Evening star., 1924-11-30
Career of John Burke Proves
Honesty to Be Best Policy

grew and soon they were in Offices
befftting their abilities and standing
on Fargo's Broadway. There Burke
was to be seen every day, his hair
as tousled as ever, and there are
those who swear that his Office coat
is the same one he wore in the
battles Of 1906. His wife. one of the
tolliest and most cheerful Of women,
had but one worry In life and that
was to get John to look respectable,
and maintain the dignity of the Office
Of governor. 1t may be that she
struggled with wifely earnestness,
but those who have seen him swing
ing through the corridors Of the
shabby, rambling State capitol, know
how often he used guile and eluded
her. Adversely did not change him
nor did prosperity grow new plum
age. He Is as he was. except that
he uses his glasses more-when he
can lay his hands on them, or when
by some unexpected motion he has
cleaned the lenses on the greenb black
coat tails. Perhaps that is why North
Dakotans like him--his commonness,
his foibies. his approachability No
man whose neckties evince an ir-
revocable determination to slide un-
der his ear can ever be "up-stase" to
the hurblest.
1t was while rebuilding his for
tunes that movement sprung from
somewhere last Spring to have John
Burke run for one vacant place on
the supreme bench of the State. 1t
was spontaneous and taken as res
adjudicata, as Burke might say.
North Dakotans had refused him the
United States Senatorship when he
had good job. But now he was home
and trying to come back, and why
should he not be? In the primary
there were three opponents-Grim-
son. the attorney who had gained
prominence by his prosecution of the
Florida whipping case; Coghlan, a
Nonpartisan, favored greatly by the
farmers for the fights he had made
for them, and Charles J. Fisk, for
mer chief justice. Burke and Fisk
were the two high men in the June
primaries. Fisk was first elected in
1906 and was reelected for another
term, only to be swept out of office
by. the Nonpartisan wave. He had
sat in the legislature with Burke and
was like Burke, a Democrat. Burke
had appointed F. L. Fisk, brother of
his opponent, to the district judgeship
! and the two were good friends. But
fate had made them antagonists in
1874. Burke was unable to make a
campaign and remained in his Office.
FISK did the same, except that he
had an organization that saw to
proper publicity. And North Dakota
went back to its old habit of voting
for John Burke.
Always Hoped to Reach Bench.
Last October sitting in his office,
| around him heaped in orderly disar-
| ray many heavy legal tones, Honest
John Burke talked to an old friend
"It may sound insincere and unrea-
sonable, but / never did want to be
| Governor. I ran for the office and
| was elected, but that was more a
duty to my party and to the people
who wanted changes. I have always
hoped to sit on the bench. 1t has been
| desire with me from my earliest
days in the State. do not know that
| II will ever be realized. So many times
| we have handed to US the thing we
| least desire and so often we are de-
! MED our secret wish. If l am not
granted this I shall feel no resent
| ment, for North Dakotans have been
| more than good to me and kinder
even in adversely than in victory. Let
1t be as they will. I am not in the po-
| sition OF one who can ask. I can only
| say that If given, I will receive with
renewed gratitude
II he plumbed the depths, he reach
ed the heights. If he suffered-he
lived. Let some invoke the platitude:
Honesty is the best policy" but
the day that John Burke, who stripped
himself to make amends for the folly
Of moment, takes his seat upon
the Supreme bench of North Dakota,
will be memorial set on q
! high hill to the triumph of honesty
| in private and public life and to teach
the lesson that q good name is more
to be desired than riches, 1t Is a les
son sorely needed.
: 1csays,sht. 49, h st Raaai fisasss 2zass.a