New-York tribune., 1918-07-14
Many to Decisions Show Tendency in Favor
of Interpretation Beyond Academic
Letter of Law
By Ralph Block

large, stern looking man who hides
b. his manner a good deal of senti-
ment and kindliness and imagination.
The analyst would have a difficult
time putting the chief justice into
a category of any kind. He belongs
to an earlier period Of American his
tory than such jurist as Justice
Brandeis; yet his imagination is
expansive enough to put him on the
side of much that looks beyond to-
day It was he who expressed the
"rule Of reason" in the Standard Oil
and Tobacco Trust cases in 1911.
By the rule of reason" the chief
justice interpreted the antitrust
laws as prohibiting only "an unrea-
sonable or undue restraint of trade"
1t is a matter of interest in this
connection that the chief dissent to
the opinion of the Chief Justice at
that time came from Justice Harlan,
who protested vigorously against the
"usurpation by the judicial branch
of the government of the functions
of the legislative department" and
against "sanctioning an invasion by
the judiciary of the constitutional
domain of Congress-an attempt by
Interpretation to soften and modify
what some regard as a harsh pub
lie policy"
Memories of these cases still have
some authority over the Supreme
Court of to-day. For the Justice Nc
Reynolds who now sits on the bench
was leading figure in the prose-
cution Of the trust cases. When he
was appointed to the court by Presi-
dent Wilson, to take the vacancy
made by the Death of Justice Lur-
ton, there was general impression
that the Attorney General was
radical. He had disagreed with At
torney General Wickersham over the
dissolution of the Tobacco Trust. He
believed the decree Of the Supreme
Court was too gentle. Editorial opin-
ion of certain variety pointed out
bis record was one of prosecution
rather than Of judgment. 1t was
questioned whether he could substi-
tute the judicial mind for the prose-
cutting mind. If the judicial mind is
one that is learned in precedents
and is ruled by the abstract logic of
tie law, the former Attorney Cen
cral has not failed in the substitu-
ton. He is one of the stanchest
defenders of the law, wherever it
has been made, just as it was made.
But the chief Justice cannot be
passed by without recognition of
bis services in reforming the pro-
cedures Of the Supreme Court, He
took the chief part in the first re-
vision in fifty years, q labor that
covered nearly two years. One of it's
important results was assuredly IN
the direction of liberalism, putting
an end to the improper use of the
injunction in labor cases, or what
was then called "midnight and hair
trigger injunctions."
The veterans of the court have a
way Of looking their part. Justice
Holmes is "a man of military appear
ancc, quite the advocate Of estab-
llshed things and as such belying his
own expressed attitude Justice Nc
henua, who was an Attorney Gen
eral under President Mckinley and
WAS appointed to the court in 1898,
is spare, small man whose close
gray beard makes him look like the
conventional picture which was the
figure of all Senators of that day.
Justice Day, who was appointed to
the court along with Justice Holmes
by President Roosevelt, also fits into
the visualized history of that earlier
time, but anonymously perhaps as
kind Of Man from Mars. He is
student, recluse and does not dis
close in his bulging forehead and
thin figure his fondness for base
bali. He was Secretary of State
under President Mckinley and was
chairman Of the commission which
negotiated that far-away peace
treaty with Spain.
Justice Van Devanter was once
chief justice of Wyoming when it
was territory, was later an Assist
ant Attorney General and was made
a Federal circuit judge by President
Roosevelt. At the time of his an
pointment by President Taft in 1910
he was linked editorially with JUS
tice Lamar. Justice Pitney. another
Taft appointee. was an associate
justice Of the Supreme Court Of
, New Jersey, later chancellor OF
New Jersey; and is deeply interested
in golf playing.
President Wilson has made three
appointments to the Supreme Court
The last of these was tha apoo;n+