The evening times. [volume] (Grand Forks, N.D.) 1906-1914, 1911-12-21
SENATOR B0RkH
BREATHED FIRE
i. IN EVERY WORD
Caustic Arrangement of Big
Business and Little Vio-
lators of Law
C0NTRAsTED M'NAMARAss1ee IT,.
AND TWO Gig C0RP0RAT|0h%s, i,
McNamsras Pleaded Guilty to save
Their Worthless Lives and Expect
Their Explanation to be Accepted
LAwless Methods of Trusts.

Their Explanation to be Accepted
LAwless Methods of Trusts.
New York. Dec. Ex-senator Will
liam E. Borah, Of Idaho, at the Young
Republican club last night, made an
address that breathed fire in. every
word for 'lawless big business and
little violators of the law as we'll.
He drew significant comparison
between the McNamaras, the confess
ed dynamiters. and the old Standard
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 1t all for principle
cept their whining apologies
There is another court record
which we will in passing, 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 selfishness and greed, extortion and
lawlessness. The plea Of justificat ton
ts 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
nevertheless. that it was all done in
the interest Of business growth and in
dustrial progress.
This is the best plea and the only
plea that twentieth century business
can furnish-all that could be said
by those 80 rarely gifted and richly
endowed with this worlds goods and
intellectual power. and of whom the
right to expect so much"
Respect and enforcement of the Law
was one Of the keynotes Of Senator
Borah'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 poll
tical party could afford to make it a
cardinal tenet Of its faith. In no 9TH
er 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 Intellectually en-.
forced. where corruption is So little
condemned in. public opinion and
where defiance Of law in the highest
walks Of business life so generally pre-
walls. To leave law unenforced, to
cultivate disregard for It's obligations
is but. to follow. 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 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 train.
ed lawyers and plan how they may
evade the law and its penalties. If a
man lies in wait for his adversary and
slays him. unwarned, will it be a de-
that his client has always had difficulty
in distinguishing between voluntary
and involuntary manslaughter?
1t Is not only of the things con-
demned by the rule of reason. hut by
the dictates Of conscience and COM
mon honesty that the public COM
plains. do not enter a defense of
our antitrust law; l am frank to say
! doubt both Its efficiency and COM
pleteness But it is the law and il half
the energy and ingenuity of our busi-
ness men had been put forth to per-
feet 1t, that has been expended to sue
cessfully violate 1t and make 1T worth
less. we could long ago have had a
law which would protect all legitimate
business and make all business legiti-
mate"
Il sympathize sincerely with the
man who in his hunger or his disap.
pointment, in discoura cement or dis
pair 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 lawless-
ness and might shall come in its stead,
in the fearful struggle to follow, the
first man to go to the bottom to re-
main 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 dis
respect for or defiance Of the law
to long expect law and order in the
common walks Of life when lawless-
ness reigns supreme in the upper air ?
Danger OF Delay.
The danger lies In procrastination.
We learned once at tremendous cost of
life and blood that you may have
your fugitive slave law. your Missouri
compromise. your Dred Scott deci.
sion. your nat money, your comprom.
Use with wrong. your barter with jus.
tice. but the hour Of reckoning and
readjustment comes-tardy, but inex.
orable. 1t is possible. my friends. to
go on until men Of great fortunes.
Wnetner justly or unjustly 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 'unrequited TOLL
Let us not trifie too long with that
widespread passionate sense Of wrong,
even among the more conservative,
arising out Of the belief that large
fortunes have been built up at the eX.
pense of the poor. and that men, wom-
en- and children go hungry while 9TH
ers revel in waste and luxury 1t ia
possible to go on until the soldier call
ed into the street to property will fra
ternize with the mob.
You will hear often in these days
that certain men are engaged in ex-
perimenting with new plans Of govern
ment and dangerous expedientx.
We do not need new faith; we
need the simplicity. the directions and
self-surrendcr Of the old. We do not
need new gospel: we need rather to
preach the creed Of Washington and