Wayne C. Williams
| Publication year | 1994 |
| Pages | 1483 |
| Citation | Vol. 23 No. 7 Pg. 1483 |
1994, July, Pg. 1483. WAYNE C. WILLIAMS
Wayne C. Williams, a Denver attorney, public speaker and author, became Attorney General of Colorado and Special Assistant to the United States Attorney General. He had a distinguished career. He wrote five books, and during his life had close, direct contact with a number of the leading public figures of his day, including President Franklin D. Roosevelt, Eleanor Roosevelt, President Harry Truman, William Jennings Bryan, Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr., and Dr. Albert Schweitzer.
Williams was born on a farm near Indianola, Illinois, on September 20, 1878. He graduated from high school in Decatur, Illinois, and, in 1898, moved with his family to Denver. He promptly enrolled in the University of Denver, but in 1900 lack of funds forced him to leave. He then went to work as labor reporter on the Rocky Mountain News and became, in time, city editor. Newspaper experience was a decisive factor in Williams's early life. It convinced him that he could write, trained him as a writer, and kindled a burning interest in the law and in current events and issues, which stayed with him the rest of his life.
In 1904, Williams returned to the University and entered the law school, obtained his degree, and was admitted to the Colorado bar in August 1906. He started law practice with the firm of Doud and Griffith in Denver, but after a time elected to become a solo practitioner. He remained in private practice in Denver, except for intervals of government service, until 1950.
Williams continued to write in the early years of his practice. In 1911, his article, "The Law of the Air," was published in Case and Comment. This article is of note, not only for its early date, but because it was republished that same year in the Law Times in London, England.(fn1) The article drew heavily on the common law of trespass and nuisance, as well as English and American balloon cases as they might be applied to "the law of aeroplanes."
After serving two years (1913--1915) as a trial attorney with the Denver District Attorney, in 1915 he was appointed by the Governor as one of the three members of the newly created Industrial Commission of Colorado. As a member of the Commission, he figured prominently in establishing the procedures and the full authority of the Commission under the new statute.
After his two-year term on the Industrial Commission, Williams opened a law office in the Central Bank Building in Denver. He was never what anyone would call a "corporation lawyer." He represented many private clients, handling property matters, examining scores of abstracts of title and carrying on a heavy trial practice. His clients were middle class and working class people. He also attracted workers and unions with labor law problems and practiced labor law. Through this type of work, he landed in the middle of Denver's most violent strike, the Tramway Workers Strike of 1920.
As the Tramway union contract neared its end on June 1, 1920, the company threatened to reduce wages and rejected the union's offer to arbitrate. It became obvious that a strike would result. On May 29, as grantor of the Tramway franchise, the city obtained a temporary restraining order, ex parte, in the Denver District Court, enjoining both the company and the union from causing a suspension of tramway service.
Williams was retained as counsel...
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