The Birmingham age-herald., 1910-12-16
Great Chief Justice

IL ndS DceH IudHy u udg SliiO0 any President has been so widely commended
 in nominating a man for high office as
 has Mir. Taft in his appointment of As- sociate Justice White of Louisiana to the
 chief justiceship," said a citizen who for
 merly lived in New Orleans.
 "As associate justice Edward D. White
 had won distinction and had more than Justified MT. C1evelands choice when the original appointment was made. He is
 not only an exceptionally able jurist but
 a higher minded gentleman never lived.
 The, New York Sun, an independent re- publican paper, in an editorial column and a half long says, among other illumi- hating things of the new head of the supreme bench:
 " He had been lawyer, a judge and a statesman, and the qualities of all three are necessary to make an ideal member of the court. Had Marshall been
 merely a dry-as-dust lawyer who could not look beyond the mere letter of the constitution, our frame of government
 would never have become by judicial in- depreciation the admiration of the world as nicely adjusted and marvelously wise governmental system. With the nar- rowing Jurisdiction of the court the ques- tions which come before 1t largely refer to the just interpretation of the consti- tuition, and the qualities of the stateman
 are therefore almost as important today
 in that court as they were in the consti-
 tutional convention of 17s7. Marshall had
 been not only member of the House
 of Representatives, but also of the cabi-
 net of John Adams, and therefore ada ed to his ability as a lawyer the wider experience of a statesman. Similarly the new chief justice was a member of the Senate at the time he was originally ap- pointed, and he brings to the discharge of his exalted office the experience of the man of affairs as well as the erudi- ton of a learned lawyer.
 " TO these acquired qualifications must be added those with which he is by na-
 ture gifted. There have been few jus tices of the supreme court who have ex- celled the new chief justice in analytical
 power. In strength of logical reasoning and in power of felicitous expression. It | is common knowledge that the lawyers who are frequently called upon 10 argue at the bar of the supreme court most
 dread. if there be any flaw in their case,
 the searching questions of Justice White.
 They go to the very marrow of the case. They develop with extraordinary penetra-
 ton the essential strength or weakness of the position of the advocate, and yet these questions are always addressed with so much consideration and patience that the advocate, though he feel his
 armor hopelessly penetrated, equally feels
 that the searching question has been ad- | dressed with the single purpose of elicit
 ing the truth. In this respect MT. Jus- | tioe White rivals the greatest of the
 English Judges. who generally decide their
 cases immediately after the oral argu- ment and as result of searching ques-
 tons which go to the very heart of the
 contention. In his unf1agging industry
 and intellectual virility the new chief jus
 tce also resembles the greatest jurists
 who have adorned the annals of the Eng | lish-speaking world.'