Republican farmer., 1918-12-20
SAY LAFOLLETTTE IS GUILTY UNDER
 ESPIONAGE ACT Further Proceedings Rec commended in Minority Re- port Presented Today. REPORT URGES
 FULL HEARING Others Criminally Punished For Offenses That Are No
 Less Severe.

Washington, Dec. 14-Further pro- ceedings in the case of Senator Rob- ert LaFollette of Wisconsin, looking to his exoneration, ccnsure or expul- B sion from the Senate as the facts may warrant, are recommended in a nj nority report from the Senate priv ileges and elections committee pre-. scented in the Senate today by Senator Pomerene of Ohio, Democrat, chair man of the committee.
 The report charges the Wisconsin Senator with violation of the espion- age act by alleged misstatements is his address before the Non-partisaE League at St. Paul, Sept. 20, 1917. The report opposes the pending resolution recommending that the proceedings be dropped.
 The nlisstatements alleged to have beer made by Senator LaFollette are declared by the report to be islander upon the government and sufficient cause for conviction in crim- iJial proceedings.
 Specifically, the report urges that full and complete" hearing be or dered by the Senate to the end: First, that the senator from Wis if the testimony justifies it.
 Second, that he may be expelled i if the testimony tustifies it.
 1 Third, that the Senate may pass vote of censure or administer such i other punishment as the testimony
 may justify.
 This is our duty" the report de- clares, "a duty which we owe to the senator from Wisconsin, to the United States Senate itself and to the public. More we ought not do and less we cannot be expected to do.' eve do not say in the present state of the record,'' theminority report says, that Senator La Toilette should 1 be expelled from the Senate or that
 he should be convicted of a criminal offense under the espionage act; but
 we do say that applying the principles l of criminal law, a grand jury inquirine 1 into the case, with no other evidence than the speech itself and the facts as
 in this report recited, would have beer justified in returning an indictmen against him for violation of the es
 pionage act And we further say tha
 with this evidence, and none other, be
 fore a petit jury, it would have beer
 justified in returning a verdict of gull
 ty under this section of the statute
 and no court would have disturbed it
 "If there is any reasonable explana
 tion which can be made of these ut terances which would tend to prove an innocent purpose, such explana ton ought to beg iven to the end tha : no injustice may be done and tha , it may be not charged that the United States Senate passes lightly ove , wrongful speech. when others art criminally prosecuted for offense, il } our judgment, no less severe" } Senator La Toilette in his St. Pau
 speech, the report declares, Who'll! f ignored the real cause which led t s the war;" and says "the statement l could not have been made by acci . dent or slip of the tongue because tn
 same thought if not the very sam
 language is reported several time l within the space of a few minutes.
 "The constitutional right of freedom , of speech cannot be pleaded in de
 fense," the report continues. Free dom of speech never justifies thu slander of the chastity of woman, O
 the honor of a man or the cause 0 , country when in the throes of tn I most terrific war ever waged."