The Footpaths of Justice William O. Douglas: A Legacy of Place - Brossura

Hulst, Tom

Brossura

ISBN 10: 0595330401 ISBN 13: 9780595330409

Casa editrice: iUniverse, 2004

Riassunto

U.S. Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas served on the Court for 36 years. He wrote more opinions and more dissents than any other Justice. Douglas was described as an invigorating presence on the Court and possessed unusual stamina, an unyielding will, and enormous courage.Douglas's achievements on and off the Court were astonishing. He was an adventurer, jurist, and environmentalist, whose writings and actions impacted the country for many years. He was also a hiker and climber. He organized hikes and other actions to protect the C&O Canal near Washington, D.C., Olympic Beach and Glacier Peak in Washington State, the Buffalo River in Arkansas, and areas along the Appalachian Trail. He was a prophet, visionary, pioneer, scout, and pathfinder. In reading The Footpaths of Justice William O. Douglas: A Legacy of Place, one accepts Douglas's invitation to hike with him, to visit a place with him and to "join him in a process of discovery and affirmation that is available to a free people in a spacious land."

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The Footpaths of Justice William O. Douglas

A Legacy of PlaceBy Tom R. Hulst

iUniverse, Inc.

Copyright © 2006 Tom R. Hulst
All right reserved.
ISBN: 978-0-595-33040-9

Contents

Preface............................................................................viiAuthor's Notes.....................................................................xiiiForeword...........................................................................xviiChapter 1 The Early Years..........................................................1Chapter 2 Postsecondary Education and Early Career.................................7Chapter 3 Appointment to the US Supreme Court......................................14Chapter 4 Freedom of Speech........................................................21Chapter 5 Freedom of Religion......................................................29Chapter 6 Right of Privacy.........................................................35Chapter 7 Wilderness Leader........................................................49Chapter 8 Hiking as Political Action...............................................67Chapter 9 Hike along the C&O Canal.................................................74Chapter 10 The Mountains and Beaches of Olympic National Park......................91Chapter 11 Mount Adams.............................................................116Chapter 12 Mount St Helens.........................................................149Chapter 13 Mount Rainier...........................................................170Chapter 14 Salmon: River of No Return..............................................193Chapter 15 North Cascades..........................................................210Chapter 16 White Pass Corridor.....................................................232Chapter 17 William O Douglas Wilderness............................................239Chapter 18 Goat Rocks..............................................................251Chapter 19 World Citizen...........................................................272Afterword..........................................................................281References.........................................................................287Table of Hikes & Climbs in the Footpaths of William O. Douglas.....................297

Chapter One

The Early Years

Reverend William Douglas, father of Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas, grew up in Nova Scotia where his Scottish grandfather and father tended family farms. Pastor Douglas did not follow his forefathers into farming, however. He was interested in pursuing theological studies and a ministerial career in the Presbyterian Church. Douglas took his seminary training at Moody Bible Institute in Chicago then moved to Maine, Minnesota, to complete an "internship" at the Maine Presbyterian Church in 1895. Over six feet tall with penetrating blue eyes and distinguished beard, Douglas carried himself in a dignified manner. In Maine Douglas soon met Julia Fisk, a talented organist and devout member of the congregation.

Born in 1872, Julia was a child of a farmer too, but her father died at the age of 46 and left the farm to Julia's mother, Salome—and eight children. Salome was a plucky wiry woman who milked the cows, plowed the fields and harvested the crops. Full of courage and determination she also raised eight children, two from a previous marriage. Julia, a twin, had a difficult early childhood weighing just two pounds at birth and did not walk until she was three. She grew strong and confident, however, as she worked around the farm and cared for her brothers and sisters. She possessed piercing blue eyes and reddish hair and, like her mother, was gritty, resolute, and purposeful.

William Douglas and Julia Fisk hit it off immediately, began a six-month courtship, and married in 1896. It was not long before Julia bore the first of three children, a daughter in 1897, who was given the name Martha. William Orville Douglas followed soon after in October 1898. When he was just 22 months old "Orville," as his mother called him, contracted a serious case of intestinal colic. Julia Douglas carefully cared for her son during this illness, massaging his limbs, and watching over him around the clock. She did not get a full night's sleep for six weeks. While Douglas gradually improved, he continued in a weak condition and under Julia's solicitous care for many months. When Orville was three years old the family moved to Estrella, California, where Arthur Douglas, the second son, joined the young family, and the elder William Douglas assumed a local pastorate. William Douglas suffered from intestinal problems and doctors thought that a warmer climate would be better for him.

