New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1902-08-17

Associate Justice Horace Gray's retirement,
after twenty -one years of active and dstin-
guished service on the highest federal bench
calls attention afresh 70 that continuity or
tenure and tradition which more than any other
single influence perhaps has helped to give the
United States Supreme Court the commanding
role II plays in the federal scheme Of govern
ment The length Of the term which Justice
Gray ended by resignation eClipses no former
records Many judges have sat for longer
periods. The last associate Justice to retire
Stephen !. Field. who left tho court in 1897
had served continuously for over thirty four
years. his appointment in 1863 making him a
contemporary Of colleagues who had begun
their careers under the chief justceshp
Of Marshall There is to-day the Supreme
Courts roster justice, John NJ Harlan. whose
appointment antndatps Judge Grays 10y over
four years, and whose unslackencd vitality
promises to push still far ahead the limit Of
his powers and Iahors. Other colleagues now
on the bench seem likely 10 equal or surpass
Judge Grays record OF continuous service. The
chief justice has been in office fourteen years.
Justice Brewer has thirteen years to his credit,
Justice Brown eleven and Justice Shiras ten.
The other three Justices. Messrs. White, Peck
ham and McKenna- are still in their first dec
ade of activity and usefulness.
Coming TO the bench In 1881. Justice Cray
Ike Justice Harlan. had hand In settling the
still veXing questions of constitutional interpTe-
tation left over from the days Of Rebellion and
Reconstruction In this work he found as his
associates the men on whom the task had
mainly fallen of simplifying and readjusting
constitutional theory in the light Of the results
accepted and accomplished, Of the struggle to
preserve the Union As contributor to that
=; In
truly linked him with the court OF Waite and
Miller Of Field and Harlan, OF Bradley and
Blatchford. At The end of another war and
in the closing davs Of his judicial career II fell
TO him to take conspicuous part in the de
csion Of a newer set of constitutional prob
lens OF greater sUbtlety, perhaps, bat of equal
" vital national interest Judge Gray's share
in the unravelling of the so-caled nsular cases
is too we'll known to require comment In those
cases he took an unflinchng stand in advocacy
Of the theory OF national sovereignty, on which
the final verdict Of the court was based, build
ing for his conclusions. on traditions which
have descended from generation Of Judges
to another from Marshalls day.
Justice Gray's retirement and Justice Holiness
accession do not threaten even remotely re
vprsa If the insular opinions of 1901. Happily
no recasting Of the Supreme Courts member
ship can he foreseen sweeping enough 10 upset
the findings under which the United States now
enjoys a comparatively free hand in dealing
with the outlying dependencies thrown upon It's
political protection by the fortunes of n foreign
war. Old judges may give way TO new: but
beneath such changes. gradual and long de-
ferred, solidarity Of tradition persists which
makes this august tribunal a saving element Of
consistency and progress, accomplishing its
work unruffled. amid the jars. however violent
which may rack the other portions Of the
federal machine.