The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1912-08-15
BARROW PLEADS HIS
OWN CASE IN COURT
Attacks Attorneys and the
Prosecutor
COURTROOM CROWDED
Declares Fredericks and Burns Are
the Tools of the Steel Trust.
Is Eloquent in His
Appeal
COURTROOM CROWDED

Los Angeles. Cal. August 14.-Clarenee
S. Darrow, regarded one of the fore
most champions of organized labor and
defender In the courts of its leaders and
principles today pleaded his own case in
his trial for alleged jury bribery.
At the outset he informed the Jurors he
would not appeal to their sympathies and
there was no note Of supplcation in his
opening remarks Instead he denounced
those who had, he said, plotted to destroy
him.
Assistant District A torney w. j. Ford,
who sat near him, was made the object
OF many inveetives District Attorney
Fredei icks and Detective W. j. Burns
were termed the tools of the steel trust;
the National Erectors' associations, desig
mated as the arch consplrator against him
because of his labors for The working
man, was bitterly assailed as an enemy
of society.
Collectively all werere called as cruel a
band of cut throats as ever pursued a
man since the world was born"
Immense Crowd Present
The spectacle of the accused attorney
pleading for himself attracted hundreds
to the court room. There was rush
when the doors opened and men and
women were roughly DHnuleu
Darrcw declared he was not being prose-
cuted for bribery, but because he had led
In the battle for organized labor.
4 have committed one crime" he said
(which is like the crime against the
Holy Ghost, which cannot be forgiven. l
have stood for the weakest poor. | have
stood for the men who toll
The enemies of labor he characterized,
had long sought to get him out of the
way. cd AWuM
II have stood against them." he said
Now Is their chance. They would stop
my voice. which, from the time I was a
babe my father and mother taught me
never tc raise except for justice and free
dom and the cause of the weakest poor.
They would stop II with the peniten-
tiary.
"Oh, you wild insane members OF the
steel trust and Erectors association. Oh.
you mad hounds Of detectives who are
willing to do your masters will. Oh.
you district attorneys. You know nat
what YOU do. Let me say that If you
can succeed in placing me behind prison
walls there will breed a silence more
omnous and eloquent than any word
that my poor lips could ever frame"
Why Others Were Not Tried
Enumeratlng all to whom immunity had
been extended In the effort to convict him.
Mr. Darrow asked why II was his asso-
ciates in the Mcnamara case Ind not been
prosecuted The answer he said, was be-
cause Davis lived in Los Angeles and 1t
vas not the intention OF the authorities
TO prosecute any one IN this city
Bert H. Franklin and John NJ. Harring-
ton, former employees OF Darrow and the
states chief witnesses against him, Dar-
row declared. committed perjury to gam
freedom for themselves. Evidence of
other alleged offenses, he said was intro
duced to poison the minds of the jury
against iam. He defended mis- acts az
chief counsel of the McNamaras and de-
c!ared he had not violated the law in
preparing that case.
Referring to Attorney Ford's denuncia-
ton Uf him as being morally responsible
tor the Times explosion, Darrow again
excoriated the prosecutor.
| Darrow will conclude his argument at
the forenoon session tomorrow.