John Hessin Clarke

“ Among the capitalistic nations Abrams testified the United States was included.
Growing more inflammatory as it proceeds, the circular culminates in:
'The Russian Revolution cries: Workers of the World! Awake! Rise! Put down your enemy and mine!'
'Yes friends, there is only one enemy of the workers of the world and that is CAPITALISM.'
This is clearly an appeal to the 'workers' of this country to arise and put down by force the government of the United States which they characterize as their 'hypocritical,' 'cowardly' and 'capitalistic' enemy. ”

“ He could not issue a general order that a certain newspaper should not be carried because he thought it likely or certain that it would contain treasonable or obscene talk. The United States may give up the postoffice when it sees fit, but while it carries it on the use of the mails is almost as much a part of free speech as the right to use our tongues and it would take very strong language to convince me that Congress ever intended to give such a practically despotic power to any one man. ”

“ It requires only that when it is made to appear that the foreign government has acted in a given way on the subject-matter of the litigation, the details of such action or the merit of the result cannot be questioned but must be accepted by our courts as a rule for their decision. To accept a ruling authority and to decide accordingly is not a surrender or abandonment of jurisdiction but is an exercise of it. ”

“ We think rather that it is a rule to be used to secure the ends of justice under the circumstances presented by each case, and where, in the progress of a trial, it becomes probable that there has been an unconstitutional seizure of papers, it is the duty of the trial court to entertain an objection to their admission or a motion for their exclusion and to consider and decide the question as then presented, even where a motion to return the papers may have been denied before trial. A rule of practice must not be allowed for any technical reason to prevail over a constitutional right. ”

“ As an original proposition, we cannot think that the amount offered for property at a public sale for cash is such a measure of its value that the failure to obtain a bid at such sale for more should be accepted by courts as a sufficient reason for affirming a sale for a price which they found, on other evidence, to be inadequate. In business life forced sales for cash are such a last resort for obtaining money that a sale 'under the hammer' is synonymous with a sale at a sacrifice, and prices obtained at such sales have usually been rejected by courts when tendered as evidence of value. ”

“ It is too plain for discussion that, with a company thus organized and officered, the making of a contract by the Coal Company for the sale of all of its coal to the Sales Company was, in substance and effect, making a contract with itself, the terms of which it could determine in its discretion. ”

“ It is important, because what we decide may determine in large measure whether in times of peace our press shall be free.
The denial to a newspaper of entry as second-class mail, or the revocation of an entry previously made, does not deny to the paper admission to the mail; nor does it deprive the publisher of any mail facility. It merely deprives him of the very low postal rates, called second-class, and compels him to pay postage for the same service at the rate called third-class, which was, until recently, from 8 to 15 times as high as the second-class rate. ”

“ The source of the power to grant patents, and the consideration for granting them, is the advantage which the public will derive from them, especially after the expiration of the patent monopoly, when the discoveries embodied in them shall become a part of the public stock of knowledge. ”

“ It would not be difficult to suggest conditions under which the statutory permit to deduct net additions to reserve funds would result in double deduction in favor of an insurance company, but such deductions can be restored to income again only where it is clearly shown that subsequent business conditions have released the amount of them to the free beneficial use of the company in a real, and not in a mere bookkeeping sense. If this seemingly favorable treatment of insurance companies is to be otherwise corrected or changed, it is for Congress, and not for the courts, to amend the law. ”

“ The Court of Appeals declares that the theory of the amendment is well understood to be 'the policy that the greater good is sometimes secured by making certain classes of decisions final and ending litigation, even though in a particular case the individual is prevented by review from correcting some error which has injured him.'
It may not be an undiluted evil to the real parties in interest to this litigation, which has been pending in various forms for nearly 30 years, to have it brought to an end and to have the large award allowed in 1918 divided among them. ”

“ Thus, if the Tool Company be considered as having any corporate existence whatever separate from that of the petitioner, it must have an interest in the controversy, involved in such a case as we have here, of a nature such that a final decree could not be made without affecting that interest, and perhaps not without leaving the controversy in a condition wholly inconsistent with that equity which seeks to put an end to litigation by doing complete and final justice, and therefore it must be concluded that it was an indispensable party, within the quoted longestablished rule. ”

“ A combination to get and distribute such knowledge, notwithstanding its tendency to equalize, not necessarily to raise, prices, is very far from a combination in unreasonable restraint of trade. It is true that it is a combination of sellers only, but the knowledge acquired is not secret, it is public, and the buyers, I think I may assume, are not less active in their efforts to know the facts. A combination in unreasonable restraint of trade imports an attempt to override normal market conditions. An attempt to conform to them seems to me the most reasonable thing in the world. ”

