American lawyer Clarence Seward Darrow
Presented by Marshall Grate Marshall Grate, JD, Clark Hill, PLC - Board of Directors of the Michigan Council for School Attorneys, Law degree summa cum laude from the Indiana University School of Law in 1981
About the Speaker
Marshall Grate specializes in Public School Law, Labor Law, and Employment Law representing municipal corporations and private sector employers in all aspects of Labor and Employment matters including: Personal Administration, Personnel Administration, Wage and Hour Employment Discrimination, Family and Medical Leave Act, Unfair Labor Practices, Collective Bargaining, and Labor Arbitration. Attorney Grate has successfully defended clients in Bench Trials, Jury Trials, and Administrative Proceedings and he is licensed to practice in all state and federal courts in Michigan and Indiana. He has been admitted to the 6th Circuit of the United States Court of Appeals and the 7th Circuit of the United States Court of Appeals as well as the United States Supreme Court.
About the Event
Announcements
Meeting Minutes for April 26, 2000; #67.We viewed a brief video and signed an acknowledgment as a requirement
for the April 30 Adopt-A-Highway program that we are involved in.
Dennis Murphy, who is coordinating this, presented these to us. Future
dates for this highway clean-up under our group name are: July 23 and
September 24, 2000. We meet @ Airway & Plainfield Ave.
Dirk & Lillian Nebbeling, who returned from Florida, told us of other
group endeavors through the American Humanist Association.
Upcoming meeting topics:
· MAY 10: “The Ethics of Pre-marital Sex” moderated by Rob Adamczyk.
· MAY 24: “Religious Displays on Public Property”- moderated by Frank
Bacon.
· JUNE 14: “Alcoholics Anonymous & Religion”- moderated by Jill
Pinkerton.
· JUNE 28: “The Philosophy of Ayn Rand”- moderated by Dennis Murphy.
All meetings to be held the GRCC Science Bldg. 7PM.
Presentation
The topic for this meeting was on the pre-eminent American lawyer
Clarence Seward Darrow (1857-1938), presented by FAOWM member and
attorney, Marshall Grate. Much of his source material was derived
from a biography of Darrow by Miriam Gurko. Grate’s practice regards
labor disputes, but from the corporate side, and he brought up the
many cases where Darrow famously represented labor, Unions and
championed the underdog, though he had cases involving Big Interests
as well. In fact, on this, he once stated that “My loyalty is to my
clients, not to satisfy Labor Movements.” Grate pointed out that
Darrow’s view was not a black & white one; neither side of the coin
had the monopoly on virtue or vice- either could be corrupt as
assuredly as either could be acting on good impulses.
Clarence Darrow was born in Kinsman, Ohio, the 5th of eight children,
into a family where affection was not strongly-shown, and it is
postulated that Darrow’s difficulty with close personal relationships
and working with others may have stemmed from this. He was admitted
to the bar in 1878, practicing law in in Kinsman, Andover, and
Ashtabula, Ohio, and from 1888 until his retirement in 1927, he
practiced law in his beloved Chicago. His father was going to become
a Presbyterian minister, but became an atheist before he left
seminary. The children were nonetheless expected to attend church
services, but Clarence was a lifelong agnostic. Some of his writings
and speeches included “Why I Am An Agnostic”, “The Myth of the Soul”,
“Absurdities of the Bible”, and “Facing Life Fearlessly.” He had no
illusions of an afterlife, stating “I feel as I always have, that
earth is the home and the only home of man, and I am convinced that
whatever he is to get out of his existence he must get while he is
here.” And on his agnosticism: “I am an Agnostic because I am not
afraid to think. I am not afraid of any god in the universe who would
send me or any other man or woman to hell. If there were such a
being, he would not be a god; he would be a devil.” He wrote and
spoke extensively on the philosophers Nietzsche and Voltaire as well.
In one passage, Darrow wrote of this the latter: “For the last
twenty-five years of his life, the superstition, the ignorance, and
above all, the credulity of the church, was constantly in his mind.”
