The daily Alaska citizen., 1920-01-13
THE BERGER CASE

The house of representatives. as judge a. tlr qualifications, of its own members, was clearly within lr> rights when il denied Saturday for tuc second time permission to Victor Bu-.r to sit in the house as repre- sentative for the Fifth Wisconsin co1 -ro~~louM district It was the logical ac- ton for the house to take, masmuch as the disoua.Eu- attributes found against Bor-er. i. tua first case had not been re- moved H. tuo second even tho they had been endorse. h.. Bcr-cr.~ socialist cou~titu- eucy.
 I'll. house elections committee, after an une~.-atIou of the ~cdition charges agam~. Berger, for which he k now under a 20.s,m prison sentence, decided that his ..Hu.. Ha- such as to render him undcsiI- able .- u ..u5cr of the house body Berg c- Iu-e.. .oo> the position that no mat tc.#ua- lis record might be, so long as he #.- .o...0 oy majority of the voters in his al-ul... he WAS entitled to the seat. In rho special election at which he was again u#..I.a. h. declared. If this district is mad. up entirely of horse thieves then a uua~. thief is lC~ only true representative. '' The socialist mass meeting which rcnomin- ugcd Berger after he was barred the first time. .mnuE.d his "cEcIy act, word and vr1rlHg h other words his Milwaukee supporters aoG only subscribe to his social .-l. doctrines but also endorse those ac- Gou~ and words of his which resulted in his conviction by federal court for scdi-
 .a Thus Cougrc~~mn Noight'S dccIan" rlou thar If he i~ d traitor there are 25,OOO others u .nr Fifth Wisconsin district has d significance that if might not have under other circumstances. Berger il appears, did not attempt to conceal his record but made hi, race ou ii and was reelected be- cause of il. apparently, and not in spite of it.
 Under normal conditions Berger would of course be seated. No charge of irregu- IalIty has been made against his election. Plainly he is the majority choice of his dis trict. As it is the socialist stronghOld of the state, it may be the case that no one can be elected over him. In fact Governor Phillips, of Wisconsin, mtimated as much when he announced following the an nouncemeut of the result of the last clcc- tiou that if Berger were again barred from taking his seat he would not order a spe- clai election second time as it would be merely waste of state funds.
 If Berger's violation of the Fspionago Act, for which he was convicted, is so heartily approved by the socialist of Mil waukee, the department of justice might find something of interest if it made an in Vestigaton there This much was intimat- ed by Berger,s opponent in the special cleo tion who, in outlining the issues of the cam paign, said, Tt is not true socialism that the fifth district is confronted with. It is something much worse. It is bolshevism. The socialists whom MT. Berger represents are a group of individuals who do nothing but stir up employe against employer and employer against employe. Now they are trying to overthrow the accepted form of government of this country"
 On the whole, the charge of Berger. that the house action is an attack or rep resentalVe government, is not upheld by the facts Tn the case. The house merely re fuses to accept Berger's premise that "a horse thief should set in congress as a rep resentative of horse thieves" In fact the house very properly assumes that a horse thief coming as an ambassador from his tribe would not only land in jail himself