“ The cause of action is the wrong done, not the measure of compensation for it, or the character of the relief sought, and, considered as a matter of substance, the change in the statement of that wrong in the amended petition cannot in any just sense be considered a new or different cause of action.
It is settled upon reason and authority that the conversion of a suit in equity into an action at law or vice versa is not alone sufficient to constitute the beginning of a new action and that with respect to the statute of limitations it is a mere incident in the progress of the original case. ”

“ Men do not feloniously put others in fear for the purpose of seizing their own property.
It is not necessary that the charge in court-martial proceedings should be framed with the technical precision of a common law indictment and we cannot doubt that the one in this case clearly shows jurisdiction in the court over the accused and over the offense with which he was charged, and that the latter was sufficiently described to advise defendant of the time and place and circumstances under which it was claimed he had committed the crime, to enable him to make any defense he may have had. ”

“ The composition of ores varies infinitely, each one presenting its special problem, and it is obviously impossible to specify in a patent the precise treatment which would be most successful and economical in each case. The process is one for dealing with a large class of substances and the range of treatment within the terms of the claims, while leaving something to the skill of persons applying the invention, is clearly sufficiently definite to guide those skilled in the art to its successful application, as the evidence abundantly shows. ”

“ It is obvious that no express contract by the United States to adopt and be bound by the third or any of the concessions can be made out from the findings of fact, and it is equally clear that such an implied contract, using the words in any strict sense, cannot be derived from the findings, for it is plain that there is nothing in them tending to show that any official with power, express or implied, to commit that government to such a contract ever intended to so commit it. ”

“ The extent to which one must have fallen below the standard of ordinary business capacity before he will be generally recognized in a community as a common drunkard is so notorious that we do not hesitate to say that evidence of competency entirely clear should be required to sustain a transaction in which such a person has plainly, as in this case, been overreached by a person dealing with him who is competent and aggressive. ”

“ It is a rule of fundamental and substantial justice, 'of public policy and of private peace,' which should be cordially regarded and enforced by the courts to the end that rights once established by the final judgment of a court of competent jurisdiction shall be recognized by those who are bound by it in every way, wherever the judgment is entitled to respect. ”

“ On the other hand, the right to sue the United States under the Federal Control Act, applicable to all persons alike, is on the basis of negligence, precisely as if the government were an operating common carrier corporation, and it is subject to all of the expense, delay and hazard usual in cases of that character. ”

“ The relation of directors to corporations is of such a fiduciary nature that transactions between boards having common members are regarded as jealously by the law as are personal dealings between a director and his corporation, and where the fairness of such transactions is challenged the burden is upon those who would maintain them to show their entire fairness and where a sale is involved the full adequacy of the consideration. ”

“ Plainly in such a case as we have here this evil would be present as fully as if the title to both the coal lands and the railroads were in the Holding Company, for all of the profits realized from the operations of the two must find their way ultimately into its treasury-any discriminating practice which would barm the general shipper would profit the Holding Company. Being thus clearly within the evil to be remedied, there remains the question whether such a controlling stock ownership in a corporation is fairly within the scope of the language of the statute. ”

“ The principle that the conduct of one independent government cannot be successfully questioned in the courts of another is as applicable to a case involving the title to property brought within the custody of a court, such as we have here, as it was held to be to the cases cited, in which claims for damages were based upon acts done in a foreign country, for it rests at last upon the highest considerations of international comity and expediency. ”

“ Whether or not the term 'sausage,' when applied to the product of the appellee, in which more than the permitted amount of cereal and water is used, is false and deceptive is a question of fact, the determination of which is committed to the decision of the Secretary of Agriculture by the authority given him to make rules and regulations for giving effect to the act, and the law is that the conclusion of the head of an executive department on such a question will not be reviewed by the courts, where it is fairly arrived at with substantial evidence to support it. ”

“ The presumption of law is in favor of the validity of the order, and the plaintiff in error did not deny, as it could not successfully, that capital invested in an electric light and power plant to supply electricity to the inhabitants of a city is devoted to a use in which the public has an interest which justifies rate regulation by a state in the exercise of its police power. ”

“ It is clearly settled that any classification adopted by a state in the exercise of this power which has a reasonable basis, and is therefore not arbitrary, will be sustained against an attack based upon the equal protection of the laws clause of the Fourteenth Amendment, and also that every state of facts sufficient to sustain such classification which can be reasonably conceived of as having existed when the law was enacted will be assumed. ”

“ Without discussion of the authority of the Secretary of the Interior to remove the relator without filing charges against him and giving him an opportunity to answer, the Court of Appeals affirmed the judgment of the Supreme Court of the District of Columbia on the ground of laches, and the case is here on writ of error.
In this conclusion we fully concur.
This court has lately said that while mandamus is classed as a legal remedy, it is a remedial process, which is awarded not as a matter of right, but in the exercise of a sound judicial discretion and upon equitable principles. ”

