Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1902-09-05
CHIEF JUSTICE HOLMES.
Some Extracts From His Addresses and Opin
Boston GlObe-Democrat.

Some Extracts From His Addresses and Opin
ions.
/ Boston Globe Democrat
In character and intellect the new
Justice will be strong addition te
the court. He will carry into the
conference room liberal and we'll
stored mind and impart to the litera
ture OF the decisions clear and origi
nal style.
| Sometimes he has illuminated the
Massachusetts reports with an axiom
attic expression, as in the case of =
New Bedford policeman, who, being
removed from political activity, ap
pealed to the courts. The contention
was that in this country a man has q
right to take part in politics. Justice
Holmes decided that while every citi
zen has constitutional right to be q
politician, every citizen has not con-
stitutional right to be policeman.
A few quotations from his addresses
and opinions will suffice to indicate
Justic Holmes way of "putting
things":
Too broadly generalized conceptions
are constant source of fallacy.
A bad man has as much reason as q
good one for wishing to avoid an en-.
counter with the police.
We do not realize how large a part
OF our law is open to reconsideration
upon a slight change in the habit oil
the public mind.
What have we better than blind
guess to show that the criminal law, in
its present form, does more good than
harm?
venerate the law and especially
our system OF law as one of the vastest
products of the human mind.
Law is the business to which my
life is devoted.
A week OF great importance lying
before the Supreme Court relates to
the industrial combinations of the
time, trusts and unions. Justice
Holmes discussed this general subject
with much frankness in his dissenting
opinion in the case OF Vegelahn against
Gunter six years ago. when refusing To
sustain certain Injunction proceedings
against labor union patrol.
Brief extracts from the opinion will
by no means do justice to the force OF
his soning, but the following frag-
ments must serve TO indicate the trend
Of his thought:
It cannot be said. I think, that two
men walking together up and down a
sidewalk aud speaking to those who
enter q certain shop do necessarily
and always thereby convey threat OF
forces
think the more intelligent work.
ingmen believe As fully as l do that
they no more can be permitted to
usurp the States prerogstive of force
than can their opponents in their con-
troversies.
There is notion which latterly has
been insisted on good deal that for q
combination of persons to do what
any one OF them lawfully might do
himself, will make the otherwise law.
full conduct unlawful.
Free competition means combina.
tion, and the organization of the world,
now going on so fast, means an ever
increasing might and scope OF combi
nation. It seems to me futile to set
our faces against this tendency.
One of the eternal conflicts out Of
which life is made up ia that between
the effort OF every man to get the most
he can for his services, and that OF So
ciety. disguised under the name Of
capital, to get his services for the least
possible return.
II it be true that workingmen may
combine. with q view, among other
things. to getting as much ~ they can
for their labor, just as capital may
combine with view to getting the
greatest possible return, it must be
true that when combined they have
the same liberty that combined capital
has to support their interests by argu.
ment, persuasion and the bestowal OF
refusal Of those advantages which they
otherwise lawfully control.
can remember when many people
thought that, apart from violence or
breach of contracts, strikes were
wicked, as organized refusals to work.
suppose that intelligent economists
and legislators have given up that no.
ton to-day.
In this candid and comprehensive
spirit Justice Holmes on several occa-
sions has discussed from the bench our
contemporary social problems. There
is no doubt that he has been studying
outside as we'll a. ineide the court
room and the law books the great is.
sues involved, and however seriously
men may differ with him, all must re.
spect the manifest independence Of HE
judgment.
PRESIDENT ROOSEVELT 10 said to be
very popular in California; this, too
in spite of the fact that that State il
the largest beet-sugar producing State
| in the Union, and that the carrying
out OF the Presidents pet measure
recirrocity-means An injury to theil
business. The next two years will
/ 4. Ia sks,s svsn in,