The Text:" Chase."

SUPREME COURT

The Text:"Chase."

Chief Justice Taft went to his home town, Cincinnati, and made a speech on the Supreme Court. His text was Salmon P. Chase, a former resident of Cincinnati and Chief Justice. The occasion was the unveiling of the Chase monument.

Mr. Taft made no reference to the recent vitriolic attacks on the Court. But his speech was accepted as-an answer to attack.

The point: Chase was Chief Justice after the Civil War, when the Court was bitterly assailed by radical Republicans, but the Court outlived its assailants. Its decisions, under Chase, have been approved by our generation.

The inference: Taft is Chief Justice after the World War. He and the Court are attacked. But the Court will outlive the attacks, and the future will honor the Court of today rather than the radical Republicans of today.

The speech was well received by the country. "Long live the Court, its power uncurbed," was the general response. Remains, however, one strong and popular objection; Should the Court be allowed to declare acts of Congress unconstitutional by a 5-4 majority? Even the most conservative papers declare that a 6-3 or a 7-2 majority should be necessary to overrule Congress. "The country will cheerfully take law from six or seven Justices that it will not take from five Justices without protest. This may not be altogether consistent, but it squares with human nature." Opponents of the 5-4 decision point out that "Mr. Taft has yet to show cause why a 6-3 decision is not better than 5-4."

The present attacks on the Court are occasioned by its declaration against a minimum wage law. And, incidentally, radicals and Mr. Hearst object to Mr. Taft's $10,000 annuity from steel bonds.

Salmon P. Chase, of Ohio, became Senator, Governor, Senator, Secretary of the Treasury, Chief Justice. He was the active mind of Lincoln's Cabinet. Born in Cornish, N. H., he graduated from Dartmouth, and early entered the anti-slavery fight. Grave and massive, his New England conscience was as strong as his sense of humor was weak. He was the financial genius of the Civil War.