Page:The Green Bag (1889–1914), Volume 20.pdf/383

 282

THE GREEN BAG

determines the fitness of a judge for his office. Measured by this standard Judge Gray's career on the bench has been a success. Leaving out of question his home state, members of the Bar of the other dis tricts of his circuit, one of them the highest law officer of his own state, have expressed themselves in the most em phatic terms as to his judicial character and capacity and the high estimate of both which is held by those who practice before him. Circumstances rendered it possible for Judge Gray to render.unofficial service of a very high order which brought him promi nently before the public eye. During the coal strike of 1902, when the business of the country was paralyzed and there seemed to. be no remedy, the exigencies of the situa tion appealed to the high public spirit of the President, who appointed a commission to arbitrate between the operators and the miners, both sides having agreed to accept and abide by the award. In accordance with the original suggestion, upon which the President acted, that a judge of his circuit should be one of the commissioners, Judge Gray was made the head of it and presided over its sessions, which continued for some months. The result of this remarkable arbitration, unprecedented in both its crea tion and its successful result, is now history and need not be repeated. The commission was appointed in October, 1902, and the award, generally understood to have been written by Judge Gray, was communicated to the President under date of March 16, 1903. It was accepted and acted upon by both parties. This decision is a master piece of its kind and includes not only a thorough discussion in 'detail of the case 'in hand, but incidentally much reference to the problems involved in the mutual rela tions of capital and labor, which are not only of lasting value but display at once the critical acumen of the Judge, and the breadth of view and thoughtful considera tion of the strenuous problems of life as seen by the statesman. In a published

letter to Judge Gray, President Roosevelt afterwards wrote, "You have rendered many services to the country, but you never rendered a greater service than what you did as Chairman of the Anthracite Strike Commission." The success of this arbitration led to the selection of Judge Gray as practically sole arbitrator in subsequent serious labor dis putes in Alabama and Illinois; and in both cases his decisions were accepted by both sides. Judge Gray has never posed as an orator, but whether in general debate in the Senate, in arguments before the Court or Jury, or in addresses of a more formal character, few men excel him as a forceful and effective speaker, of winning and attractive person ality and compelling attention and thought ful consideration by the accuracy of his statements and the logical force of his reasoning. Among his formal addresses may be instanced his speech in the Demo cratic National Convention of 1880, nomi nating Mr. Bayapfd for the presidency, a Fourth of July oration at Wilkes-Barre Pa., in 1903, and the annual address before the Pennsylvania Bar Association on June 25, 1907. On the last occasion he struck the keynote of the present discussion of the true basis of our Government and the danger of centralization, on which subject many leading men of both parties have followed him in addresses of the same character. As a lawyer he started with a good pro fessional education and had an aptitude for the consideration of legal questions added to a philosophical and judicial mind and temperament. His fairness and frankness commended him to the jury, and he was always courteous to his opponents, while his thorough preparation and effective reasoning powers made him strong before the court. In speaking of him, three able lawyers, at different times closely associated with him, separately used the same expres sion, remarking that in every emergency