Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1915-04-07
IDAHO'S CHOICE
FOR PRESIDENT
Incidents of Senator Borah's Life
Said to Reveal Lincoln-like Quail
ties-Idaho Resembles the Illinois
of the Fifties.
BY A. V. c.

BY A. V. g..
tBy Special Arrangement with the Boston Evening
Trgnscript)
NTOUNTEBANKS there are in Congress
1KL who trace resemblances between them
selves and Abraham Lincoln, but the man
in that body today who-not in physique,
but in mental and moral malte-up-suggests
Lincoln more than any other has never eX-
plotted the fact. This is William Edgar
Borah, Senator from Idaho lie halls from
a region which has many points in common
with the Illinois of the later fifties, and from
capital which bears about the same rela-
tion to the frontier Of civilization that
Springfield bore when Lincoln's fame
brought his home town into prominence.
Lincoln was an immigrant in Illinois from
an older community; Borah having in like
manner moved westward to seek his for
tune, settled in Boise City to practice law,
and gradually drlfted into public affairs.
The Prophecy of Friends
The human quality that distinguished Lin
coin from most of his professional and po-
ltical competitors was n poise of judgment
which compelled tho admiration of men
whose own efrusivc partisanship stood in
the way of their discerning the rights and
wrongs in everyday things. a like trait
holds Borah in not only the respect but the
he has been Obliged to tell unpalatablo
truths. Lincoln entered the Republican Ma
tiona Convention Of 1860 with no machine"
to push his fortunes, and won the presi-
dental nomination, and later the election, on
platform of progressive principles. The
friends who know Borah best prophesy that
he will parallel this record in 1916. 1t is
certainly worth noting that, without any vis-
ible pressing OF his claims, his name is on
the lips of voters in all parts of the country
as one of the imminent possibilities, and on
the basis of promising sane solution OF
problems with which neither extreme rad-
Gals nor extreme conservatives seem to have
been able to cope.
Borah's First Law Case
His first case at tho Idaho bar was not
profitable. and afforded him
slight scope for the display of any talent
but one for holding his tongue when silence
would he wiser than speech; but it was
typical of the place and time, and gave him
a fresh point Of view. A customer in n
cheap restaurant had forced an alteration
with the Chinese cook, shot him while he was
trying to run away and retained Borah as
attorney for the defense when indicted for
the homicide. Anywhere in the East such n
case would have afforded a brilliant chance
for an unknown attorney; but on the frontier
Cinnamon were regarded fair game for
snipcrs. and the average Judge and jury
were rather apathetic toward whatever con-
cerncd the yellow fntcropers
in this case, after an apology for a trial,
the prisoner was acquitted. Borah, having
discharged his private professional duty, felt
that he still owed an obligation to the pub
lie and as he walked away from the court
room with his client he said: Now that you
are free am going to add little more adj
vice to what 7 have given you during your
ordeal Almost anywhere in the civilized
world to take even the mcancst human life
as wantony as you took that poor China
mans is Il crime punishable by hanging. one
day ttfat will be the rule here; so, if | were
you. I should lose no time in lighting out and
settling where my record was unknown" The
client. to whom this sort of talk was a nov
city. took the hint, and by the following
that neighborhood had one unruly
dcnizen the less.
A Dramatic Piece of Evidence
This was the first instance in which the
young lawyer spoke his mind in disregard
of the custom of the vicinaEe. A second
was when, in the face and teeth of popular
sentiment, he took up n stale but just claim
for damages against a railroad company and
lawyers theEoabout either under retainer, or
hoping soon to be, he had no competitors
for the service of his client, who came to him
after having been in vain to attorney after
attorney. One had declined on the ground
that the plaintiff had no case in either law
or equity; another because having dragged
along for three or four years, the claim would
arouse an adverse prejudice in the minds of
the jury and suspicion in the mind of the
Court; others, frankly because they were
pledged to the defense of the corporation
This victory improved his professional for
tunes considerably for II gave him an intro
duction to a number of important persons
who admired his pluck in leading a forlorn
hope quite as much as the skill with which
he handled the case on its trial.
During the riots in the Coeur d'Alene min
ing district in 1899 a labor leader named Cor
coran was indicted for shooting nonunion
miner at Wardner, The plea in defense was
that Corcoran had not been in Wardner on
the day of the shooting. Witnesses for the