his adYer=
lsary and Stays him, unmarried, will 1t
be defense for his lawyer to say to
the court that his client has always
had difficulty in distinguishing be-
tween voluntary and involuntary man
slaughter?
1t is not only of the things eon-
Idemned by the rule of reason, but by
the dictates Of conscience and common
honestly that the public complains. |
do not enter a defense Of our anti
trust law: | am frank to say ! doubt
both its efficiency and completeness.
: But It Is the law and if half the ener-
Icy and ingenuity of our business men
had been put forth to perfect il, that
has been expended to successfully
violate it anu make it worthless. we
/ would long ago have had a law which
: would protect all legitimate business
and make all business legitimate"
Il sympathize sincerely with the
) man who in his hunger or his disap
pointment, 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 its high place in the tenn
pie OF liberty and in which lawlessness
and might shall come in its stead, in
the fearful struggle to follow the first
man to go to the bottom and remain
there will be the man who tolls.
But how shall we excuse or long
sympathiZe 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 COM
mon walks of life when lawlessness
: reigns supreme in the upper air?
THE danger lies in proerastnation. We
/ learned once at Tremendous cost of life
and blood that you may have your fugi-
tive slave law. your Missouri compro-
mise. your bred Scott decision, your fiat
OF government, your compromise with
wrong your barter with justice, but the
hour of reckoning and readjustment
I comes-tardy, but memorable. 1t is pos
! sible, my friends, to go ON until men of
great fortunes, whether justly or unjust
ly earned, will stand stripped like the
slave master of the South not alone OF
his slaves but stripped of his wealth,
earned through TWO centuries of 'unre-
/ Quilted toll
Let us not trife too long with that
! widespread passionate sense of wrong,
| even among the more conservative. arts
ing out of the belief that large fortunes
/ have been built up at the expense of the
I poor, and that men, women and chill
dren go hungry while others reve in
| waste and luxury. 1t is possible to go
on until the soldier called into the street
| TO protect property will fraternize with
! the mob.
You will hear often in these days that
certain men are engaged in experiment.
ing with new plans of government and
| dangerous eXpedients.
I'VE do not need a new faith; we
need the simplicity, the direetness and
self surrender of the old. We do not
need q new gospel; we need rather TO
/ L. ~ Il