Evening star., 1943-01-11
Rudedge Is Eighth
Roosevelt Appointee
To Supreme Court
Friends Describe Jurist,
Former Deun of Iowa
Law School, as Humonist

Law School, as Humunist
The nomination today Of Justice
Wiley Blount Rutledge. jr., of the
United States Court of Appeals for
the District, to be Supreme Court
justice, was the eighth appoint
ment to the high tribunal by Presi-
dent Roosevelt and marks the first
time the President has gone to the
bench for a Supreme Court ap-
pointee.
It also set new high record for
the number Of justices named by a
President since the administration
Of George Washington, who ap-
pointed the original six members OF
the court and then filled seven
vacancies. Lincoln, Jackson and
Taft made five appointments. In
addition. President Roosevelt ele-
waited Chief Justice Stone from the
position of associate justice to sue
ceed Charles Evans Hughes.
Justice Rutledge, Democrat, will
be 40 years old on July 20. He was
dean Of the law school of the Uni
versity of Iowa when appointed to
the local court and took his seat on
May 8, 1899.
Attitude on Court Bill.
When his nomination was before
the Senate Judiciary Committee,
Justice Rutledge was asked concern
ing his attitude toward President
Roosevelt's 1887 proposal to expand
the Supreme Court, and members
quoted him as saying he had ia
vored the plan in the main while
objecting to some features of it,
but had taken no active part in the
controversy. Former Senator King,
Democrat, of Utah, who voted
against the nomination in commit
tee, said he did not believe from
Justice Rutledge's reply that the
nominee had been very much in
favor" of the court plan, but that
"he wrote some articles for it,"
Senator Kings opposition re-
portedly was based on his belief
that a local man should have been
named to the post.
Justice Rutledge is known to his
friends as q man whose home is
open alike to a janitor or the Gov
ernor of State-or perhaps even
a President Ernest believer in a
democracy that changes with the
times, the jurist likes to fish and
walk and NOW his own lawn.
While he was dean of the Iowa
law school he lived in a modest
rented house and wore inexpensive
ready-made clothes. His wide range
of friends included laborers, walters,
Governors, artists and musicians,
while students never found him too
busy to help them. =
Son of Baptist Preacher.
Kentucky-born son of a Southern
Baptist preacher, Justice Rutledge
has lived in Tennessee, Wisconsin,
Indiana, New Mexico, Colorado, Mis-
souri, and Iowa. Although he spent
only four years here as dean, Iowa
claims him now and his legal ad-
dress is still 122 East Church street,
Iowa City.
Professionally a jurist, his friends
and former students mark him as
first of all a humanist, whose often
asked question-"Of what good is
the law if it does not serve hu-
man needs?"-led him into inten-
sive studies Of the social and eco
nomic aspects of his profession.
Democracy is a perpetual COM
promise" he has said.
What men lose today as indi-
viduals they gain tomorrow as
groups. Thus democracy fills to-
morrow with opportunities just as
glorious as it gave us yesterday. Its
work is never finished"
The jurist long has maintained
that the general welfare clause of
the Constitution justifies broader
conception of the powers of the
Federal Government.
"If our national Government is
without the power to control pro-
duction, to place limits upon the
scope and methods of unfair compe-
ton and to regulate all phases of
industrial and commercial life which
fundamentally affect these prob
lems," his deep, soft-spoken voice
challenged back in 1888, "the only
alternative is continuance of the
economic disorder with which we
have struggled for four years."
At the same time he also advo-
Gated the abolishment of child labor.
Backed ANA Conviction.
He was one of the three members
Of the Court of Appeals who upheld
the District Court conviction of the
American Medical Association and
the District Medical Society on a
Sherman Act indictment charging
conspiracy to block the activities of
Group Health Association.
Justice Rutledge isn't above re-
versing his own decisions.
In college he became engrossed
in the study Of Greek and had a
Jealous admiration for his professor.
When the professor quit one day
the school hired a young girl just
out Of college-one Annabel Person
of Howell, Mich.-to take over the
class. Young Rutledge took one
look and decided she never could
take the place of his old, beloved
professor.
He reversed himself on that de-
cision. He married Miss Person
in 1917.
While teaching in Indiana, the
new nominee received one of the
hardest blows of his life. A ply
sician examined him and said, my
boy, you've got tuberculosis"
Justice Rutledge went West, re-
calls he made the necessary ad-
justments," and won the fight. Then
he married and went on to get his
law degree.
Twice before Justice Rutledge