Page:The Green Bag (1889–1914), Volume 17.pdf/89

 THE GREEN BAG without the witnesses? It is a peculiar in cident of human nature that criminals, no matter how depraved they may be, pride themselves on never breaking their word with their fellows. The jail, the peniten tiary, or even the gallows holds no infamy for them, but if one criminal desires to bring upon his head the denunciation of his fellows, let him turn State's evidence. I say that when one has committed an offense he is more to be honored for confessing than concealing it. When one has committed a crime the highest atonement he can make is to kneel at the feet of justice and tell the truth." "Bribery, gentlemen, is not between pri vate individuals. Whatever moral turpi tude there may be in one private individual bribing another private individual to do or not to do something, that is a matter with which the law is not concerned; but when an official is corrupt, then the law steps in be cause the law seeks to hold all official acts above corruption and debauchery. "Under our system of government, all power and all authority are vested in the people. The people rule. The people gov ern. The people can act only through their chosen representatives; they select some officials to make the law, others to interpret it, and others to enforce the law. All au thority possessed by any official must trace its chain of title back to the people. All official power belongs not to the public official, but to the people he represents who gave the power. The legislator's vote and his influence are not his private property but that of his constituents. It is given him by the people as a sacred trust to be admin istered for the public good, and if there be in the category of crime, one that is greater than all others, the unpardonable crime, it is the offense of him in whom such a sacred trust has been reposed and who used it for his private gain and enrichment. "Were all officials corrupt, and were all official actions for sale, then government

would soon become the debauching tyranny of the few with wealth enough to purchase it. In this case we have an official elected by the people, charged with solemn and sacred duties, a trust reposed in him by the people: has the evidence in this case shown him to be a good and faithful public servant or not?" These excerpts are taken from the be ginning of his speech in the Meysenburg case. They may be taken as an indication of the beginning of all his addresses in the boodle prosecutions. While he has varied greatly in the use of the language, still he has brought the attention of his jurors to a full sense of the issue, and his summing up of the evidence has followed in calm, force ful and deliberate style. In this same trial he did not vary from his usual style of in jecting some biblical quotation. For the Meysenburg jury Mr. Folk quoted: — "And Jesus went into the Temple of God and cast out all them that sold and bought in the temple and overthrew the tables of the moneychangers and the seats of them that sold doves — And said unto them: 'It is written, My House shall be called the house of prayer; but ye have made it a den of thieves.'" His closing remarks are always in the nature of appeals and not once has he failed to affect not only the jurors but even the defendants themselves. As a sample, his peroration in the Meysenburg case may be offered. "Gentlemen," he said, "you are to set up the standard of official conduct in St. Louis. What do you want the standard of official conduct to be? Do you want it to be such as this defendant has done? Do you want him to be the type of official life in St. Louis? Do you want other officials to gauge their actions by his, or is your standard higher and better than that? I hope to God it is? If all officials were like this man, then God pity our city! God pity the citizens who would be in the hands of such officials! Gentlemen, eager and anxious eyes are look