particular decisions. But ever and anon arise questions which excite an intense public interest, are divisive in character, dividing the opinion of lawyers as well as laymen. However serious the division of opinion, these cases must be decided. It should occasion no surprise that there should be acute differences of opinion on difficult questions of constitutional law when in every other field of human achievement, in art, theology, and even on the highest levels of scientific research, there are expert disputants. The more weighty the question, the more serious the debate, the more likely is the opportunity for honest and expert disagreement. This is a token of vitality. It is fortunate and not regrettable that the avenues of criticism are open to all, whether they denounce or praise. This is a vital part of the democratic process. The essential thing is that the independence, the fearlessness, the impartial thought, and conscientious motive of those who decide should both exist and be recognized. And at the end of 150 years this tribunal still stands as an embodiment of the ideal of the independence of the judicial function in this, the highest and most important sphere of its exercise.

We cannot recognize fittingly this anniversary without recalling the services of the men who have preceded us and whose work has made possible such repute as this institution enjoys. This tribunal works in a highly concrete fashion. The traditions it holds have been wrought out through the years at the conference table and in the earnest study and discussions of men constantly alive to a supreme obligation. We do not write on a blank sheet. The court has its jurisprudence, the helpful repository of the deliberate and expressed convictions of generations of sincere minds addressing themselves to exposition and decision, not with the freedom of casual critics or even of studious commentators, but under the pressure and within the limits of a definite official responsibility.

To one who over twenty-nine years ago first took his seat upon this bench, this day is full of memories of associations with those no longer with us, who wrought with strength and high purpose according to the light that was given them, in complete absorption in their judicial duty. We pay our tribute to these men of the more recent period as we recognize our indebtedness to their eminent predecesWe venerate their example. Reflection upon their lives brings emphasis to the thought that even with the tenure of the judicial office, the service of individuals however important in their day soon yields to the service of others who must meet new problems and carry on in their own strength.

sors.

The generations come and go, but the institutions of our govern

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ment have survived. This institution survives as essential to the perpetuation of our constitutional form of government-a system responsive to the needs of a people who seek to maintain the advantages of local government over local concerns and at the same time the necessary national authority over national concerns, and to make sure that the fundamental guarantees with respect to life, liberty, and property, and of freedom of speech, press, assembly, and religion shall be held inviolate. The fathers deemed that system of government well devised to secure the blessings of liberty to themselves and their posterity. Whether that system shall continue does not rest with this court but with the people who have created that system. As Chief Justice Marshall said, "The people make the Constitution, and the people can unmake it. It is the creature of their will, and lives only by their will." It is our responsibility to see that their will as expressed in their Constitution shall be faithfully executed in the determination of their controversies.

And deeply conscious of that responsibility, in the spirit and with the loyalty of those who have preceded us, we now rededicate ourselves to our task.

PROCEEDINGSIN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

ADDRESS OF HONORABLE CARL A. HATCH

SENATOR FROM NEW MEXICO

MR. PRESIDENT AND MEMBERS OF THE SENATE:

Today marks the one hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the Supreme Court of the United States. We have just returned from the Supreme Court, where appropriate ceremonies celebrating this auspicious occasion have been concluded. The Judiciary Committees of both branches of Congress attended those ceremonies, paying due and proper respect to the judicial branch of the government. Eloquent and able addresses were delivered by the attorney general of the United States and by Mr. Beardsley, president of the American Bar Association. The Chief Justice of the United States responded with remarks eminently befitting the dignity of the high office he occupies and the traditions and ideals of the court. It would hardly seem proper, Mr. President, to let this day pass without some word being said on the floor of the Senate paying at least some measure of tribute to that branch of government which celebrates the anniversary of its birth today.

Fifty years ago, in speaking at the ceremonies held in the city of New York commemorating the one hundredth anniversary of the

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Supreme Court, a former President of the United States, Mr. Cleveland, said: "We are accustomed to express on every fit occasion our reverence for the virtue and patriotism in which the foundations of the Republic were laid, and to rejoice in the blessings vouchsafed to us under free institutions."

As Mr. Cleveland spoke 50 years ago, so may we well speak today. We should fittingly express this day our reverence for the virtue and patriotism in which the foundations of the Republic were laid. With even greater fervor we can well rejoice today in the blessings vouchsafed to us under the free institutions of our government.

It was only yesterday, it seems, at the beginning of the World War, that Sir Edward Grey sadly said: "One by one the lights of civilization are being extinguished. They shall not be relighted in our generation." Today as we look across the seas at the Old World we wonder if once more the lights of civilization are being extinguished. For a decade or more we have watched the fall of governments. We have seen liberty die in other lands. We have seen free people and free governments destroyed, and, even as I speak, a small but a brave and fearless people fighting against the advancing hordes of an aggressor who would seize and destroy the right of a free country to rule and govern herself. As we see these things we almost say, as Romain Rolland said during the years of the last World War: "A sacrilegious conflict which shows a maddened Europe ascending its funeral pyre, and, like Hercules, destroying itself with its own hands." As these scenes unfold and as tyranny stalks abroad in other lands and free institutions are obliterated from almost every country in the world, I repeat we may well pause for a moment today and pay our reverence and respect for the "virtue and patriotism in which the foundations of the Republic were laid."

