Book Reviews : Melville Weston Fuller: Chief Justice of the United States, 1888-1910. By WILLARD L. KING. (New York: Macmillan Company. 1950. Pp. x, 394. $5.00.)

• Published date: 01 December 1950
• DOI: 10.1177/106591295000300428
• Date: 01 December 1950
• Subject Matter: Articles

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power plan which has been used successfully in New York by organized
labor. This may be the guide to other metropolitan areas where union
labor is a powerful factor.
Third parties in America, in the quest for success or even for exist-
ence, face legal and other formidable obstacles. It is difficult for them
to appear on the ballot, to establish an adequate organization, and to raise
sufficient funds to function properly. It is far more difficult to combat
successfully the flexibility of the two parties, political tradition, conserva-
tism, and indifference.
’
The volume has several useful features, including twelve charts deal-
ing with various phases of comparative voting by farmer and labor parties,
three tables, and two appendices which give election results for these
parties in presidential, congressional, and state elections. The authors
have achieved their stated objective, which was to show that farmer and
labor parties popularize ideas and act as vehicles for discontent.
THOMAS S. BARCLAY.
Stanford University.
Melville Weston Fuller: Chief Justice of the United States, 1888-1910. By
WILLARD L. KING. (New York: Macmillan Company. 1950. Pp. x, 394.
$5.00.)
This biography, the only one on the eighth chief justice, is the product
of years of research by attorney Willard King. Particularly fruitful is his
use of the hitherto untapped Genet papers which provide the most fre-
quently cited source material.
Chief Justice Fuller’s enduring value rests on his administrative ability.
The author makes a convincing case that Fuller was a highly successful
juridical executive. In doing so, the biography becomes one of the best
behind-the-scene books about the Supreme Court. At the same time, how-
ever, no light is shed on the Fuller period as the significant era when
laissez-faire came to the Court. Constitutional doctrines are de-empha-
sized ; the over-all role of the Court in government and politics receives
scant attention. Yet Mr. King presents an excellent...