The Fargo forum and daily republican. [volume] (Fargo, N.D.) 1894-1957, 1917-10-23

Liberty"
The following letter from a former
| neighbor, and father of Paul Cody
/ Bentley, who has fallen on the war
front, explains itself:
Chicago, Ill, Oct. 3. 1917.
Hon. Robert NJ. La Toilette.
The Senate.
My Dear Sir:
You were born in Sun Prairie
| township, while l was born in AL
biOn township, a few miles away,
/ about the same time. You may re-
| member that We went to school to-
| gether; you may remembeF a patri-
otto defamation you made. when in
adolescence, at a school picnic. You
| may remember when Edwin Booth
came to Madison. when you were an
undergraduate, and he played Mac
beth and also played lago in
"Othello". You may remember in
your college, ideals, how you deter
mined to become an actor-the
greatest in the world.
You may remember that as an I'M
dergraduate you wrote an essay on
Macbeth and Iago, and how they, in
your sentence, became your heroes;
| you may remember how your grafton
won the university prize; how it aft
1 erwards won the prize over Beloit,
Ripon and Milton; how you were
sent to st. Louis, as recall, and you
won the prize in the intercollegiate
oratorical contest over all the insti-
tutions of learning in the central
| states; you may remember how you
came back and were graduated with
hOnors and Immediately nominated
for county attorney of Dane county,
| Wisconsin, although you were scarce
| lY more than mere boy and had
never studied law. You may remem-
Der how you were triumphantly
elected on your oratorical supremacy;
you will remember how you entered
our law class as a post graduate and
attended a few times, and were, as
think, graduated.
The Boy Hero.
You will remember how the peo-
pie of Wisconsin treated you as a
boy hero. and how many, including
Senator Sawyer. became your pat
| rons, and helped you to high places;
you will remember how the Elements
personified as the Witches hailed
you as the Thane of Cawdor, and
how you sacrificed your patrons to
your ambitions. No doubt their
ghosts pass your histrionic vision.
A poor boy, made mad by his stage
associations, martyred LneolHs be-
cause he thought the President a
tYrant. Can it be possible that you,
with all your professions and expert
ence. are now seeking to martyr
America as a tyrant, for the Hohen-
/ zollerns? What did Macbeth, or Iago,
or ]. Wilkes Booth, ever to do make
| the world safe for parliamentarism?
The Supreme Sacrifice.
L Through nv SON I h1Vn made the
| supreme sacrifice. He sprang from
| the same sunlit openings of WiscOn-
sin as you. He was a college boy. His
hero was Venizelos, the Greek rebel
aga~ the HohenzolleTns. His thesis
/ was that under present methods of
| transportation the world is not big
| enough to now admit of the two
| forms of government, nor small
| enough to be controlled. by a heredi-
| tary cult Of robber barons, and that
William should be hung and thus
give sanction to international law.
/ While / paid his expenses to the
military training camps of 1915 and
! 1915, and for a unit Of military
| training in Harvard. in April ! OBJ
1 ieoted to his going in advance Of his
| country's call; but his cousin, a son
| of Henry Hoffmaster, one of the
German Republicans Of 1s4s, gave
him 500 and saw him off, and told
him he was fighting for the liberty
| Of the German people, also. 1 wonder
| which of you two, or any of the
others up there who viii fall, viii be
written first in the history Of Dane
county. He was only one of some
1900 others. educated in first prin-
ciples, to go to the front. All of
them and others were inspired with
the same ideals in advance Of their
country's call. He realized that the
business Of the United States is war,
and that war is the business of every
individual. /, in particular. realize
since his fall that war is my BUSH
ness.
His Fate In Germany.
III you were a senator in Germany,
I and doing the same for America as
YOU are doing for the Hohenzollerns.
you would face the firing squad, You
say you are for free speech? Is free
/ speech a virtue in battle? II YOU, as
a senator, have a license for free
L speech after war is declared. every
1 one believing in an hereditary ifn-