The people's voice. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1939-1969, 1948-09-24

the bar associations convention if Douglas
speech was broadcast.
Douglas delivered his prepared speech
anyway-on the subject of the responsibility
of the legal profession to uphold the consti-
tutional freedoms of press and speech guar
anteed in the Bill of Rights.
ACM Denies Guilt by Association
with Weir)
While, on the whole, their account doesn't
miss the mark very far local bar officials
insist that the ACM had nothing to do with
barring Justice Douglas from the air. One
of the bar officials has advised me that al
though an attorney for the ACM-Montana
Power axis, T. B. Weir had in arrogant
manner informed him. if the Douglas speech
was broadcast he would see that the financ-
ing OF the convention mpaired-that
Attorney Weir was acting on his own In this
instance even though the financing at ques-
ton concerned two $3.50 donations from the
ACM and Montana Power. This bar official
has further advised that Roy H. Glover,
western counsel for ACM, was very much
disturbed about the Weir-Douglas incident
that through no fault of the Company,
Montana attorneys are very much burned
up that this affair has placed quite a
stumbling block in the "company's" newly
found role of Responsibility in its labor
and public relations, etc
Bar Association Members Outraged .
Returning to the actual convention, these
bar officials have informed me that fully 80
per cent of the Montana Bar membership
present was terribly upset when they learned
about Attorney Weir's efforts to censor from
the people the Douglas address. On the
Saturday of the banquet many came forward
and offered to personally ''chip in to help
make up any deficit that might accrue to the
Helena association result. of returning
the two $3.50 contributions to Weir The
donations were not returned but association
officials have informed The Voice that in
the future, and long as they are serving
in official capacities in the organization, no
donations outside of the membership will
again be accepted recommendation for
similar policy, has been forwarded to all city
and county bar associations in the state
Original plans called for holding the con-
vention banquet in the civic center Two
days before the occasion local officials
changed the location to the much smaller
banquet hall in the Placer hotel This
change, they claim was not made because of
outside pressure, but was due to the at
tendance being smaller than earlier antici-
pated.
The Douglas speech was not broadcast
but then again, all | have to go on are the
words of the committee-"Douglas did not
arrive until Saturday noon. . Our attempts
earlier to find out if he would permit radio
broadcast of his speech had been unsuccess-
full in that we were unable to make contact
with him. After he did arrive and we got
his ok we learned that the time cleared over
the network was from 6 100 to 6 80 that eve
ming. Since the banquet was scheduled for
1880 it was impossible to make connections
with the broadcast time available"
Incidently, the title of Douglas address
before the bar convention was ''The respon-
5ibility of the legal profession to preserve
civil liberties, freedom of speech, press, ETC.
H. L. B.