Truth

Last week Associate Justice Louis Dembitz Brandeis, the only Jew who ever sat in the Supreme Court, celebrated his 70th birthday. The New York Jewish Tribune congratulated him as "the epitome of all that is finest in Americanism and Judaism."

Well might the Semitic press say this, and well might citizens of all creeds re-echo praise of a man whose knowledge of the law and understanding of the "rights of man" is unsurpassed. In 1916 President Wilson appointed him to the Supreme Court in the face of biting criticism. People said: "Yes, he is brilliant, but he is biased. We do not want prejudiced labor advocates in the Supreme Court."

Far from being an enemy of corporations, Justice Brandeis became invaluable to them because of his exhaustive knowledge of their needs. In many railroad cases, the Supreme Court defers to his judgment. Only three weeks ago, he handed down a decision forbidding the coercive use of the strike (TIME, Nov. 8).

He is perhaps the hardest working member of the Supreme Court, going to his office at 7 a. m. and often continuing into the night. His theory is that a search for the truth, if carried far enough, will always obliterate any conflict of opinion. His words are few--almost epigrammatic: "Instead of amending the Constitution, I would amend men's economic and social ideas."