Page Fourteen
THE JEWISH NEWS
Friday, April 12, 1946
Judge Picard's Tribute to
Hon. Charles C. Simons
In Congress
40 Years •
Rep. Sabath Marks
His 80th Birthday
By ALFRED WERNER
Judge of the U: S. Circuit Court of Appeals, Cincinnati;
On occasion of Judge Simons' Approaching 70th Birthday
By FRANK A. PICARD
Judge, U. S. District Court,
Eastern Division of Michigan
J
UDGE CHARLES C. SIMONS
is one native Detroiter who doesn't claim that he first saw the
light of day in Corktown. As a matter of fact he was born
May 21, 1876, on the east side of Detroit and has many fond
memories of cedar block pavements, mud streets, spirited horses,
Sunday church parades, and boats plying between Detroit and
Hog Island, as beautiful Belle Isle was then known.
The Judge has particular reasons for remembering those
boats because on one occasion he and his sister went over to
Belle Isle for a picnic, missed the last boat and almost had to
stay there all night like Babes in the Woods. But a ferry cap-
tain, looking for late pick up passengers, came to the rescue.
He didn't make any money on the two Simons children—they
were only seven or eight years of age—yet brought them back
to the dock at the northern approach of the present Belle Isle
bridge, free of charge.
Then the two youngsters had to walk about two and one-
half miles to their home where they were greeted by anxious
but forgiving parents. The envy of the other youngsters of the
neighborhood, they basked briefly in the sunlight of publicity
and stardom to which their adventure entitled them.
• • •
Judge Simons' father, David W. Simons, was a real
estate man and one of vision. He also was a member of
the first nine man council of Detroit and was one of
Detroit Jewry's outstanding leaders.
•
• •
GRADUATING FROM the public schools, Charles Simons
left the University of Michigan with a BL in 1898 and an LLB
in 1900. While still at the University he gave indications that
he would become a convincing public speaker by winning the
Northern Oratorical League Contest in 1898. In 1903 he was
elected to the State Senate. He has an LLD, honorary, awarded
him in 1939 by Wayne University.
YOU MAY BE certain that Judge Simons never suggests a
change in an associate's opinion just to make a change. An
experience of his own he says taught him better. When he
first came to the Court of Appeals an older Judge in whom he
had much confidence and who was giving him fatherly advice,
was, however, continually suggesting changes that Judge Simons
felt affected hig style.
This finally irked Judge Simons a little who, though appre-
ciating the help, knew that after all he didn't want to get into
the habit of using language or figures of speech entirely taken
from some other Judge. So on one occasion in submitting an
opinion to this particular Judge for his concurrence, Judge
Simons quoted therein verbatim from an opinion by Mr. Justice
Cardozo of the United States Supreme Court, a master of
rhetoric and a man of exceptional ability in the choice of words.
He purposely, however (you know I said he has a sense of
humor), omitted quotation marks bracketing the Justice Cardozo
extract.
Sure enough, the opinion came back with the suggestion
that the entire quotation be eliminated as not being proper
judicial expression; whereupon Judge Simons revealed that he
had been quoting Mr. Justice Cardozo but that "inadvertently"
the quotation marks had been left out. Needless to say there
were not so many useless changes in the future.
•
•
•
JUDGE SIMONS was married to Miss Lillian Bernstein of
Chicago, Nov. 29, 1906. She is a very charming and delightful
person and active in Detroit affairs, particularly the Council of
Jewish Women and Federation of Women's Clubs. She and the
Judge are inseparable.
Although he approaches the age of retirement, it is hoped
that he will not—in the near future—elect to deprive his col-
leagues of his brilliant mind nor the unceasing devotion and
energy that he gives to his work.
I am very happy to be able to pay these encomiums to
my very good friend. Of course he will laughingly suggest
that it is "one man's opinion." That may be, but this is one
of my opinions that Judge Simons cannot reverse.
EDITOR'S NOTE:
He also gave indications in his early years that he would
be a liberal and a liberal Republican in those days was a
rarity. He wrote, and fought for the passage of, the first
State Direct Primary Law.
Judge Frank A. Picard of the U. S. District Court, at Detroit,
chairman of the Michigan Chapter of the American Christian
Palestine Committee, author of the tribute to Judge Simons,
is one of Michigan's outstanding lay Catholic leaders.
He served as a Circuit Court Commissioner in Wayne County
for two years, had the honor of being a member of the State
Constitutional Convention in 1908 and served in many civic
offices, including a directorship on the Board of Commerce in
1918.
He is a member of Temple Beth El and has served his
religion exceptionally well—both voluntarily and when called
upon. He is also a golfing enthusiast but consistently shoots over
100 as an assurance to many friends in the law that he has
never neglected his profession for his favorite sport.
A member of the national executive committee of the
American Christian Palestine Committee, Judge Picard for the
last five years has been among the most prominent figures in
the movement to bring authentic facts regarding the Jewish
position in Palestine, a n d
American Jewry's demands for
the opening of Palestine's
doors to the unfortunate sur-
vivors in Europe, to the atten-
tion of the Christian popula-
tion of Michigan.
Born in Saginaw, Oct. 19,
1889, Judge Picard was grad-
uated from Saginaw High
school in 1907. He was grad-
uated from the University of
Michigan in 1912 and was ad-
mitted to the Michigan Bar in
that year.
• • •
He was appointed to the United States District Court
at Detroit by President Harding in 1923 and elevated to
.
the Circuit Court of Appeals by President Hoover in 1932.
Incidentally, be was the first Jew in Michigan in each
court.
