New-York tribune., 1910-12-18

jority opinion in the income tax case of
federal legislature to impose such a tax
was declared TO be unconstitutional.
Several decisions which will prove of
great national Importance are likely to
be handed down by the new Chief jus
tice Some indication of his trend of
thought may be drawn from remem-
bering that as associate justice he wrote
the majority opinion to sustain the Hep
burn rate law; he was with the minority
and against the government in the
Northern Securities case; he was with
the minority in favor of upholding the
income tax law, and ne was with the
majority in sustaining the S0-cent gas
law.
From the Supreme Court of the United
States there is no appeal except to
Heaven. Plenary power is granted the
lands highest tribunal by the Constitu-
tion of the country. and the laws are so
designed and the subordinate judiciary
SO made up as to conform to the will OF
the fathers. And yet this august body,
so hedged about by the law tones and
authorities, is itself a slave to customs
which bind it as firmly the law itself
The Senate and House have hearkened
to the voice of fashion in their outward
manifestations. but in the Supreme
Court only four changes have taken
place since the foundation of the gov
ernment.
These changes We're accomplIsh after
repeated conferences among the men,
hers of the court. Spurred by the en-
thusiasm Of the younger clerks and at
tendants. the justices at last reluctantly
approved the plan to elevate the bench
from the floor level and raise it some two
wards above the heads of the lawyers
and visitors In days gone by the court.
tie lawyers and the audience occupied
the same ground One day, it is record
ed. Henry Clay created some confusion
and criticism by taking his stand at the
rieht hand of the Chief Justice and max
ing an argument. More to prevent
repetition Of this "sacrilege" than from
any other motive. the bench was ele-
waited and now stands as an impossible
bdGIleT pClNttlA Ilit o'HtA 'N-iN- 49, -
gressive attorneys.
The second change was inevitable A
new carpet was placed on the floor when
the Supreme Court room was first FUR
nished. Il was a good carpet, else II
would not have survived forty years OF
contant wear. During the forty years it
bore its burdens with true Brusselian
stoicism. but on reaching the age of half
a century it began to tangle itself IN
the feet of the justices. 1t was removed
when il had seen sixty years of service,
hlt the new carpet was an exact dupIl-
cate in order that the sacred originality
of the chamber might be preserved.
Then a wave of intense radicalism
swept over the court and a change was
cons1lmmated which to several of the
justices appeared little less than revolu-
tionary. Never in the history OF the /
CCIrt had reporters been allowed TO take
notes The attorneys depended on their /
memories to answer the arguments OF
their opponents, and newspaper report
ers We're compelled to paraphrase the de-
cisions or await the copies which were
given out later by Nj. Mckinney, the
clerk Of the court. A few years ago this
rule was abrogated. and it is now per-
n2issfbIe to bring a pencil and paper
within the revered portals.
The health and comfort of the court
itself prompted the fourth change.
When John Jay and John Marshall sat
upon the bench from noon until o'clock
it was expected of them, learned jurists
that they We're, that hunger would at
some point usertake them Realizing
that a void OF this material character
induces irritability and that comfort of
body is essential to judicial tempera-
ment, it was no uncommon sight to see
several sandwiches divide a jurist's at