Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1913-04-22
OF UNREST
HITS HIGH court

Washington, d. C., April 22.-How
the supreme court of the United States,
or at least one member of it, views the
present day criticisms of the courts,
is set forth in a speech by Justice Oil
yer Wendell Holmes, made public to-
day in the form of a senate public doc
ument. Justice Holmes delivered the
speech recently at private inner in
Science has taught the word skep-
ticism, the justice said by way OF
preface, and made it legitimate to put
everything to the test of proof.
''Of course we are not excepted" he
said, referring TO the supreme court
Not only are We told that when Mar
shall pronounced an act of congress
unconstitutional he usurped a power
that the constitution did not give, but
We are told thai we are the representa-
tives of a class-a tool of the money
power.
81 get letters, not always anony-
nous, intimating that we are corrupt.
Well, gentlemen, admit it makes my
heart ache. 1t is very painful, when
one spends all the energies of ones
soul in trying to do work, with no
thought but that of solving a problem
according to the rules by which one is
bound, to know that many see sinister
motives and would be glad of evidence
that one was consciously bad.
But we must take such things phi
! IIp<-nTNbiPollU ond ~ n Iuyha
can learn from hatred, and distrust
and whether behind them there may
not be some germ of inarticulate
truth"
The attacks upon the court, the jus
tice added, ARE merely an expression
of the unrest that seems to wonder
vaguely whether law and order pay"
An important truth TO be extracted
from the popular discomfort, accord
ing to Justice Holmes, is that judges
particularly in state courts, have read
their conscious or unconscious sympa
thies prematurely into the law.
1T cannot be helped-it is as il
should be-that the law is behind the
times" declared Justice Holmes. "As
law embodies beliefs that have tri
umphed in the battle of ideas and theI
have translated themselves into ac
ton, while there still is doubt, while
opposite convictions still keep a battle
front against each other, the time fol
law has not come; the notion destined
to prevail is not yet entitled to thu
field"
En connection with the discussion o
, premature law, he expressed the be
lief that 20 years ago when a ''vagu'
terror went over the earth and tht
word socialism began to be heard,
fear was translated by judges int
doctrines that had no proper place il
the constitution or the common law.
! Judges are apt to be naive, simpl
minded men. and they need something
OF Mephistopheles,' observed the jus
, tee
r Justice Holmes concluded by sayin1
: that as he grew old, he grew calm, an,
: predicted that competition from ney
: races will cut deeper in the futur
: than workingmen's disputes and wi
: test whether I'VE can hang togethe
: and fight"
b Il do not pin my dreams for tn
! future to my country or even TO m
4 race" he said. 4 think it probabl
D that civilization somehow will last a
long as l care to look ahead. l thin
, il not improbable that man, like II
, grub that prepares a chamber for tn
j winged thing it never has seen but
d TO be. may have cosmic destinies tha
be does not understand"