The Birmingham age-herald., 1909-10-25
Death Is Shock.

Washington, October 4-The announce ment of the death of Justice Peckham, while expected, came a shock to his associates on the bench and In official circles, and everywhere expressions of regret were heard.
 Justice Peckham was democrat and before taking a seat on the bench2gaVe considerable attention to politics in New York. He was born in Albany. N Y. November s, 1898. and had been on the bench, state and federal, for 26 years. He came from the court of appeals Of his native state, a position which his father before him had occupied.
 MT. Peckham's first office was that of district attorney for Albany county. He was elected to that position in 1868. He afterward became, in succession, corpora tion counsel for the city of Albany, mem Der of the supreme court of the state, and associate justice of the state court of appeals. He was the last of Presi- dent Cyveland's democratic appointees to the federal supreme court, Chief Js1s- tiee Fuller and Justice White being the other wo He t5oh 1is seat In Jan uary, 1Ss6 His chief distinction was that of givitg his time exclusively to the duties tl the court. He accepted no out side appointments and undertook no work not connected with it, He was married but went little into society. Unlike other justices he accepted no invitations to public functions and made no public ad dresses after taking his seat.
 Rights of Corporations.
 Cases involving the rights of corpora tions received especial consideration at Justice Peckham's hands, and he was the author of some of the courts most noteworthy opinions of recent date along this line. Among them may be mentioned the case of the Consolidated Gas com ofN fin wi ba p1 while rebates fixed by the legislature must allow a fair return on investments, fed eral courts could not interfere to declare them invalid unless they were so funrea- sonably low as to be confiseatory. One result of that decision was to cause the return of several million dollars to New York consumers of gas.
 Several of MT. Peckhams corporation decisions dealt with the Sherman anti trust law, as applied to railroads. These included the joint traffic and the trans Missouri cases in both of which he held the law to be applicable. He also pre- pared and delivered the opinion of the court in the case of Attorney General Young of Minnesota. in which it was held that the federal courts could inter- fere with the execution by the state courts of an unconstitutional state law
 Associates Affected.
 when the news or JuSllce ItthnaIl \ death was broken to the surviving mem bers of the supreme court tonight, all of them appeared to be deeply affected, although the end of their fellow jurist had been looked upon as merely mat ter of hours.
 Chief Justice Fuller had retired when word was conveyed to him, but he ex- pressed his sorrow and said that the passing of Justice Peckham was a severe loss to the American bench.
 Justice Harlan was overcome He said: Tt is a great loss to the country. Justice Peckham was one of the ablest jurists who ever sat on anaAmerican bench
 He had strong political convictions, but when on the bench he cared nothing for litigants politics. His sole desire was to administer the law as 1t was, and to give each party his just rights l had a great personal affection for him. He was one of the purest men l ever knew
 The other members of the tribunal spoke in similar terms of Justice Peckham's life and services. The justices are so closely bound by common ties that the passing of any of them is sorely felt
 Probable Successor.
 While none of the officials now here would discuss tonight the probable sue cessor to Justice Peckham, each declar- ing that it would be q violation of the proprieties, the names or Frederick N. Judson of St. Louis, former Secretary of War Luke E. Wright, the present Secretary, J. M. Dickinson, Henry NJ. Hoyt, counsellor for the state depart- ment and solicitor general in the Roose- welt administration, and Solicitor General Bowers have been prominently men toned.
 Although there is no ruie to govern the appointment, the vacancy on the bench by precedent likely will go to a demo- :; crat. In this event Hoyt and Bowers would be eliminated. No action in the matter will be taken, however, until after Mir. Taft's return from his tour , through the country.