large, whether it be the large company or alarge country. Brandeis would later publish a book titled The Curse of Bigness, which argued there was danger in large corporations. Brandeis was an early Zionist, liking the idea of a small Jewish state, but he also was fond of the modest Scandinavian countries, especially Denmark. (In the next decade, as the Soviet Union became more popular as a destination, Brandeis would tell young travelers to go to Denmark instead.)
In 1924 Frankfurter had supported La Follette, writing in the New Republic that both mainstream parties “have an identical record of economic imperialism,” and describing his foreign model—Labour in Britain. As early as 1906, when he first encountered the young Franklin Roosevelt, the professor began to work to influence him. The Frankfurter touch reached to the smallest detail. One of Frankfurter’s biographers reports that the pair talked about reading, and Frankfurter suggested to FDR that he indicate a significant passage with a line in the margin, like the great English historian Thomas Babington Macaulay, rather than underscoring line after line.
Frankfurter could influence young Roosevelt and others because, even in Babbitt times, he was able to transmit a wonderful sense of possibility to those around him. Student after student after student came to him and stayed, sometimes simply for the pleasure of going mind against mind. One of those students was Adolf Berle, who, like Frankfurter, was not accustomed to coming in second. Berle attended Frankfurter’s course two years in a row. “What, back again?” Frankfurter had asked. “I wanted to see if you’d learned anything,” Berle replied. Another Frankfurter student was David Lilienthal of Indiana, the young man who had disliked adventurous Chicago. Lilienthal found Frankfurter so enthralling he would later describe him as a man “who could read the dictionary and make it exciting.” Others were Benjamin Cohen and Thomas Corcoran, who later would be called his “hot dogs.”
Frankfurter’s next skill inhered in this: Better than any law professor in the nation, he knew how to place his students in important jobs. From Harvard, Frankfurter sent his students to Brandeis and fellow justice Oliver Wendell Holmes to clerk. Many of these students would later have leading roles in government or universities, among them Dean Acheson, David Riesman, and Alger and Donald Hiss. Frankfurter had a virtual monopoly when it came to clerk appointments at the Supreme Court. When Justice McReynolds, a few years later, selected a Harvard alumnus who was not a Frankfurter protégé as his clerk, Brandeis bluntly asked the clerk how he came to get his job. “There isn’t one chance in a thousand for any graduate of Harvard Law School to come to the Court these days without Professor Frankfurter’s approval.”
Frankfurter still believed that the era of social legislation had only begun, that the country could make numerous changes, like introducing a minimum wage. He regarded Justice George Sutherland, the author of Adkins v. Children’s Hospital, as especially retrograde. Frankfurter argued for state minimum wages before the Court, and his students had the satisfaction of knowing that at least one justice—Holmes—seemed to follow his line of reasoning. Frankfurter’s impression on his students was especially profound in the area of utilities. The rest of the country might look to Commonwealth and Southern or Insull for progress, but in Frankfurter’s course Public Utilities, the emphasis was on the “public.” Frankfurter and other progressives felt strongly that governments should not miss this opportunity to regulate, the way they had failed to regulate industry in the preceding century.
In Frankfurter’s classroom it mattered little that in the 1920s the constitutional obstacles to a grand federal program for power generation seemed greater than the boulders on the Colorado River. Removing
In 1924 Frankfurter had supported La Follette, writing in the New Republic that both mainstream parties “have an identical record of economic imperialism,” and describing his foreign model—Labour in Britain. As early as 1906, when he first encountered the young Franklin Roosevelt, the professor began to work to influence him. The Frankfurter touch reached to the smallest detail. One of Frankfurter’s biographers reports that the pair talked about reading, and Frankfurter suggested to FDR that he indicate a significant passage with a line in the margin, like the great English historian Thomas Babington Macaulay, rather than underscoring line after line.
Frankfurter could influence young Roosevelt and others because, even in Babbitt times, he was able to transmit a wonderful sense of possibility to those around him. Student after student after student came to him and stayed, sometimes simply for the pleasure of going mind against mind. One of those students was Adolf Berle, who, like Frankfurter, was not accustomed to coming in second. Berle attended Frankfurter’s course two years in a row. “What, back again?” Frankfurter had asked. “I wanted to see if you’d learned anything,” Berle replied. Another Frankfurter student was David Lilienthal of Indiana, the young man who had disliked adventurous Chicago. Lilienthal found Frankfurter so enthralling he would later describe him as a man “who could read the dictionary and make it exciting.” Others were Benjamin Cohen and Thomas Corcoran, who later would be called his “hot dogs.”
Frankfurter’s next skill inhered in this: Better than any law professor in the nation, he knew how to place his students in important jobs. From Harvard, Frankfurter sent his students to Brandeis and fellow justice Oliver Wendell Holmes to clerk. Many of these students would later have leading roles in government or universities, among them Dean Acheson, David Riesman, and Alger and Donald Hiss. Frankfurter had a virtual monopoly when it came to clerk appointments at the Supreme Court. When Justice McReynolds, a few years later, selected a Harvard alumnus who was not a Frankfurter protégé as his clerk, Brandeis bluntly asked the clerk how he came to get his job. “There isn’t one chance in a thousand for any graduate of Harvard Law School to come to the Court these days without Professor Frankfurter’s approval.”
Frankfurter still believed that the era of social legislation had only begun, that the country could make numerous changes, like introducing a minimum wage. He regarded Justice George Sutherland, the author of Adkins v. Children’s Hospital, as especially retrograde. Frankfurter argued for state minimum wages before the Court, and his students had the satisfaction of knowing that at least one justice—Holmes—seemed to follow his line of reasoning. Frankfurter’s impression on his students was especially profound in the area of utilities. The rest of the country might look to Commonwealth and Southern or Insull for progress, but in Frankfurter’s course Public Utilities, the emphasis was on the “public.” Frankfurter and other progressives felt strongly that governments should not miss this opportunity to regulate, the way they had failed to regulate industry in the preceding century.
In Frankfurter’s classroom it mattered little that in the 1920s the constitutional obstacles to a grand federal program for power generation seemed greater than the boulders on the Colorado River. Removing
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