Page:History of the Supreme court of the United States (IA historyofsupreme00myeriala).pdf/665



Oblivious to criticisms and the misunderstandings, the Supreme Court proved that in one essential respect it was not the reactionary institution that in certain quarters it was charged with being. Its critics were accustomed to declaim against it as a small oligarchy of doddering, obdurate old men, blind or at least insensible to all of the signs and demands of progress, and determined to impede, thwart or annul every manifestation of progress. This criticism, at once amusing and fallacious, is still current.

In reality the Supreme Court in the specific point in question, was the most alert, adaptable, ultra-progressive institution in the United States. Frosted with heavy years most of its members truly were; but in depth of mind, in clarity of vision and grasp of affairs no body of men were less archaic or (in the particular referred to} more keenly responsive to the demands of altering conditions as required by the dominant division of the ruling class. This was their one remarkable ability—an ability to be estimated and appreciated at its high historic worth.

Bred under laws applying to an obsolete, bygone economic period, the Supreme Court majority nevertheless refused to allow that stultifying code of laws to stand in the way of industrial evolution. They declined to interfere with the orderly transition of society from an older, outworn, crumbling stage