When William O. Douglas was six years old the family moved again—this time to Washington State. While Minnesota was too cold and Estrella, California, was too hot, south central Washington was "just right"! The elder Douglas responded to the call to serve churches in three communities southeast of Yakima—Bickleton, Dot, and Cleveland. Young William was devoted to his father who was a strong initial presence in his life and was always there to give his son a lift or let him search his pockets for nuggets of maple sugar. But in 1904 tragedy struck the Douglas family! Reverend Douglas was scheduled for surgery to repair his stomach ulcers, the common treatment at the time. The family was shocked and dismayed to learn that William Douglas died from complications of the surgery. After his father's death, Douglas and his mother, Julia Douglas, and the other two children moved to Yakima, Washington. (Simon, 1980, 17–25).

The early fragility of her first born son heightened Julia's maternal instincts toward him. She called him "treasure," waited on him unceasingly, and became over-protective. She described him to others as weaker than other boys his age. It was clear, moreover, as the children recalled their childhood years later that Orville was Julia's favorite. In time Douglas realized that her preoccupation with his health and perception of his frailty was becoming a self-fulfilling-prophesy. "Gradually, there grew in me a great rebellion. I protested against Mother's descriptions of me." (Douglas, Go East Young Man, 1974, 33).

Whether or not his serious illness as a baby or slow development caused his skinny physique is not clear. But Douglas became self-conscious about his physical condition and worried that his peers thought him a "puny person" who could not compete physically. On one occasion on the way to school a boy he did not know mocked him saying, "look at that kid's skinny legs. Aren't they something? Did you ever see anything as funny?" Douglas described those words as a "lash across my face." (Douglas, Go East Young Man, 1974, 32.) He undertook a weightlifting regimen to strengthen his legs and upper body but that made him nauseous.

A friend suggested that he begin hiking as a way to build his strength and vigor so Douglas began walking around the city of Yakima. Then he noticed the hills and mountains in the west. "[T]he high mountains in the distance were extending an invitation to me to get acquainted with them, to tramp their trails and sleep in their high basins." He started slowly walking the hills closest to Yakima and eventually ventured further into the lower Cascade foothills. One time he walked east two miles to Selah Gap to the top of a ridge without slowing his pace. He wrote that, "I felt an increasing flow of health in my legs, and a growing sense of contentment in my heart." (Douglas, Of Men and Mountains, 1950, 35.) Later Douglas went with Elon Gilbert and other friends to the Little Klickitat southeast of White Pass. His journey extended 16-miles by foot and another four miles of hard riding by horseback. When he arrived at the destination Douglas wasn't sure how to gauge his performance on the trail. He was tired and his buttocks had acquired a number of blisters from the hard riding. Gilbert came over to him at the campfire and said, "Say, fella, you're OK. You sure can go it the hard way." Douglas swallowed hard and mumbled a quiet thanks. "I went to sleep triumphant," he wrote. "Those whose opinion I valued most highly than any on earth had rendered their verdict." (Douglas, Of Men and Mountains, 1950, 62).

As a young man he made many trips into the Cascade Mountains. "When I tramped the foothills in the dead of winter ... I would find some black rimrock where I could sit, my back to the rock, protected from the wind, hoping the warmth of my sagebrush fire would not awaken a den of rattlers with the false message that spring had arrived." (Douglas, Go East Young Man, 1974, 37). Douglas believed that his serious illness as a toddler shaped his character and gave him courage and determination. It also led him to the wilderness he so loved which, in turn, influenced his opinions and beliefs throughout the rest of his life.

Douglas experienced at a young age what many native youth experienced as well. Tribal groups often sent their adolescent males alone into the wilderness for personal quests as part of the rite of passage into adulthood. The aborigines of Australia called them "walkabouts." Today Outward Bound and other organizations consign young people to the wilds (alone) to learn map and compass reading, cooking, and other survival skills. The native groups and modern outdoor organizations understand a basic value that is part of these solo journeys: the natural environment teaches proficiency and confidence without fear of disapproving advice from others. The young initiates can slough off the learned dependency that impedes their individual growth and development. Participants' achieve "a sense of self-discovery, enthusiasm for the experience, and desire to make nature a part of their future lives." (Gallagher, 1993, 211). Douglas was able to acquire a strong identity apart from a domineering mother, an earnestness and ardor for the outdoors, and a place consciousness that lasted throughout his life.

