Show THAT HARRISON LECTUR The North American of Philadelphia sharply denounces those who ascribe to Gen Harrison a purpose to influence the Supreme court upon the question of the Constitution following tho Hag to outside territory by his recent speech before the students of the tlnl verslty of Michigan We think the North American Is right In that respect re-spect At the same lime we think It was In bad taste for den Harrison to select lhat partlaular theme on which to deliver a lecture We do not think he had any purpose or Idea l that what he said would influence the court At the same time we believe he prepared pre-pared that argument which he delivered deliv-ered at Ann Arbor to be delivered on some occasion during the late campaign cam-paign but when ho saw the course that the campaign was taking and especially espe-cially the erratic course of Mr Bryan In his appeals to the baser passions of men he decided that It would be better to have him beaten out of sight no matter In what way But when the election was over and he was called upon to lecture before the university he could not resist giving indirect vent to his own disappointments by delivering deliv-ering that speech though he knew that tho question right then was under consideration con-sideration by the Supreme court of the United States The North American says that people who are accusing Gen Harrison of trying to influence a Judicial I Judi-cial decision know that the Supreme court is not to bo swayed by public discussion l of questions of constitutional constitu-tional law That Is just half true Imperceptibly politics finds Its way 1 sometimes through decisions of the Supreme Su-preme court It was so in the Dred Scott decision it was so in the greenback green-back decision because no matter how great the Judge there are times when all the thoughts and habits and beliefs of a lifetime have their Influence when the Interpretation of a doubtful law Is under consideration We do not believe be-lieve that Gen Harrisons speech will Influence the court At the same time in the East a good many Journals are already anticipating the decision and naming how the respective Judges of the Supreme court will hold That simply shows that ItJ was In bad taste for Gen Harrison to deliver that address ad-dress at this time and It is no answer to that argument that others have been discussing the subject all summer sum-mer Newspapers certainly have politicians poli-ticians have Mr Bryan spent the summer discussing it But Gen Harrison Har-rison Is an exPresident of the United States and Justly considered one of the most foremost lawyers of the age There was where the trouble came in If he had been an ordinary politician it would have been all right It was not all right under the circumstances especially espe-cially was it not right when some of the arguments which he used are arguments argu-ments which if they had been In his mind deemed of Infinite Importance he would while he was President have Insisted that something more should be done for Alaska and for Arizona and New Mexico than was being done He is a great man a great lawyer a wonderful won-derful executive but he Is a human being with the same passions and ambitions am-bitions than many lesser men have and he permitted his acute judgment to be led astray when he delivered that lecture |