Supreme Convention

August in Washington, the nine Justices of the U. S. Supreme Court put on their black robes, convened, took up business where they left it off in June. Their docket was in most satisfactory shape: only 283 cases carried over from the 1926 term; only 279 new cases so far. Five of the 283 old cases were already under advisement. For the first day's sitting, the clerk of the Court called up 34 others for argument. Of the 279 new cases, some 250 were merely requests for review which could be quickly disposed of. The Supreme Court does not rush at its work with its sleeves rolled up, even figuratively speaking. Before beginning a long session of dignified hearing, conning, analyzing and resolving of arguments, the nine Justices presented themselves to the President to show him, in effect, that the ultimate wisdom of the nation was again ready to have perplexed people "draw near and give their attention."

The President shook their hands:

Chief Justice William Howard Taft, now 70, rotund, genial, with an earthquake chuckle and an eye that twinkles even in sternness. He dictates, revamps and redictates his opinions, guarding his strength from the rigors of writing. He walks for a half-hour every day. He has installed an elevator in his house to save walking upstairs to his study. Of all the Justices, he truly is least classifiable as "liberal" or "conservative." Radicals view with alarm his $10,000 income from steel bonds. Rock-ribbed bankers wonder at his large humanity.

Oliver Wendell Holmes, 86, whose mustache and sympathies flow even more freely than Mr. Chief Justice Taft's. Son and namesake of the poet, wounded in chest and foot as a Civil War volunteer, Mr. Associate Justice Holmes represents all that is spirited, liberal and scholarly in New England.

Willis Van Devanter, 68, from mountainous Wyoming, as conservative as a Dutch canal, and as calm.

James Clark McReynolds, 65, who served President Roosevelt as Assistant Attorney General and President Wilson as Attorney General before being raised to the high bench in 1914. He is a Kentucky-born bachelor, standing beside Mr. Associate Justice Van Devanter for a conservatism more intellectual than innate.

Louis Dembitz Brandies, 71, who might, were it not disrespectful, be called the Supreme Court's Seidlitz powder, so swiftly does he fume and sparkle when he senses that the rights of man are being infringed by right of might. He was another of President Wilson's appointees, and a much discussed. His wife takes active interest in liberal movements, even in the Sacco-Vanzetti affair--and he approves. Quick, subtle, his steps of mind and foot have a resilience that is unexpected in the old round room of grave decisions.

George Sutherland, 65, born in Buckinghamshire, England, and put on the high bench by President Harding. He spent his boyhood and young-lawyer's life in Utah, until sent to Congress. He is sometimes confused with a Scotch-Canadian namesake who, a good Baptist minister and college president, campaigns for the Anti-Saloon League in Nebraska. But not often, for he takes care to give "c/o Supreme Court of the U. S." as his address, in Who's Who, and wears a short beard of silver-tipped distinction. He is usually to be found on the vested-rights side of economic questions, for which Labor loves him little.

Pierce Butler, 61, of Minnesota, was appointed a few weeks after Mr. Associate Justice Sutherland. It was his first public office in 25 years, save for commissionerships.

Edward Terry Sanford, 62, the third Harding appointee, was once president of the Harvard Alumi Association. A Tennesseean with affiliations ranging from Phi Beta Kappa to Kiwanis, he ranges back & forth between liberalism and conservatism with the open mind of one who sat on district benches for 15 years.

Harlan Fiske Stone, latest addition (1925) to the Supreme Court, is its youngest, biggest, strapping-strongest member. He is but 55, He was graduated by Amherst College the year before Calvin Coolidge, in 1894. For 14 years (1910-24) he was Columbia University's Dean of Law and spent eleven months, between quitting that post and taking his present one, at being U. S. Attorney General. There was a flurry before Mr. Associate Justice Stone's confirmation by the Senate over the fact that he once represented J. P. Morgan & Co., and a storm over the fact that he was then trying to prosecute--some said, to persecute--Senator Burton K. Wheeler of Montana. But he was confirmed 71 to 6 and has become a sort of anchor man near the Court's level centre, like Chief Justice Taft in position if not in texture.

Outstanding Cases on the 1927 Supreme Court docket are:

Sinclair Oil v. the U. S. (the last civil suit of the oil scandals, about the validity of the Teapot Dome lease).

Liberty Warehouse Co. v. Burley Tobacco Growers' co-operative Marketing Association. (The question: are the U. S. laws constitutional* which authorize co-operative marketing of agricultural produce?)

New Mexico v. Texas (Boundary dispute).

Wisconsin v. Illinois (Diversion of Great Lakes water).

Swift & Co. v. the U. S. (Asking to be freed from an agreement to confine activities to meat packing).

* A word which, when used by Mr. Chief Justice Taft, acquires the timbre of archangelic trumpeting. "Con-sti-tooo-tional," says Mr. Chief Justice Taft.