The Fargo forum and daily republican., 1918-01-05
Meet Fate With
No Bitterness.

And understand this, your honor:
If you, this afternoon, decide that
am to serve a prison term, / want
! you to know, and I want the district
attorney to know, and / want these
men who sat on the jury to know
that will go out of this court room
to meet whatever. you mete out to
me, with no bitterness in my heart
with no hate in my soul, but with
nothing but the greatest feeling of
comradeship and friendship and ap-
probation for what you men have
done, because l believe that you have
done the thing that you thought it
was your duty to do. And so, If ii
must be that ! go to prison, do not
want a man who sat on the jury, do
not want the district attorney, / do
not want your honor to go out of
this room having any feeling that
perhaps in some way you have COM
mitted a wrong, that you have injur-
ed me, for, your honor, you cannot
injure me, and the jury cannot injure
me, and the prosecuting attorney
cannot injure me. There is only one
human being on earth that can in
iure me, and that is myself. And as
long as / am right with my God, and
right with my soul. you cannot, il
you would, injure me. You can send
me to prison, but. thank God, you
cannot send q great principle to pris-
on. You can shut me behind a cell
door, but, thank God. you cannot
put principle in a cell and
turn the key on git You can
degrade my body; you can put it
in stripes; you can make me go down
and live with the lowest and most
degraded and contaminated on earth,
and still you cannot injure me, for
greater men and women have done
this. If the Son Of God could come
down and partake with publicans and
sinners. and confer with harlots and
thieves and murderers, and be un-
contaminated. then, If ! have His
spirit, / can do the same thing. So I
want you to understand that what
ever your decision will be, know
you are making it solely on the basis
of the best interests Of our country
at this time and not with any tnten-
ton to injure me.
And now, there is just one other
thing I want to touch. and am done.
Your honor, the war is on now. 1t is
a great world tragedy This thing
that has shaken US all to the very
center Of our being, that has warped
our judgments and infiamed our pas
sions. and made us different crea-
lures than we ever were before-pos-
sibly for our good-this war must
end. Peace must comes And when
the war ends and peace comes, then
will come the trial OF the human
race. 1t is no test Of humanity to
successfully wage a war. 1t does not
take brains, or courage. or manhood
to destroy. An idiot can destroy in
moment what ii took a lifetime TO
create. Mere brute force can take a
life only God can give. So the test
is not going to be the war 1t is GO
ing TO be the rebuilding of civiliza-
tiOn after the war is over. When the
war is done, and peace comes, the
graves must be smoothed, the grape
vines and wheat planted, the cities
must be rebuilt, the ways Of peace
and Justice and righteousness must
be established. And after peace
comes, your honor, and after the war
is done, then there Is just one other
thing that you can consider. VIII I,
in that hour OF reconstruction, can
and will / serve my country best in
prison? Will that reconstruction go
on better, wiser, for my elimination?
Oh. is 1T possible that when that hour
comes, and the manned, and the
broken, and the heartsick, and the
soul oppressed soldier comes home
In that hour when the widow must
be comforted. and the sonless mother
must be supported. end the orphan