Newark evening star and Newark advertiser. [volume] (Newark, N.J.) 1909-1916, 1910-12-19
JUSTICE WHITE IS
NOW HEAD Of THE
SUPRE NE COURT
Assumption of High Honors Are
Marked by Absence of
Ostentation.

WASHINGTON, Dec. 19.-Edward
Douglass White, for sixteen years an
associate justice of the Supreme Court
of the United States, today became the
ninth chief justice of the nation. The
simple public ceremonies of installation
were held in the presence of the bench
and a distinguished gathering that filled
every available inch of space in the lit
tie courtroom.
The oath of allegiance was adminis-
tered by Associate Justice Harlan, just
before the court took its place on the
bench.
The new head of the court, obviously
embarrassed, marched into the court
room to his usual place on the bench II
his capacity as an associate justice. AS
he TOOK his seat, he smiled at his wife,
who sat in a reserved seat alongside his
brother, James White, of this city. and
other relatives
Presiding Justice Harlan, who has
headed the tribunal since the death of
Chief Justice Fuller last July, an
nounced, after orders of the day had
been made public, that Justice White
AAeLA OOCii JdctiIO u thV
United States, was present and ready
to take the oath. He extended the con-
CALCULATIONS of the court to the new
chief Justice and directed Clerk Nc
Kenny to read his commission. This
done, the presiding justice turned to his
right, where sat the new chief justice
and in the presence Of the standing
gathering administered the judicial
1o$h rI,@ cAnfar i,cff1o hzrra5 fho ,txsof
justice into the chair as the head of the
court. extended his personal c%ongratu-
lations and himself resumed his old
seat at the right of the chief justice.
For the first time in history an as
| sociate justice had been elevated to the
| chief justiceship and for the first time
a president and senate of one political
| party had honored a member of a rival
party by placing him at the head of the
highest court in the land.
Because of the overwhelming modesty
of Chief Justice White officials of the
court were uncertain as to the exact
details of the ceremony of the day
until they had actually occurred. In a
general way the broad customs attend
ing the induction into office of the head
of the court were followed.
Ceremonies transformations.
unlike the Inauguration of a presi-
dent as the head of the coordinate
branch of the government, the induc-
ton into office of a chief justice of the
United States has always been a COM
paratively transformations occasion. In
stead of an escort from the Capitol to
the White House composed of gaiiy-
offirol aix,io aroa pf1a tiorc ond uoa-
| soned military commands, a new chief
justice has only his black-robed
brethren on the bench in procession
from the robing-room to the court
room; instead of his approach being
heralded by the loud huzzas of cheer
ing thousands, the advance to power
of a new chief justice is announced by
nothing more than the solitary tones
of the court crier; instead of an in
augural address outlining his policies,
the only utterance of a new chief Jus
tice is the solemn words of his oath of
office.
The dignity resting in the customs
founded on the swearing into office Of
John Jay, John Rutledge. Oliver Els
worth and John Marshall and perfected
in the days of Roger B. fancy, Salmon
P. Chase, Morrison r. Waite and Mel
vile w. Fuller was not materially dis
turbed today by radical innovations.
The ceremonies of e~levating an asso-
ciate justice of the court into the chief
iusticeship of the nation began in the
| secret confines of the courts robing-
room. 1t is here that the oath of
allegiance is administered, just before
the court takes its place on the bench.
The oath prepared for today's occasion
| followed the form prescribed by law.
It read:
The Chief Justices Oath.
at, Edward Douglass White, do SOL
EMMY swear that I will support and
defend the Constitution of the United
| States against all enemies. foreign and
domestic; that l will pear true faith
and allegiance to the same; that take
this obligation freely, without n
mental reservation or purpose of eva
sion, and that l will well and faithfully
discharge the duties of the Office on
which I am about to enter. So help me,
God"
1t was a similar oath of allegiance
that created sue a tempest in the
court back in reconstruction days.
Hence unusual interest was centred in
it's administration today to the first
chief justice who had borne arms in
the cause of the Confederacy by the
senior associate Justice of the court,
Justice Harlan, who had borne arms
at the same time in the cause of the
nation.
Doubt had existed before the cere-
monies as to whether the new CHIEF
Justice would halt at the clerks desk
in the courtroom to take the oath
there, as most of the men who have
occupied positions on the bench have
done. or whether he would assume his
usual place on the bench and take the
oath there, as Chief Justice Chase did.
There was doubt also as to whether he
would hold in his hand the historic
Bible that practically all the chief JUS
tees and associate justices have used
In this ceremony, or whether he would
follow the custom of Chief Justice
Chase II taking the oath on a Bible
provided for the occasion.
The oath which the new chief justice
subscribed to in the open court Is
known as the judicial oath and distin-
guished from the path of allegiance. 1t