Investment of the life insurance proceeds by Julia did not pay dividends until Douglas was in high school and during the children's grade school years they were among the poorer families in Yakima. Julia was a bit of a worrywart, as well, and betrayed her concern about family finances to the children. They began working when they were merely seven years old—washing windows, sweeping stores, and taking any job that was available. Douglas remembers the family as being poor and wrote that, "It was the ten cents or fifteen cents that we brought home each evening that often meant the difference between dinner and no dinner." (Douglas, Go East Young Man, 1974, 17).

One experience Douglas had as a poor youth growing up in Yakima had a lasting impact on his development and later thinking. He worked as an informant for a local minister who instituted a puritanical campaign against prostitution and alcohol. This experience, coupled with his work in the orchards, instilled a distrust of the establishment and a feeling of affection and concern for the poor and disadvantaged. He preferred the company of poor people to that of the rich. He resented the hypocrisy of the high churchmen of his hometown. The well to do of Yakima thought of the poor as scum and outcasts. Douglas expressed concern about their broken lives and limited opportunities. What chances did they have? "What orphanages had turned them out? What broken homes had produced them? Which of these prostitutes had first been seduced by her father, causing all standards of propriety and decency to be destroyed? Which of them had turned to prostitution and bootlegging as a result of grinding poverty?" (Douglas, Go East Young Man, 1974, 61).

Douglas encountered another group of people who had a profound impression on him: the Industrial Workers of the World, (IWW's), or Wobblies. He worked as a youth with Wobblies at harvest time in the wheat lands of eastern Washington. The establishment of Yakima like the people in Everett, Centralia, Seattle, and Tacoma thought of the Wobblies as radicals and criminals. Douglas got to know and respect individual Wobblies, however. One, Blacky, pulled the last shirt he owned from a battered suitcase after Douglas's shirt ripped to shreds by a nail as he jumped from a wagon. Blacky wouldn't accept any compensation. The gift was given generously and naturally because Douglas needed it more than he did. Wobblies always fed anyone who needed a meal and treated everyone equally. Douglas traveled with Wobblies on the rails, worked beside them in the fields, and ate with them under the bridges outside Yakima.

The Wobbly movement got its start in 1905 in the Pacific Northwest. The organization found enthusiastic followers among the loggers and migratory workers of the Puget Sound area. By 1910 its slogans, "One Big Union," "Industrial Workers of the World," and "Workers of the World Unite," had become familiar phrases that were painted on stumps, large rocks, and buildings in towns throughout the region. They employed rhetorical language on behalf of working people in the mines, the logging camps, and the wheat fields, but did not espouse overthrow of the government. Douglas viewed his Wobbly brothers not as crooks, but as people down on their luck who were thrown mere scraps from the dining tables of society. "My heart was with the impoverished restless underdogs who were IWW's. Most of the IWW's had no criminal records and engaged in no lawless conduct. Yet, though few who rode the rods were criminals, we were all treated as outcasts or vagrants; we were even fired on by the police in railroad yards." (Douglas, Go East Young Man, 1974, 78).

Douglas sensed that his poverty restricted his mobility around Yakima—both social and geographic. He lived on the wrong side of town and was not welcome among the more affluent. He should know his "place" and remain within it, he thought to himself. He felt constricted, confined, closed off, marginalized. There were restaurants he could not eat in, clubs he could not join, and people he could not mix with. He must stay on his side of the tracks, his edge—or his margin—of town. Whereas some of the areas of town did not welcome Douglas, he could roam widely and freely in the mountains. Neither his freedom of movement nor his ideas were restrained. There he was not marginalized. He established a strong sense of place in the foothills and mountains of the Cascades. Places that taught him, that engaged him, that refreshed him, that granted him refuge. Douglas did not take these places for granted; rather they enhanced his experience and became a reservoir of strength that sustained him through many circumstances of his life.

