| OCR Text |
Show 7 Hatred for Lawyers: Parnell Black and the Taylor Case Shortly after his election Lee tried to force out several holdover appointees from the Maw administration, the most prominent examples being J. Fred Pingree and Milton B. Taylor, members of the Finance Commission. In requesting their resignations Lee said, "They have one viewpoint, I have another." Pingree, whose term was slated to expire in 1951, chose not to contest it because he believed that he served at the governor's pleasure. However, the law provided only that a commissioner could be removed "for cause." Taylor, whose term ran until March 1953, claimed that he first heard of the resignation request in the newspapers and angrily refused to submit it.1 On January 3, 1950, Lee fired him and appointed George Mason in his place. Taylor, an idealistic, liberal Democrat, took court action to force Lee to prove wrongdoing, which he was confident was impossible. In an effort to make the dismissal stick Lee made a list of alleged "irregularities" in bond transactions and public investments made over Taylor's signature, claiming these "were not in the best interests of the state."2 Insisting that the charges were ridiculous, Taylor hired Parnell Black as his attorney, and they met with Lee and his attorneys in a pretrial hearing. Cliff Ashton, attorney for Lee, described Taylor's suit as "political quackery and clap-trap," and Black accused the governor of "despotic action."3 Lee's counsel let it be known that Lee intended to make the ouster stick no matter what the court decided,4 which seemed a virtual admission of a weak case. Predictably, District Court Judge Will L. Hoyt ruled that Lee lacked sufficient cause to oust Taylor, ordered him reinstated as a member of the commission, and ruled that the appointment of George Mason was null and void. Black prepared writs providing for Taylor's return to the state payroll, 83 J . BRACKEN LEE for back salaries, and for enjoining Lee and the other two commissioners from interfering with Taylor in the performance of his duties." Refusing to give up, Lee appealed to the Utah State Supreme Court, which, in January 1951, unanimously upheld the district court order. Justice George Latimer said that the high court was unable to find evidence in the record to sustain Lee's conclusion that Taylor "should be removed for cause." The court was not persuaded by charges that Taylor had acted inappropriately in approving purchases of bonds from a private firm at premium charges.0 The high court also observed that Taylor had been appointed only eight and a half months before the change in administration and was placed on a commission where a pattern was fully developed. Therefore, he was performing his duties in a way that was acceptable to the commission. The justices declared that "fraud, dishonesty or a plain violation of a statutory provision" were not involved.7 The decision of the supreme court effectively ended the case, and Taylor served out the remainder of his term. With surprising candor, Lee later concluded that the court was right in saying there was insufficient cause. "I thought I had it. But I found that cause has to be more than just disliking a man." When he was reinstated, Taylor "just sat there for two years and didn't do anything but read the newspaper" because Lee refused to give him anything to do.8 The Taylor case accurately reflected Lee's penchant for personal confrontation that led to numerous dismissals and feuds during his political career, and it accentuated the continuing feud between Lee and Parnell Black dating back to Price and the liquor problem. After Black won the Taylor case he decided to challenge the power of Lee's governorship through a race for the state senate. As Salt Lake County Democratic chairman he was responsible for finding capable Democrats to run for available positions. Unfortunately, in 1950, he was unable to produce a candidate for the Salt Lake County seat, and so he decided to run himself "to fill out the ticket."9 Since he wanted a referendum on Lee's performance in office more than he wanted the 84 HATRED FOR LAWYERS senate seat, he purchased radio time to attack Lee's leadership. Lee characterized his platform as being "I'm against everything that Lee is for,"10 but Black phrased it more positively-"A vote for me is a vote against the governor.'"1 Convinced that Black was "pledged to destroy" his economy program, Lee worked tirelessly for his defeat.12 In fact, he became so disturbed that he bought air time to tell "the truth" about Black. I called him Pemell-his name was Parnell. I used his name two or three times-and I found out the next day he was madder'n hell, cause I mispronounced his name. So from then on, I mispronounced it deliberately] I didn't know any better the first time.13 Lee told his listeners that he would like to answer Black at least once each week if his supporters would help defray the cost. "I got so much money it