In laying those foundations of this republic our fathers proceeded not by accident. It is no accident that freedom survives in America today. The founders of the republic were men who understood the true science of government. Passionately they bebelieved that powers of government must be separated. As often expressed by them, "the accumulation of all the powers of government in the same hands, whether of one, or a few, or many, and whether hereditary, self-appointed, or elected," could justly be "pronounced the very definition of tyranny." So believing, they laid out the plan upon which the structure of our government rests today.

It was not a new plan. Students of government, they were familiar with every form and theory of government which existed in

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the world. In another address delivered on the occasion of the one hundredth anniversary of the Supreme Court, it was said:

A division of the powers of government was not a political device, newly invented by the statesmen who framed the Constitution of the United States. Aristotle, in the fourth book of his Politics, observes that in every polity there are three departments, the suitable form of each of which the wise lawgiver must consider, and according to the variation of which one State shall differ from another. These he describes as, first, the assembly for public affairs; second, the officers of the State, including their powers and mode of appointment; and, third, the judging or judicial department.

Following this and other plans and being ever mindful of their own mistakes and errors under the Articles of Confederation, our fathers laid the foundations of this Republic. And from their work came the Supreme Court of the United States, the anniversary of whose birth we celebrate today.

In the Supreme Court there was something new and unique in governments of men. Of course, courts of justice had long existed. The statesmen who wrote the Constitution knew well the history of the judiciary. They knew its weaknesses and they knew its strength. They knew its faults and its frailties. English courts had not always functioned according to the principles of English law, in which the colonists devoutly believed. Yet the writers of the Constitution gave birth to the most powerful court known to men, the Supreme Court of the United States, and created it as a separate and independent arm or branch of the federal government.

Of that court, De Tocqueville said: "In the nations of Europe the courts of justice are called upon to try the controversities of private individuals, but the Supreme Court of the United States summons sovereign powers to its bar."

Under the authority of the Constitution but, as the president of the American Bar Association observed this morning, with "no guards, palaces, or treasures, no arms but truth and wisdom, and no splendor but the justice and publicity of its judgments," the Supreme Court of the United States has pursued its course for 150 years. Not always right, of course, not divine, but very human, the Supreme Court has met the multitude of questions presented to it throughout the course of its history and has builded a body of law upon which the freedom of our institutions rests today. I can pay the court no greater tribute than this. If I spoke for hours and voiced all the high and lofty sentiments which have been expressed throughout the years by lawyers and judges commemorating the work of the Supreme Court of the United States, I could speak no greater tribute than I have paid when I say the Supreme Court has helped to build, pre

serve, and keep free government for the people of the United States. After all, is there anything else that matters? If free government ever fails here, if tyranny conquers this country, if the right of self-rule ever be denied in the United States, then will we indeed echo the words of Sir Edward Grey and with him sadly say: "One by one the lights of civilization are being extinguished.'

But this, Mr. President, must not be. Somewhere in the world the lights of civilization must continue to burn. Somewhere in the world the right of men to be free must be preserved. Somewhere in the world there must be people willing to declare over and over again with Abraham Lincoln, "Government of the people, by the people, for the people shall not perish from the earth." This country, which gave birth to the ideals of free government, is the country where those rights must be preserved and maintained. It is the lot of this country to keep the lights of civilization from being extinguished. It is ours, Mr. President, to maintain and preserve the rights of men to be free. It is ours to hold fast to the principle that men can govern themselves.

As the ultimate repository of the rights and liberties of the people of America, the Supreme Court of the United States has the great responsibility of safeguarding democracy itself. In the years of its existence the court, with few lapses, has done that very thing. The lights of liberty in America have been kept burning. Men have been free in the United States. Free institutions survive in America today. That men may be free tomorrow and throughout the years to come, let not justice be denied. As the court speaks the voice of the people as expressed in the Constitution, let wisdom, truth, and righteousness permeate its decisions. Let those decisions and opinions today speak the commendation of the court. Let its decrees write its history. Let its judgment for others be judgment upon itself. Truly the Supreme Court is the keeper of the lights of freedom, perhaps of civilization. May those lights never be dimmed. May their bright and shining effulgence ever reflect the greatness and the glory of the Supreme Court and the greatness and glory of the United States of America.

ADDRESS OF HONORABLE WARREN R. AUSTIN

SENATOR FROM VERMONT

MR. PRESIDENT AND MEMBERS OF THE SENATE:

The Supreme Court is a unique instrument of popular sovereignty. Without power to enforce its judgments, uncrowned, unsceptered, devoid of sword, or purse, or patronage, the Supreme Court of the