Page:History of the Supreme court of the United States (IA historyofsupreme00myeriala).pdf/743



The next appointment made by President Taft to the Supreme Court was that of Charles E. Hughes in 1910, as an Associate Justice to succeed Justice Brewer who died on March 28, 1910.

Of Justice Brewer we shall finally remark, in passing, that so thoroughly had he indoctrinated law in accordance with the demands of capitalist interests, that when he died only one progressive decision could be attributed to him by his eulogists. This was the decision upholding the constitutionality of the Oregon ten-hour law for women. This law the Supreme Court of the United States affirmed on the principle that a State could constitutionally protect women workers so as to thus conserve the future of the race and the general welfare of society.

Born in 1862, Hughes was the son of a "hard-shell" Baptist minister and was of the same denomination himself. After his admission to the bar, he became a clerk in the law office of Chamberlain, Carter and Hornblower, of New York City.

This was a notable corporation firm; of Walter S. Carter, one of its members, a laudatory biographical account says, "Over one hundred distinguished lawyers have served in his office, such as William B. Hornblower, Lloyd W. Bowers and Paul D. Cravath." Sherburne Blake Eaton, a member of the firm, became chief executive officer of the Edison Electric Light Company in 1881, and its president and general counsel in 1884. Carter's great obsessing hobby was in encouraging