was amazing!" He charged that while Black pretended to help the laboring man through his law practice, "I wanna tell ya how he skins the laboring man in his law firm!"14 They proceeded to argue on radio about some of Black's personal injury cases, Lee claiming that Black had not charged fair fees while Black presented witnesses who testified to the opposite. "It was really a show! I think everybody in the state was listening to it," asserted Lee. He accused Black of accepting a retainer from the liquor commission without earning it and accepting a Smith and Wesson pistol for services he had never rendered. According to Lee, critics began calling Black "Pistol Packin' Pete."15 Black defended his role as chief counsel for the Liquor Control Commission, saying that he had resigned when he became state Democratic chairman in 1940. Rejecting Lee's charge that he was on "a gravy train," Black added, "My practice professionally is as completely independent of the wishes, and whims, needs and desires of the corporate wealth of this state as are my politics." After accusing Lee of sending representatives to examine court records at state expense to obtain information about supposed irregularities, he invited him to his office to examine 85 J . BRACKEN LEE records. Black insisted that his own record as a lawyer for the poor and disadvantaged was "unequaled" by any other lawyer in Utah.10 Admitting that he charged fees for his services, he maintained that they had always been reasonable. Black charged that the taste of "political gravy" could not be "entirely unfamiliar" to Lee, especially in the form of bonds and insurance while he was mayor of Price and in the form of a mansion and a Cadillac while he was governor.17 When a verdict was rendered in the Taylor case, Lee expressed frustration at being unable to stop such dishonesty in government. He spoke of the ease with which he could have enriched himself as governor: "But if that is the kind of governor you want, count me out."18 Black referred to this statement as a "classic in hypocrisy" and reminded his listeners that Lee's loss of the Taylor case had proved that the courts would "protect the ordinary citizen against oppression and despotism." He interpreted Lee's decision to debate him on radio and engage in "personal vilification" as a compliment.10 Lee charged in the debates that Black's law firm, Wallace, Rawlings, and Black, had acquired wealth through politics. On the other hand, Calvin Rawlings freely admitted that the firm enjoyed notable success, especially through personal injury cases against the railroad and through antitrust cases; but he firmly denied that politics played a role.20 According to Lee, all three partners were heavily involved in Democratic politics; in fact, if one wanted the state or county chairman or national committeeman of either political party, one could contact him by calling Wasatch 2100: "They were all out of the same law firm." Lee frequently told his version of "The Three Little Pigs": "If you put Wallace, Rawlings, and Black in a barrel and you rolled 'em down a hill, there'd be a son of a bitch on top all the time!"21 One of Lee's principal goals in debating Black was to convince the voters of the importance of electing a cooperative legislature to enable him to reduce taxes. But Black's response to Lee's promise of tax reduction was heated; he asked Lee to tell "the ordinary wage earner" how much he would save in taxes. 86 HATRED FOR LAWYERS While you tell him what he will gain, why don't you reveal how much your program of tax reduction would save for the Kennecott Copper, the American Smelting and Refining Company, the railroads, the banks, and the other great corporations of this state, and how much tax savings would find their way into the pockets of those whose incomes are in excess of $25,000 per year?22 He contended that taxpayers' money should not be saved at the expense of "human needs" nor at the "expense of a sound and adequate educational system." Finally, he accused Lee of smear tactics and compared him to the war horse described in Job: "The Glory of his nostrils is terrible, his neck is clothed with thunder, and he swalloweth the ground with fierceness and rage." He called Lee a dirty politician and the only man he had ever known who had "reached the heights of political preferment on a program of character assassination, vilification, and misrepresentation." 