The Bozeman courier. (Bozeman, Mont.) 1919-1954, 1923-03-14
MORALLY SENSITIVE BOOTLEGGERS.

Many Americans, who believe in and practice
law observance were surprised a few days ago
when President Nicholas Murray Butler, of Column
bia university, in a public speech assailed the
Eighteenth constitutional amendment and the Vol
stead act, and offered a causistical defense of
violators of those enactments. Doctor Butler has
been known as a political supporter of the liquor
traffic; when he was a candition for the Repub-
lican presidential nomination, one of his principal
assets was his strength with the wet forces in
the party. But it was not generally expected that
he, the head of a great university, the majority
of whose students are of foreign extraction, would
make a calculated effort to justify and incite de-
fiance of the laws of the United States.
Doubtless it was in part because the doctor has
become habituated to the use of textbooks pre-
pared by others that he merely transmitted in.
his address arguments that have been worn
threadhare by the bootleggers and their lawIess
patrons. In fact, his u~tterance embodied so little
that was new or weighty that if it had been de-
lvered by a citizen of less prominence it would
have attracted no attention. incidentally, one
must marvel at his hardihood in selecting a ses-
sion of the Ohio Bar association as the scene of his
oratorical exploit. It was the judicial section of
the American Bar association that declared that
those who scott at this law are aiding the cause
of anarchy and promoting mob violence" And
it was Ohio which last fall voted by a great ma
jority for strict enforcement.
AS we have frequently shown in these columns.
the reactionary of the Butler type is the compile.
ment of the reddest of radicals. Their essential
doctrines are alike. Both are anti-democratic
both are for the rule of a minority-the Bolsheyist
Tor government by manual workers, the Buffers
for government by the highly intelligent anC
morally sensitive"
Nor must any one assume that the eminent edu
~cators solicitude for the class he champions !.
a mere ebullition of platform sentiment: a har
rowing scene in a New York courtroom last Fri
day showed how precious is his reasoning to "high
~ intelligent and morally sensitive" ~violators O
the law. Four brothers, prominent members O
New York clubs and society, pleaded guilty f
Ioootlegglng, an official stating that their opera
tons amounted to $4,000, 900 a year. All fou
had been indicted for selling liquor without pre
l~scrlbed permits, three for illegally possessin
!, liquor Withdrawn on forged permits. LAWYERS a
S distinguished as Doctor Butler himself pleade
d Tor them, and actually quoted in their behalf hi
: ingenious argument that defiance of an unponrla
g law is an act justifiable and even ~virtuous. I
spite, however, of their high intelligence. NOR,
sensltiveness and Butlerian immunization. the
were sentenced to jail.
While we would not deprive Doctor Butler of
], single one of the degrees that give luster to h
9. name, we must pronounce the opinion that for
highly intelligent and morally sensitive Ii. 7.
makes deplorable use of hs honorary distinction
Philadelphia North American.