Typed Letter Signed

New Haven:, 1920. 1 page on personal stationery to Charles G. Washburn. The future Supreme Court Chief Justice and former President decries a recent Supreme Court rulling specifically attacking Justice Joseph McKenna's opinion in U. S. v. United States Steel Corp, an important anti-trust case in which Justice McKenna expressed a reasoned, moderate approach toward the Sherman Antitrust Act which did not sit well with Taft. He writes: " A more unsatisfactory opinion I never read....He made the Steel Company an exceptional case and not one furnishing any basis for authority for future action. His attitude is a little bit like that which Dooley (the comic Irish Bartender created by author Peter Finley Dunne) " attributed to (Justice) Brown in the insular cases. 'Four of the Judges say the Constitution do follow the flag, and four of the Justices say it do not follow the flag...but I am the lad to tell you when it do and when it don't..'" Taft also criticises McKenna's ruling on corporate monopolies, forcing judges to distinguish between "good" monopolies or "bad" ones on a case by case basis.. Fine.