“ So far as this record shows, the assessment, modified by the decree of the District Court not appealed from, is not a composite of real and personal property values, but is the ascertained value of the real estate the tracks and buildings-of the company within the taxing district, enhanced, no doubt, by the special use made of it, but still its value as a part of the railroad unit, resulting from the inherent nature of the business in which it is employed, a value which will not be resolved into its constituent elements for the purpose of defeating contribution to a public improvement. ”

“ This is significant, because the disability to testify, of persons convicted of perjury, survived in some jurisdictions much longer than many of the other common-law disabilities, for the teason that the offense concerns directly the giving of testimony in a court of justice, and conviction of it was accepted as showing a greater disregard for the truth than it was thought should be implied from a conviction of other crime. ”

“ Freedom of the press may protect criticism and agitation for modification or repeal of laws, but it does not extend to protection of him who counsels and encourages the violation of the law as it exists. ”

“ The National Bank Act imposes various specific duties on directors, other than those imposed by the common law, and it is obviously possible that a director may neglect one or more of the former, and not any of the latter, or vice versa. For example, in this case we have the gross negligence of the appellant, in failing to discharge his common-law duty to diligently administer the affairs of the bank, made basis for the contention that he did not 'knowingly' violate his statutory duty by permitting the excessive loans to be made. ”

“ We have not before us any question as to how far Congress may go for the safety of the nation. The question is only whether it may amke possible irreparable wrongs and the ruin of a business in the hope of preventing some cases of a private wrong that generally is accomplished without the aid of the mail. ”

“ The requirements relied upon, of the insurance departments of New York, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin that 'assets as reserves' must be maintained to cover 'all claims,' 'all indebtedness,' 'all outstanding liabilities,' in terms might include the rejected items we are considering; but plainly the departments, in these expressions used the word 'reserves' in a nontechnical sense as equivalent to 'assets,' as is illustrated by the Massachusetts requirement that each company shall 'hold or reserve assets' for the payment of all claims and obliga tions. ”

“ The contention of the claimant must be sustained, if at all, as a quasi contract, as an obligation imposed by law independent of intention on the part of any officials to bind the government, one which in equity and good conscience the government should discharge because of the conduct of its representatives in dealing with the subject-matter.
It is argued that the United States should be held to have assumed the burden of the concession because it derived benefits and advantages from the use of the cables. ”

“ Such is the legislation of Congress. It clearly appears that there was no express grant of power to the Postmaster General to deny second-class mail rates to future issues of a newspaper because in his opinion it had systematically violated the Espionage Act in the past, and it seems equally clear that there is no basis for the contention that such power is to be implied. In respect to newspapers mailed by a publisher at second-class rates there is clearly no occasion to imply this drastic power. ”

“ May not these hardwood lumber concerns, frustrated in their efforts to rationalize competition, be led to enter the inviting filed of consolidation? And, if they do, may not another huge trust, with highly centralized control over vast resources, natural, manufacturing, and financial, become so powerful as to dominate competitors, wholesalers, retailers, consumers, employees, and, in large measure, the community? ”

“ Under circumstances which rendered his return to the service impossible, except under the order of a court, the relator did nothing to effectively assert his claim for reinstatement to office for almost two years. Such a long delay must necessarily result in changes in the branch of the service to which he was attached and in such an accumulation of unearned salary that, when unexplained, the manifest inequity which would result from reinstating him, renders the application of the doctrine of laches to his case peculiarly appropriate in the interests of justice and sound public policy. ”

“ Co-operative competition, not cutthroat competition. Co-operation is a matter of business, because it pays, because it enables you to get the best price for your product, because you come into closer personal contact with the market.
'Co-operation will only replace undesirable competition as you develop a co-operative spirit. For the first time in the history of the industry, the hardwood manufacturers are organized into one compact, comprehensive body, equipped to serve the whole trade in a thorough and efficient manner. * * * More members mean more power to do more good for the industry. ”

“ The grounds upon which the relator relies are, in substance, that to the extent that the Espionage Act confers power upon the Postmaster General to make the order entered against it, that act is unconstitutional, because it does not afford relator a trial in a court of competent jurisdiction; that the order deprives relator of the right of free speech, is destructive of the rights of a free press, and deprives it of its property without due process of law. ”

“ I am not aware that any other civil administrative officer has assumed, in any country in which the common law prevails, the power to inflict upon a citizen severe punishment for an infamous crime. Possibly the court would hold that Congress could not, in view of article 3 of the Constitution, confer upon the Postmaster General, as a mere incident in the administration of his department, authority to issue an order which could operate only as a punishment. ”

“ It is plain that the only element lacking in this scheme to make it a familiar type of the competition suppressing organization is a definite agreement as to production and prices. But this is supplied: By the disposition of men 'to follow their most intelligent competitors,' especially when powerful; by the inherent disposition to make all the money possible, joined with the steady cultivation of the value of 'harmony' of action; and by the system of reports, which makes the discovery of price reductions inevitable and immediate. ”