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Show SENATOR BORAH SEES RIGHTS OF PEOPLE TAKEN Introduces Bill to Back Up Free Speech and Free Assemblage WASHINGTON. Feb. 26 Senator Borah Republican, of Idaho, today introduced in-troduced a bill proposing fines, Im- priHonmeni anu removal irom omce of any federal official found guilty of unlawfully trespassing on the rights of free speech, free press an dassem-blage dassem-blage granted by tho constitution. In drafting the bill. It Is said Senator Sen-ator Borah had tho advice and assistance assist-ance of lawyers, some of them formerly for-merly connected with the department of Justlco. Tho measure will be supported, sup-ported, It was announced, by the National Na-tional Popular Government league, the orgalnzatlon which recently attacked at-tacked Attorney General Palmer for department of Justice raids last year. State and municipal officers as wHI as federal officers would come within Its terms. Introducing the measure. Senator Borah said: RIGHTS CHALLENGED. "The civil rlrhts of tho private citizen citi-zen have of late often been challenged and many times wholly denied. This condition ho-s been on tho Increase for the last quarter of a century. More and more thero has been a disregard of the great guarantees of the federal constitution so far as the rights of the private citizen are concerned. The fncts In support of this Judgment are at hand and overwhelming. Men in authority, officers and their agent.. have made arrests without warrant, broken Into private dwellings without authority, and practiced brutality to-j ward cltl.ens fiuilty of no offense. The private cltlsen under such conditions la practically without recourse. This practice seems lo be greatly on the Increase. Lawlessness in public office of-fice and in public places fattens by what It feeds upon. PROTECT s n ii s "I do not think we get anywhere however! by merely criticizing partlcu- I lar Individuals or by denouncing for a ' day a particular public officer. In I fact, when such practice's have become be-come Ingrained in our system, no par- I ticular officer Is individually respon-J fllMc 'I'lle HtttCiH.m ili'4..i'.-'U c.n..r.l consideration and permanent treat-I treat-I ment. I have, therefore, introduced this bill, which Is designed to protect the private citizen In his const ltu-j ltu-j tional rights, particularly against the arbitrary and lawless acts of public officers. It seems to me that it fairly gets at the situation and would help greatly to remedy this growing evil. In any event, it will serve as a measure mea-sure around which possibly a battel measure may be constructed." Senator Borah said he realized the Impossibility of any ac tion on his bill at this session of congress. "I wish, however," he said, "to Introduce In-troduce it now so that it may bo referred re-ferred to a committee and members of the senate rua have tho opportunity opportu-nity of studying it until It comes before be-fore the next session." |
