Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1906-11-18
AWARDED HIGH PRAISE
Moody's Selection Commended
by Supreme Court Justices.
PEONAGE CASE ARGUMENT
Ablest Heard by the Bench in Many
Years.
RECOVERY OF SENATOR DEPEw
Extenuating Circumstances Regarding
Him Painted by Friends-Po-
lice Of London.
RECOVERY OF SENATOR DEpEw
BY WILLIAM E. CURTIS

| Written for The Star and the Chicago Record
Herah
| Although the newspapers are making
much of the point that Attorney General
Moody should not sit in Judgment upon
causes in which he has been engaged as an
attorney. and such causes are numerous
and will occupy much of the attention of
the Supreme Court for several years, the
justices commend his appointment very cor
daily. They say that he is not only we'll
qualified to occupy seat upon the bench,
but they know of no reason why he should
not do so. Speaking of his ability, one Of
the justices asserted the other day that
the ablest argument heard by the court
for many years was made last winter by
Mr.. Moody in what are known as the
..peOnage case" That is a very high
compliment coming from court before
which the ablest jurists in the United
States are constantly appearing.
Mr.. Moody took great personal as we'll
as official and professional interest in the
case referred to, as it involved a human
freedom and the liberation of peonage
which has grown up in the southern states
since slavery was abolished Under the
laws which permit an employer to hold any
of his employees who happen to be in debt
to him plantation owners and others de-
liberately devise means by which their
hands shall become indebted to them and
cry. Samuel M. Clyatt, a turpentine
manufacturer of Georgia, was convicted
of this form of peonage-of unlawfully
and forcibly holding one or two Of his en-
ployes to labor for debt-and was sem
fenced to the federal penitentiary at At
lanta for four years. His case was ap-
States.
The facts were that the two negroes,
named Gordon and Ridley, left Clyatt's tur-
pentine camp to seek work elsewhere
"a
boundary into the state of Florida with
handouts and bogus warrants and arrested
them at the house of man named. Dean.
The latter offered to pay Clyatt the debt
which the latter claimed was due him from
Gordon and Ridley. amounting to $40 for
one and SO for the other, but Clyatt re-
fused, saying that he wanted to carry
them back to Georgia and make an ex-
ample of them. The negroes denied owing
him anything, but Clyatt insisted, showed
his bogus warrants and carried them away
Attorney General Moody made profound
impression upon the court by his argu-
ments.
Change in Legal Style.
There has been a great change in the
style of oratory and also in the literary
style of opinions that are rendered by the
court, just as there has been in literature.
II Addison should send one of his articles
from the Spectator to the best of our
magazines or newspapers of today 1t would
be rejected. 1t would be as much out Of
date as the coat, the waistcoat or the
breeches he wore when he wrote 1t. for
fashions in oratory and jurisprudence
change just as they do in millinery and
raiment If you will compare an opinion
of Chief Justice Fuller, of Judge Brown or
Justice Harlan with those pronounced by
their predecessors upon the bench seventy
five a hundred years ago. you will notice
decided difference in the method of treat
ing questions and in yerbiage. The judi
- %1In t,nic
direct and definite. They waste no words;
they use circumlocution; they go
direct to the heart Of the proposition and
dissect it as a surgeon dissects his subject.
The same is true with arguments before
the court Many judges will not listen to
outbursts of eloQuence that used to be so
much admired in the olden days. trial
in court is no longer dramatic perform
ance and If an attorney loses control of
himself and tries to indulge in a flight of
eloquence, the judge is pretty certain to
call him down and admonish him to con
fine his remarks to the dog fight
The argument that is most admired
and is most effective in court today is
that which covers as concisely as possible
all the facts and all the law; and the JUS
| tices will tell you that at every term of
court they hear arguments that would have
been considered extraordinary If they had
| been delivered century ago. I heard one
of the Justices say not long ago that he
knew of forty lawyers at the bar of the
Supreme Court who could make an ADLER
argument than Daniel Webster, although
| he doubted if any Of them could produce
| the monumental impression that Webster
always left.
There has been considerable simplifica-
! ton in the preparation of legal documents
also. The Supreme Court will not bother
with briefs in which the facts and law
of the case are buried under a pile of
useless words, and the forms of legal
papers, contracts, wills and similar docu-
ments are much shorter and simpler than
they used to be. The eNtire DRIFT is to-
ward simplicity. brevity and directness of
statement.
Lawyers Itemized Bills.
It Is becoming q custom also for lawyers