Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1921-01-21
DAYS OF JUDGMENT


TT CANNOT be said that the twelve law
L ycrs who, in a brief just filed with the
Judiciary committee of the Senate. charge
gross and secret abuses of power in the at.
torncy generals Office, are spokesmcn or
representatives for radical political opinion
or ambassadors in Washington for the Reds
Dean Roscoe Pound. of the Harvard Law
school; Dean Williams, of the Law School Of
Washington University of ST. Louis: Judge
Alfred Miles, of Baltimore Swinburne Hale
recently captain in the military division of
the United states army, and Jackson II.
RalSton, one of the leaders in the American
Bar Association. are among those who ask
for an opportunity to prove that Mr.. Palmer
and his associates. in dealing with suspected
aliens and others, ignored the fundamental
laws of the land and established themselves
as leaders in reign Of terror in which the
common law. considerations of justice and
even clear evidence had but secondary
effect or no effect at all.
The complaint grows. of course. out of
n spirit of rational antagonism to Mr..
Palmers espionage system and disgust that
has followed an intimate and honest study
of the treatment accorded people whose
theory of politics and economic procedure
didn't parallel those of the attorney general
and his agents in the Department of>Justicc.
The American Bar Association is already
on record with an indictment of the Palmer
method of prosecution and Judgment And
the committee Of lawyers formed TO force n
review OF Palmcrism in the Senate is clearly
artuat"d by patriotism inspired by full un-
d"rStanding of the true sources of national
strength and desire to safeguard them.
In the days when Mr.. Palmer was fighting
single handed with shadows, raid followed
raid men and even women werc locked IN
and kept behind the bars for months without
trial and often without the privilege of
communicating with relatives or counsel
y great many Of these people were later dis
charged for lack of discriminating evidence
liner" was a time when common rights that
are centuries old and indispensable to free
and enlightened government seemed abolished
because of the dangerous whims and abcrra.
tions of one man.
The charges now made before the Senate
Judiciary committee have been formulated
brfor" and presented in various lights and
half lights. They were flung in the faces of
Democrats during the period of the cam
palgn. and politicians did not hesitate to
read into them new proof of an organized
movement toward autOcracy in Washington
But the indictment may not properly he
framed against n party or even a group of
individuals. 1t rests fatty against the sort
of party practice that gives great authority
to men unfit to use it.
Mr.. Palmer was probably no more crucI
no more blind TO the things and principlcs
upon which tn" honor and safety of our gov
"rnm"nt depend than any other man of
average intelligence. But he acquired wrong
bpll"ls ana cherished them. He seems Ia
have believed firmly that an organized and
the government and its various agencies.
Swayed by that unwholcsomr delusion be
forgot tn" law. He borrowed the methods
ut 'zarist Russia and actually aimed to
direct and limit. by federal action, common
Thought ana common speech. He considered
criticism Crime-thOugh the stimulating
force of criticism is something that ever,
ab!e statesman in this country always rccog.
niz"d and welcomed
Mr.. Palmer was merely an amateur tov;ro
with tremendous forces. He supplied the
really maievOlcnt radicals with ammunition
Whlch they could get from no QthtoDsoupce,
For he was nearer to an old scS~} -
than any man who hss AaSt "
I nit"d States in this geasrp "A
and held the Stage a. 3 tissfN
try's oerves Wrr- a. Afea Ns1sa, Is
hints, his alarms and fyis fuff6 prono,rcc-
m"ntS were for a time generally bsSieved
1t was not until the country had time for a
sober second Thought that it could realize
how futile, how needless and how cssentiatI,
shameful the trampling and throttline and
raidins adventures Of the attorney genesaI
really were.
Neither England nor France permitted,
even in the h"rrcSt and most perilous days
OF the war, such wide departures from rho
fixed principles of law as have been charged
by able, impartial and really patriotic men
against the present attorney general of the /,
United States