Evening star., 1942-07-18

frmed by the Senate on September
5, 1922.
Justice Sutherlands record on the
court was one of close application
to his duties. He followed proceed
ings attentively, his fingers playing
nervously over his steel-gray beard
and through his hair when he con-
centrated In later years he had
difficulty in hearing counsel, unless
they spoke distinctly.
Always he was watch dog for
the Constitution, especially in its
application to contractual relations.
One of his pre-New Deal decisions
WAS in the case of Adkins VS.. Chill
drens Hospital, which involved the
minimum wage law of the District
of Columbia and was held uncon-
stitutional. He said:
"It is simply and exclusively
price fixing law, confined to adult
women who legally are as capable
of contracting for themselves as are
men"
The case was recondsidered and
reversed in the 1896 term when the
Washington State minimum wage
law was upheld.
A law clerk once suggested to
Justice Sutherland that in a case
at hand there did not appear to be
serious infringement of constitu-
tional provisions. The justice
bridled and retorted:
you remind me of the girl who,
out of wedlock, had given birth to
child and tried to condone 1t on the
ground that it was very, very small
baby"
Warned of Perils to Liberty.
AS one of the conservative bloc in
the court, he prepared a number OF
outstanding dissenting opinions.
When the court, by to 4 finding,
on April IL, 1887, applied the Wagner
Labor Act to various manufacturing
concerns and to the Associated
Press, Sutherland, in the latter case,
delivered the minority opinion for
himself and Justices Van Devanter,
Butler and McReynolds. In it he
said:
do the people of this land-fav-
ored, as they sometimes boast. above
all others in the plentitude of their
liberties-desire to preserve those so
carefully protected by the first
amendment: Liberty of religious
worship freedom of speech and OF
the press, and the right, as free men,
peaceably to assemble and petition
their Government for redress OF
grievances? If so, let them with
stand all beginnings Of encroach-
ment.
THE saddest epitaph that can be
carved in memory of a vanished
liberty is that it was lost because its
possessors failed to stretch forth a
saving hand while yet there was
time"
While Justices Sutherland and Van
Devanter nearly always were In ac-
cord, admired each other and were
both products of pre-statehood days
in the Rocky Mountain region, they
were not cronies. Many of Justice
Sutherland's closest friends were in
the West and he did not often see
them. In Washington, when time
permitted, be liked to renew COM
| panionship with some of his sena-
torial colleagues by taking luncheon
in the Senate restaurant, and he
found opportunity for such reunions
fairly frequently because he did most
of his court work in chambers which
he occupied in the Capitol.
He used to play golf and attend
baseball games, but he quit those di-
versions after passing his three
score -and-ten milestone. He also
gave up evening social affairs and
spent his time mostly between his
home and Office. Many Of his sum-
mer vacations he spent abroad,
visiting the homes of his ancestors In
England and Scotland and keeping
in touch with English law and
practices.
In somewhat poor health for
number Of years, he had intended to
resign in 1882 when he reached 10.
But his condition began to improve
about that time.