Ironically, while Darrow became known as a first rate orator, along
with Robert G. Ingersoll, he had had trouble with grammar in his
youth. Darrow was a complex, not easily-defined person. A self-made
man and a strong individualist; he was also a fatalist, believing
that man’s destiny was out of his control. Professor Douglass Linder
wrote of him: “How does one begin to explain this paradox, this
sophisticated country lawyer, this hedonistic defender of the poor
and downtrodden, this honest, devious man ”
Darrow was able to bring public attention to many important social
issues, from evolution being taught in public schools to deplorable
working conditions and hours, to racial injustice. In this way his
approach regarded the larger social picture, more than isolated
cases; he might lose the battle (the case) but win the war (a redress
of abuses) in the long run. He was also staunchly opposed to the
death penalty, and no client he defended was sentenced to death. One
famous case was the Nathan Leopold and Richard Loeb one; a motiveless
kidnapping and “thrill killing” of 14 year old Bobby Franks by these
sons of millionaires. Darrow was able to get even these individuals
an initial life sentence, rather than the death penalty. He had long
believed in the connection between poverty and criminality, but this
case changed his mind.
He was also known for putting someone else on trial, to get to the
core controversy as with Pullman in the case regarding the wretched
American Railway conditions for its workers. It was originally Eugene
Debbs v Am. Railways (1894); or in having William Jennings Bryan take
the stand in the famous Scopes (“monkey”) Trial of 1925. This latter
case, involving the right of a Dayton, Tennessee science teacher,
John Scopes, to teach evolution in a biology class, was the
inspiration for the film “Inherit the Wind.”
Darrow demolished Bryan on the stand, focusing, not on whether Scopes
violated the law, by teaching evolution (he did) but on Bryan’s
Christian Fundamentalism and beliefs regarding biblical inerrency.
H.L. Menchen said of Bryan: “Bryan was a vulgar and common man, a
cad, undiluted. He was ignorant, bigoted, self-seeking, blatant and
dishonest. His career brought him into contact with the first men of
his time; he preferred the company of rustic ignoramuses. It was hard
to believe, watching him @ Dayton, that he had traveled, that he had
been received in civilized societies, that he had been a high officer
of state. He seemed only a poor slob like those around him, deluded
by a childish theology, full of an almost pathological hatred of all
learning, all human dignity, all beauty, all fine and noble things.
He was a peasant come home to the dung-pile ” The judge, himself a
creationist, realized how foolish Bryan was being made to look,
abruptly adjourned the court and ordered, the following morning, to
have cross-examination stopped and records stricken out, but records
of the events were nonetheless made by reporters, one of whom
recorded that ” as he was pummeled into one tight spot after another,
emerging each time breathless and in amazed chagrin, Bryan flushed,
with spots of anger in his cheeks. His whole body sagged. Before our
very eyes, he became a beaten man.” Bryan died a few days after the
trial.
Other famous cases of Darrow’s include the Massie case in Honolulu ,
a study of psychology, kidnapping and murder because of honor;
The Sweet case in Detroit involving an African American doctor
and his family, from the results of his moving into a White
neighborhood, with shouting, rocks thrown and shots fired while
police just watched&Mac249;until a White man was killed by one of the shots;
The Kidd case, Oshkosh, Wisconsin (1898), where Kidd, a Union
organizer was charged with conspiracy, growing out of a strike in the
large sash and door factory in Oshkosh; the Anthracite Miners case,
Scranton and Philadelphia, PA where Darrow actually went into
the mines himself, talked with families and saw 1st hand the horrible
conditions the miners suffered there. Several of his cases resulted
in new labor laws and regulations being enacted. Also the Haywood
case in Boise, Idaho. Where Union leader Haywood was tried for
the murder of ex-Governor Steunenberg; and in his own defense in los
Angeles, CA where he had been indicted and tried for attempted
bribery of a juror in the McNamara case.
Darrow’s time was one of great social change and challenges to
individual rights. Marshall spoke of many events, including the Red
Scare that was worse than the McCarthy era, where a man was killed
for insulting the flag and Hoover was in charge of rooting out the
Communists. Darrow defended members on the Right of Association and
Free Speech.
Grate concluded his thorough examination of Clarence Darrow by
addressing questions and statements by other FAOWM members.
Recorder: Charles LaRue
