Looking Ahead

The eight black-robed gentlemen on the high bench in the country's intrinsically most dignified chamber passed a busy and diversified week. Among other things considered:

The appeal of Gerald Chapman, murderer, for review of his sentence to hang in the State of Connecticut. (Received.)

The suits of Great Lakes states against the city of Chicago for lowering the level of Lake Michigan, and thus of all the other Great Lakes, by a drainage canal that empties into the Mississippi watershed. (Extension of scope granted.)

The suit of Benjamin Catchings, Washington lawyer, seeking to enjoin Secretary of State Kellogg from facilitating U. S. adherence to the World Court. (Catchings lost.)

A Pennsylvania law prohibiting the use of shoddy* in mattress-and pillow-stuffing. (Declared unconstitutional.)

It happened to be one of the black-robed gentlemen's birthdays, and that gentleman, the senior Associate Justice, happened to take strong exception to the decision against the pillow-stuffing law, on the ground that the decision stretched too far the phrase in the 14th amendment that safeguards the rights of citizens from seizure of their property without "due process of law." The gentleman celebrated his birthday by vigorously upbraiding his colleagues; so vigorously that everyone remarked how strongly the senior Associate Justice bore the weight of the 85 years he was that day rounding out.

Twenty-three years may be counted as fully half of an adult lifetime. At 60 or 61 a man is presumed to have the greater part of his active life behind. Yet these statements are not invariable. Consider the case of the senior Associate Justice of the Supreme Court, to whom Chief Justice Taft turns respectfully and says: "Now we shall hear Justice Holmes' view of this case."

It was in March, 1841, that Oliver Wendell Holmes, son of the distinguished gentleman of the same name, was born. Hence he celebrated his 85th birthday last week. In 1861 he had graduated from Harvard; in 1865 he had served four years in the Civil War, been thrice wounded and become a commissioned officer; in 1882 he had behind him an education in law, several years as editor of the American Law Review, several years as professor of law at Harvard, as well as several works on the law. In 1902 he had been 20 years a member of the Massachusetts Supreme Court, for three years its Chief Justice. Then he was 61. He had finished 41 years of active life.

In that year a young man--only 44--was president of the U.S., Theodore Roosevelt. He must have faith that Mr. Holmes had still several years of active life ahead of him--else why did he appoint him to the Supreme Court? But did Roosevelt conceive that Mr. Justice Holmes would continue in active service for more than 23 years--still going on when President Roosevelt himself had been dead seven years?

Much of Mr. Justice Holmes is explained by his ancestry--much not only of his age, but his ability. One of his grandfathers, Abiel Holmes, a New England clergyman and historian, lived to be 74. His other grandfather, Charles Jackson, who also served on the Massachusetts Supreme Court, lived to be 80. His father, Oliver Wendell senior, lived to be 85--to be exact, 85 years and 39 days. So Justice Holmes is not yet as old as his father, although he will soon be.

But Justice Holmes is as venerable as his father, and equals his sire in other respects. The father began his career by studying law, assayed literature and wrote Old Ironsides. Finally he settled on medicine. He never attained great success as a physician, although his contributions to medicine were well recognized in the profession. Even when his literary interests again became predominant, he continued as professor at the Harvard Medical School, teaching anatomy until 1882. Into medicine he took his literary talents, turned his biting wit against homeopathy, enlivened his teaching so that it is said his lectures were placed late in the afternoon because no other professor could keep the students awake at that time of day. During the greater part of his life he was an occasional poet; wrote three novels, but it was not till 1857 when Oliver Wendell junior was 16, that he joined with Jamer Russell Lowell in founding a magazine. Holmes called it The Atlantic Monthly. In a large measure Holmes "made" the magazine and it "made" him, through the publication of his essays, The Autocrat at the Breakfast Table, followed by The Professor, etc., and The Poet, etc. In these he exhibited his wit--noted in conversation--and his liberal opinions.

Besides venerability, Justice Holmes takes much from his father, including a poetic turn of expression and a liberal cast of thought. Although he is now the oldest member of the Supreme Court,** he is now and always has been regarded as one of the liberals of the Court. He has never been known as an old fogy. He is no stickler over small technicalities, not one to place the tradition of the law above the majesty of justice. He has written: "Law is not a brooding omnipresence in the sky." With the influx of liberal members to the Court in recent years and his contributions to jurisprudence, he has been more and more recognized in the law schools not only of this country but of England. Last fall Chief Justice Taft remarked: "Mr. Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes continues to honor the Supreme Court as its most brilliant and learned member." Clinton W. Gilbert, who is not only a newspaper correspondent but an expert appraiser of men, went so far as to say: "When the young men now in law school sit upon the Supreme bench, they are likely to look back upon Justice Holmes and Chief Justice Marshall as the greatest two men that ever sat in the Supreme Court."

Last week, white haired, white mustached, 85, and carrying himself like the veteran which he is, Mr. Holmes could well afford to laugh at the suggestion that the greater part of a man's active years are behind him at 60.

*Fluffy, fibrous waste from wool-carding used as a substitute for feathers and horsehair.

**No other member has yet reached 70. Mr. Justice Brandeis is 69, Mr. Chief Justice Taft is 68.