•
• •
JUDGE SIMONS is a modest, retiring individual. He also
is deceiving because, unless you watch his eyes, you get the
impression that the Judge is a mighty serious person. Well,
he is, when necessary, but I claim he is deceiving in that behind
that mask-like seriousness he keeps semi-dormant the finest
sense of humor and appreciation of a good joke of anybody I
know. While he never loses a certain dignity either on or off
the bench, he very often makes a subtle remark which to those
who know him contains a world of meaning and usually can
be taken two ways. He is a philosopher, grammarian, writes
to-the-point short opinions, and is recognized by the legal fra-
ternity of both bench and bar throughout the United States as
one of our ablest and foremost judges. His legal conclusions are
often quoted. He is an excellent speaker on any subject to
which he devotes his attention and, while never offensively pro-
truding his own views, leaves no doubt in the minds of his
listeners as to what he intends' to say or where he stands.
He is of great help to young Judges to whom the writing
of opinions is new, and to visiting District Judges acting on the
Court of Appeals at Cincinnati. He has always in mind the
fundamental fact that an opinion written by a member of the
Court is the opinion of that Court, not of the individual Judge,
and that it is written not alone for today but will be there for
all time. One of his chief concerns is that an opinion should
not be a speech nor express the writer's or even the Court's
personal views, but should adhere to the issue and not dictum.
He served as assistant prose-
cuting attorney of Saginaw
County in 1913. During World
War I he served as a captain
and was with the U. S. Army
of Occupation in Germany.
He was Michigan's first
chairman of the Liquor Con-
trol Commission, from 1932 to
1934, and had organized the
commission on an efficient
working basis, attracting na-
tionwide attention to his task.
His participation in many
movements, his chairmanship
of the committee that was or-
ganized to bring the next
World's Fair to Detroit, his
membership on the Golden.
Jubilee committee for Mich-
igan's celebration of the 50th
year of the auto industry in
this state, indicate the recog-
nition generally given to his
ability as a leader.
While at the University of
Michigan, he was an outstand-
ing athlete and was a mem-
ber of the varsity football
squad.
He was appointed to the
Federal Bench by President
Roosevelt in March, 1939.
JUDGE FRANK A. PICARD
Photo taken by Robt. I. Clifton,
Jewish News Staff Photographer,
at banquet session of Christian
Conference on Palestine at Hotel
Book-Cadillac, on March 21.
Judge Picard was married
to the former Ruth Caroline
Doersam of Saginaw, June 6,
1921. They have two sons and
two daughter s. Both sons
served in the armed forces.
Everybody on Capital Hill loves
the Dean of the House, Rep. Adolph
J. Sabath—that is to say, everybody
excepting ranting Rankin and his
ilk. The Mississippi Democrat dom-
inates the House Un-American Ac-
tiyitie's Committee, whereas Sabath,
who, when referring to it, ironical-
ly deletes the word "Activities," is
chairman of the House Rules Com-
mittee.
Though they belong to the same
party, they have clashed frequent-
ly, the last time after Rankin had
made an anti-Semitic remark about
Walter Winchell.
Rep. Sabath celebrated his 80th
birthday on April 4. His record is
remarkable. He is the only Repre-
sentative in the history of Congress
to have served un-
der eight presidents
(Theodore Roose-
velt, Taft, Wilson,
Harding, Coolidge,
Hoover, FDR and
Truman), the only
member still sit-
ting on the history-
making Foreign Af-
f airs Committee
.since World War I.
March 6, 1946,
marked his 40th
year of continuous
service.
Had health per-
mitted it, he would Rep. Sabath
have been elected "Speaker," by
virtue of "seniority right." In any
event, for over a decade he has
been holding the key post of chair-
man of the House Rules Commit-
tee, which rules the house.
* *
The Democratic Congressman
from the 5th Illinois District is an
immigrant and a Jew. The Sabaths,,
residents of the small Bohemian
village of Zabori, were poor, and
often there was not sufficient food
for the six sons and five daughters.
The oldest son, Adolph, decided to
go out into the New World in order
to help himself and his family. He
was 17 when, in 1881, he arrived in
Chicago.
Once he secured employment with
a sawmill firm—the salary amount-
ed to $4 per week—another time
with a store where he was, simul-
taneously, salesman, cashier, book-
keeper, and watchman. Part of his
savings he sent to Bohemia to en-
able his family to come to the U. S.
During the day he worked hard,
in the evening he studied jurispru-
dence. In 1891 he was admitted to
the bar. In 1895 the famous liberal
governor of Illinois, Peter Altgeld,
started the young Democrat on his
political career by appointing him
Justice of the Peace. Two years
later, Carter H. Harrison, Jr., Mayor
of Chicago, appointed Sabath a po-
lice magistrate.
In 1906 the Justice of Peace sys-
tem was abolished in Chicago and
the Municipal Courts established.
Sabath was nominated for one of
the Judges of the new Court. A
few days later his congressional dis-
trict nominated him for Congress.
He decided to decline the judicial
nomination and seek congressional
honors.
• • *
As a Congressman, Sabath has a
long list of progressive measures to
his credit. He has been interested
in the improvement of the condi-
tions of the immigrants and the
workingmen. Serving for more than
two decades on the Committee on
Immigration and Naturalization—
he was its chairman several times—
he opposed inhuman and harsh im-
migration measures. In his first
term he fought for the passage of
the Pure Food and Drug Act. He
also introduced the first workmen's
compensation bill.
Forty years ago there were five
other Jews on Capitol Hill, namely
Cong. Henry Goldfogle, Julius
Kahn, Adolf Meyer, Harry B. Wolf,
and Senator Simon Guggenheim.
Now, in 1946, he has seven Jewish
colleagues in the House, namely Sol
Bloom, Emanuel Celler, Arthur
Klein, Herman P. Koppleman,
Benjamin J. Rabin, Leo F. Rayfield
and Samuel A. Weiss.
.(Copyright 1946, dS ic e a v t e e n l Arts Feature