More Power to Them

THE SUPREME COURT OF THE UNITED STATES--AN INTERPRETATION OF ITS FOUNDATION, METHODS AND ACHIEVEMENTS--Charles Evans Hughes--Columbia University Press ($2.50).

THE BUSINESS OF THE SUPREME COURT--A STUDY IN THE FEDERAL JUDICIAL SYSTEM--Felix Frankfurter and James M. Landis--Macmillan ($5.00).

The History. It was in 1775, says Mr. Hughes, that Washington addressed the Continental Congress: "Should not a court be established by authority of Congress to take cognizance of prizes made by the Continental vessels?" The prize vessels got their court, and were forgotten. But the federal court has persisted for a century and a half, and culminates in the present Supreme Court which is designed to maintain the necessary balance 1) between State and Nation; 2) between individual rights as guaranteed by the constitution and social interest as expressed in legislation.

Authors Frankfurter and Landis analyze the political, social and economic forces that have produced changes in the federal judicial system. With the Civil War, the triumph of nationalism over "states' rights" enlarged the jurisdiction of the federal courts, modified and expanded their structure. Tremendous increase in industry so flooded their dockets that a separate court was created for customs appeals, and another for regulation of railways and other great national utilities. Involved in politics, this latter (a Commerce Court not to be confused with the Interstate Commerce Commission) was short-lived.

With all their disadvantages, the old panaceas for more courts, more Supreme Court justices, divisional sittings, have been revived since the Great War. Failing a Lord Chancellor (equivalent to a Ministry of Justice), leadership for reform is unofficial, and the less effective. Constant reform, however, is inevitable: "Law and courts are instruments of adjustment."

The Significance. It has been said that the nine men on the Supreme Court at Washington are the real rulers of this country. Be that as it may, their position is such that the alert U. S. citizen should know the extent of their power. Though both the present volumes are concerned with restricting the business of the Supreme Court they do not propose to restrict its jurisdiction, but rather the amount of its work, so that the Court may be increasingly powerful. Hughes emphasizes the Court's deliberate determination to confine itself to its judicial task (maintaining of course its authority as interpreter of the Constitution); Frankfurter and Landis, on the other hand, demonstrate the Supreme Justices' increasing importance as statesmen and economists. Of the two volumes, the former Justice's is the more readable, packed as it is with lucid case illustration, and the virtuosity of his own rich experience.

The Authors. Since graduating from Columbia Law School in 1884 Charles Evans Hughes has been, successively, able attorney, Governor of New York, justice of the Supreme Court, republican candidate for the presidency, Secretary of State. Another of his distinguished titles is "Honorary Bencher of the Middle Temple" (London).

Felix Frankfurter, Austrian-born, came to this country at the age of twelve. Professor at Harvard Law School since 1914, he lectures brilliantly on such things as public utilities and federal jurisdiction. His remarkable memory for the very page number of obscure cases has confounded many a show-off law student. He works his men hard, regales them with none of his reputed radicalism. During the War he was able assistant successively to the War and Labor Departments. His erudite writings concern the Interstate Commerce Act, Wages, Labor, Criminal Justice. Conspicuous champion of Sacco and Vanzetti, his close study of the case was reflected in newspaper, magazine, and book form. Mrs. Frankfurter is co-editing the dead men's letters (not the forthcoming six volume history of the case sponsored by J. W. Davis, Elihu Root, etc.).

James McCauley Landis (Princeton 1921) young and popular professor at Harvard Law, was previously secretary to Justice Brandeis.