The Bismarck tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, N.D.) 1916-current, 1920-06-01
PALMER TRAMPLES j, s,
CONSTITUTION, CHARGE
Noted Lawyers Demand Cessa-
tion of Illegal Practices on
Part of Attorney General Of
United States
By GEORGE B. WATERS,
n e. A. Staff CORRESPONDENT

Washington, June l. - Declaring
Atty. Gen. Palmer has trampled the
constitution underfoot, and has insti-
tuted czarism in America, the Ma
tional Popular Government league
made public here today document
that reveals unbelievable conditions
charged against the attorney general.
The conditions pictured are backed
by scores Of aftidavits from persons
alleged to have been oppressed by
Palmer, and they reveal cruelties to
both men and women that are with
out pity.
Investigation Made ''
The document is signed by II
eminent lawyers, some of them heads
of famous law schools. These lawyers
investigated and made the report for
the National Popular Government
league. 1t is addressed to the Amer
ican people. ......
Says the report:
"Tor more than six months, we
the undersigned lawyers, whose sworn
duty it is to uphold the constitution
and laws of the United States, have
seen with growing apprehension the
continued violation of that constitu-
tion by the department Of justice Of
the United States government.
Many Lawyers Sign
The lawyers who signed the state
ment discriminating Palmer are:
Roscoe Pound, dean of Harvard
law school, Boston; Tyrell Williams,
St. Louis. dean of the law school of
Washington University; Frank P.
Walsh. attorney of New York and
Kansas City; Francis Fisher Kane,
who recently resigned as U. S. dis
trict attorney at Philadelphia; z.
Chafee, Jr.. Cambridge, Mass, pro-
fessor cf Harvard University Law
school; Prof. Ernst Freund, profes.
sor of Jurisprudence and public law
University of Chicago and author
of "Standards of American Legisla
ton" Swinburne Hale, attorney and
former captain in the military intel
ligence division, general staff, U. S
A. ;FeliX' Frankfurter, Harvard Law
school, New York; Alfred Niles, Bal
timore late Judge OF the district
court; D. c., member of American
Bar association; David Wallerstein
Philadelphia, member American bal
association, and r. G. Brown, Mem
phis, Tenn.
The report continues: Under the
guise of a campaign for the sup
preston of radical activities, the of
y'fice OF attorney general, acting byfit!
! local agents throughout the country
and giving express instructions from
Washington, has committed cOntinua
| illegal acts. -....
Wholesale arrests both of aliens
and citizens, have been made without
warrant or any process of law, mer
and women have 'been Jailed and
| held incommunicado without the &C
cess of friends or counsel; homes
have been entered without search
warrants and property seized and re-
moved; other property has beer
want only destroyed; workingmen an(
women suspected of radical views
! have been shamefully abused anC
maltreated.
propaganda Bureau"
agents of the department of
justice have been introduced
into radical organizations for
the purpose of informing upon
their members or inciting them
to activities; these agents have
even been instructed from
Washington to arrange meet
ings upon certain dates for the
wholesale raids and arrests.
1--WE are concerned solely with
bringing to the attention of the Amer
ican people the utterly illegal acts
which have been committed by those
charged with the highest duty of en-
! forcing the law" says the document
-"acts which have caused wide
! spread suffering and unrest, have
struck at the foundation of American
free institutions, and have brought
the name of our country into disre
E,ute."