23 Black, an idealist, regarded Lee as a demagogue, full of hate and contempt for the established order and for the law itself.24 Lee managed to drop his obsession with Black long enough to criticize national and local leaders as well as the national Democratic party. Speaking over a seven-station state network, he called Sen. Elbert D. Thomas "a stooge, who has been too long associated with the reds, the pinks, and the fellow travelers" and then accused the "Democratic bosses" of rendering "lip service to Russia to the point where we are threatened with encirclement by the same Communist forces."25 Lee watched Black deliver his final radio speech of the campaign the night before the election through a studio glass partition. Black began the speech facing Lee, then he turned his back and according to Lee, "he never said one word about me-he spent all his time quotin' the Bible, and prayin' to God-and he got beat too."20 Black was defeated, even though he had led his ticket in the October primaries. In the final election he trailed the other two Democratic candidates for the state senate, and the Republicans almost made a clean sweep of Salt Lake County. Lee's energetic campaign had paid off at the polls.27 87 J . BRACKEN LEE It was a major risk for an incumbent governor to spend so much of his time debating a single candidate for the state senate, for had Black been elected, Lee might have suffered personal humiliation. That Black would be complimented by Lee's barrages is understandable, for they indicated that his candidacy seriously worried Lee. They also indicated that Lee's anger against Black was still fueled by legal battles dating back to the Price years. In a reasoned analysis of Lee's feud with his father, Wayne L. Black asserted that Lee's hatred of lawyers originated with the Taylor case and other attempts he made to "clean out Democrats." According to Black, when his father successfully defended Taylor, Lee finally realized that he could not confront the judiciary in a head-on fashion. Afterward, he blamed lawyers for his own inability to eliminate employees he had wanted to fire, and he launched his now familiar tirades against the legal profession. 28 Perhaps Lee made such a gigantic effort to bury Black at the polls because he could not defeat him in the courts. His feud with Taylor and Black was symbolic of his bitterness and distrust of the legal profession, which intensified in later years. Lee addressed an Institute of Government seminar at the University of Utah in 1972 and concluded that "the foundation for the breakdown of the constitutional form of government is being laid down by the law profession." Claiming that "there are many good lawyers, but the good ones are busy making a living," he charged that attorneys in public office did not have records of good management while they were in private practice. Because he thought lawyers were lacking in integrity, he suggested a constitutional amendment requiring them to abandon their membership in the bar before holding public office. He contended that the large numbers of lawyers serving in the nation's legislative, executive, and judicial branches of government had produced a form of government "in which we have only one branch of government- the bar association."20 When he retired as mayor of Salt Lake City, Lee promised that one of his principal targets would continue to be the legal 88 HATRED FOR LAWYERS profession: "My son's a lawyer, but I believe the law profession must bear much of the blame for dragging this country down."30 His famous characterization of an attorney's license as "a license to steal" effectively sums up his bias. 89 J. BRACKEN LEE 4Salt Lake Tribune, April 7, 1949. 2Deseret News, January 22, 1950. 3Deseret News, February 2, 1950. 4Deseret News, February 24, 1950. *Salt Lake Tribune, March 14, 1950. '^Deseret News, January 14, 1951. 7See p. 16 of the copy of the decision of the supreme court in the Taylor case in Lee's Gubernatorial Papers. 8Lee interview. 9Black interview. 10Lee interview. 41Salt Lake Tribune, November 8, 1950. 12Ibid. 13Lee interview. "Ibid. 15Ibid. "Radio speech of Parnell Black given sometime during October-November 1950, MS in possession of Wayne L. Black. "Ibid. lsSalt Lake Tribune, March 14, 1950. 19Black speech. 20Interview with Calvin W. Rawlings, attorney and former Democratic national committeeman for Utah, July 23, 1972, Salt Lake City. Rawlings called Black "one of the finest trial lawyers in the history of the state" and claimed that his major reason for opposing Lee so vigorously was his conviction that "the common ordinary fella wasn't getting a break" under Lee's administration. "He disliked Bracken Lee with a vengeance." According to Rawlings, when Black began attacking him, Lee became unnerved because he "knew that if Black got up there that he would be a thorn in his side and cause him a lot of trouble. So he took it upon himself to debate Black and destroy his chances of being elected, and this turned into one of the big debates of the campaign." 21Lee interview. Lee claimed that the law firm was deeply involved in state politics, especially Democratic politics, but that important GOP officials were also associated with the firm. 22Black speech. 23Ibid. 24Black interview. 2'-Deseret News, September 27, 1950. 2GLee interview. 21Salt Lake Tribune, November 8, 1950. 28Black interview. Parnell Black defended Taylor free of charge. 29Salt Lake Tribune, June 8, 1972. 30Deseret News, August 11, 1971. 90 |