Julia Douglas was a strong woman who raised the children in a way she thought would be pleasing to her husband. She set high standards and taught them to persevere through the family's challenging circumstances. While the children's clothes were worn and tattered she kept them clean and their shoes were always polished. She disciplined them severely if there were any signs of dishonesty, deception, or gossip. The family attended Sunday school and church every Sunday as well as prayer meeting during the week. She also pushed her children to excel in school. Douglas worked hard, was intellectually gifted, and had a photographic memory. He was a straight A student graduating as valedictorian of his Yakima High School class. His achievements in high school earned him a scholarship to Whitman College in Walla Walla, Washington.

Chapter Two

Postsecondary Education and Early Career

William O. Douglas rode the rails to Walla Walla to look for jobs during the summer before his freshman year at Whitman College. Even with tuition assistance he needed to earn enough money to pay for his living expenses and send his mother $20 a month. Douglas worked in a jewelry store, looked after furnaces, mowed lawns, and swept out small shops. Somehow during his college years at Whitman, he still made time to participate on the debate team, compete on the tennis team, join a fraternity, and lead Sunday evening services at local area churches. Majoring in English, he graduated second in his class from Whitman College in 1920 at the age of 21.

After graduation from college Douglas returned home to teach Latin and speech at his high school alma mater—now Davis High School in Yakima. There he met Mildred Riddle, a colleague at Yakima High School, who he later married in 1924. Douglas felt somewhat stifled teaching in his hometown, however. He had been drawn to both English and law while at Whitman College. After unsuccessfully applying for a Rhodes Scholarship to study English Literature at Oxford University his interest turned from English to law and he began to talk to local attorneys about law school. Receiving advice and encouragement from a Columbia alumnus he decided to attend Columbia University Law School in New York City.

On the way to Columbia, Douglas herded market-bound sheep as far as Minnesota, and rode freight cars from there to Chicago. While on board the freight to Chicago he was about to be run in by the railroad police for refusing to hand over fare he had already paid when he decided to jump from the train—that was moving 30 miles per hour! He felt a switch brush his arm as he flew through the air. Landing on the cinders skinned and battered but without serious injury, he got up bruised, dirty and hungry, when a voice emerged from the dark. "You ok, bud?" "Yeh, I'm alright," was Douglas's reply. "Just scratched." This started a conversation with a new friend about the railroad bulls, the stockyards, and living conditions in Chicago with no trees, rivers, mountains, or meadows.

The man was from northern California near Mount Shasta and went east to find his dream. But he met only squalor, hardship, and bleak alleys. He was on his way west where there were animals, elbow room, "clean dirt," and mountains.

This new friend tried to persuade Douglas to turn around and accompany him back to the West Coast. But Douglas demurred and continued his pilgrimage to New York City. As dawn broke he saw some of the conditions his friend spoke about. "Lonesomeness swept over me." He wrote. "Never had I loved the Cascades as much as I did that early morning near the stockyards of Chicago. Never had I missed a snow-capped peak so much. Never had I longed more to see a mountain meadow filled with heather and lupine and paintbrush." (Douglas, Go East Young Man, 1974, 132). After Douglas refused to join his friend on a westbound freight he, nevertheless, followed the man's advice and stayed the next night in the YMCA where he received a bath and slept the clock around. The next day he hopped an eastbound train and finally arrived in New York City.

His limited resources almost interrupted his first term at Columbia Law School; before he could find work to earn enough money for tuition and room and board costs, the bill from the law school became due. The bursar threatened to drop him from the rolls of the law school. Douglas made an appointment with Dean Harlan F. Stone, who Douglas later served with on the U.S. Supreme Court, to discuss his situation. Stone had no scholarships or loans to offer and recommended that Douglas drop out for a couple of years until he could earn sufficient money to re-enroll.

(Continues...)

Excerpted from The Footpaths of Justice William O. Douglasby Tom R. Hulst Copyright © 2006 by Tom R. Hulst. Excerpted by permission of iUniverse, Inc.. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
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Dettagli dell?edizione

• Editore: iUniverse
• Data di pubblicazione: 2004
• ISBN 10: 0595330401
• ISBN 13: 9780595330409
• Rilegatura: Copertina flessibile
• Lingua: Inglese
• Numero di pagine: 320
• Contatto del produttore: non disponibile