Evening star., 1939-11-16

Attorney General Of the United
States in the Hoover administers
ton. A fellow railroad attorney in
the Minnesota capital who also
gained fame as trust buster" was
Frank B. Kellogg, Secretary Of
State In the Coolidge cabinet, and
it was he who was understood to
have recommended the Butler ap-
pointment to the court.
The only elective Office Justice
Butler ever held was that of county
attorney Of Ramsey County, 1893-
81. after he had served two years,
1891-93, as assistant county attor-
ney, an appointive post. He was
prosecuting attorney for the city
OF st. Paul for six years and, from
1907, was regent of the University
of Minnesota.
In 1891 he married Annie Cronin
of st. Paul. They had eight chill
dren. One daughter, Mary, died
while serving as an Army nurse
in the World War. Four sons also
served in the military forces.
Had Sense Of Humor.
| A hulking big man, 6 feet ~
inches tall and weighing 22O pounds,
the justice had much of the geni-
atty popularly associated with that
physical type. He was known as
a good companion, lively, gifted with
a sense of humor and a fine story
teller. He became the biggest man
on the court, physically, upon the
death of Chief Justice Taft.
He devoted to his family all the
time he could reserve from profess
sional and public duties. His pastime
was golf, but he played with more
enthusiasm than success.
A lover Of jest himself, he appre-
ciated as much as any one a sly jibe
which Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes
took at him in the majority opinion
upholding the right of Virginia to
sterilize its mental detectives. The
MinneSotan cast a lone dissenting
vote and Justice Holmes ended the
majority opinion:
Three generations Of imbeciles
are enough. Mr.. Justice Butler dis
Sents."
First Northwestern Justice.
Justice Buffers appointment was
the first recognition of the North
west upon the Supreme Court. Un-
like most of those named to the
bench, he had never served in Con-
gress or the cabinet, but he was
known to his colleagues by reason
OF his appearances before them as
counsel from 1894 on.
AS a member of the court he was
selected, because of his specialization
IN such matters, to deliver MANY of
Its opinions in ratemaking and
municipal valuation cases. Soon
after taking his seat he wrote the
decision holding the Panhandle Oil
Co. need not pay tax to Mississippi
on gasoline sales to the Coast Guard
The court ruled that in such sales
the company became a Federal
instrumentality."
Two notable opinions in the later
history OF the court in which he
concurred were those of Justice
sutherland in the journeyman
stonecutters' and Baltimore railway
cases.
In 1927, in the stonecutters' case
producers who controlled 10 per cent
OF the total output of stone, sought
an injunction against the stonecut-
ters union ordering it to cease re-
tusing to work on stone shipped
from non-union quarries. Justice
Butler voted that the injunction
should be granted.
In the Baltimore case, the street
car company objected to an order
OF the Maryland public service COM
missioner fixing rate of fare which
would yield q return of 61l per cent
on the value of the property. The
justice voted that such a return
was "confiscatory" and that the
company should be allowed to earn
7h per cent H
Withdrew From Rail Cases,
IN some cases involving railroad
values, however, he would not take
part IN the courts decisions because
OF his battles as a corporation at
torney In the courts and before the
Interstate Commerce Commission
against lower freight rates and for
higher railroad valuations.
He delivered the courts famo;ls
Indianapolis Water Co. decision
holding the cost of reproduction
new, OF a plant, was an important
element to be considered in rate
making. This decision, coming in
an era OF rising prices, brought much
criticism of him as friend of cor
poratlons and public utilities. but
good-naturedly he commented that
those who condemned the decision
would one day see its wisdom.
Justice Butler, on February l, 1897,
delivered the decision by which the
government won contention that
the Deutsche Bank and Disconto
Gesellschaft, a German CORPORATION.
had no right to sue for the return
OF stocks, bonds and $541 ,O41 in cash
seized IN the World War days from
one OF its predecessor companies,
His decision upheld a government
argument that 1884 law prohibited
the return of alien property because
OF Germanys failure to keep up pay
ments under the 1880 debt refundinp
agreement. 1t also established that
the return of enemy property was
purely gratuity which Congress
could grant or revoke at pleasure.
In the New Deal arena, Justice
Butler, although voting against ad-
mlnistration on II of the q such
cases decided by the court prior
to the 1878 term, was in the
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