WICKERSHAM, GEORGE WOODWARD

As U.S. attorney general from 1909 to 1913, George Woodward Wickersham was an aggressive enforcer of federal antitrust laws. Late in his career, he headed a commission that conducted the first comprehensive national investigation of the U.S. criminal justice system.

Wickersham was born on September 19, 1858, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He attended Lehigh University from 1873 to 1875 and received a bachelor of laws degree from the University of Pennsylvania in 1880. Before he graduated, he was admitted to the Pennsylvania bar. He practiced for two years in Philadelphia before moving to New York City where he joined the established law firm of Strong and Cadwalader. Wickersham became a partner in the firm four years later.

President william howard taft appointed Wickersham attorney general in March 1909. Wickersham helped draft the sixteenth amendment to the U.S. Constitution, adopted in 1913, that authorized Congress to levy an income tax. He concentrated his efforts on prosecuting monopolistic corporations for antitrust violations under the Sherman Act (15 U.S.C.A. § 1 et seq. [1890]). In Standard Oil Co. of New Jersey v. United States, 221 U.S. 1, 31 S. Ct. 502, 55 L. Ed. 619 (1911), and other important antitrust cases, he participated in the oral arguments before the U.S. Supreme Court.

Wickersham also became the first attorney general to use consent decrees, which allow defendants to agree to negotiated settlements, without resort to court trials. Nineteen of forty-seven suits begun by Wickersham ended in such decrees.

After leaving office in 1913, Wickersham returned to his law practice. In 1915 he attended the New York Constitutional Convention and chaired its Judiciary Committee. After the U.S. entry into world war i, President woodrow wilson appointed Wickersham to the War Trade Board.

Wickersham is best remembered, however, for heading the National Commission of Law Observance and Law Enforcement, which came to be known as the wickersham commission. President herbert hoover named the commission to investigate the rise in crime and to determine whether, given the level of gangland violence, repeal of prohibition was needed.

"We expect legislation to conform to public opinion, not public opinion to yield to legislation."
—George W. Wickersham

The commission, which included roscoe pound, the noted legal scholar and court reformer, could not agree on the Prohibition issue, but its fourteen-volume report revealed disturbing features in the U.S. criminal justice system. It brought to public attention the use of "third-degree" interrogation methods against criminal suspects and the need for more professional police forces. In addition, it condemned the existing prison system and advocated the use

of probation and parole as humane solutions to crime.

Wickersham completed his public service in 1932 as president of the International arbitration Tribunal under the Young Plan, which in 1929 had negotiated the reparations to be paid by Germany for World War I.

Wickersham died on January 25, 1936, in New York City.

cross-references

Prohibition.

Woodward, George W. (b. Bethany, Penn., 26 Mar. 1809; d. Rome, Italy, 10 May 1875), judge, congressman, and unconfirmed nominee to the Supreme Court. After being admitted to the bar in 1830, George W. Woodward practiced law in his home state of Pennsylvania, served as a delegate to the state constitutional convention in 1837, and assumed the position of president judge of Pennsylvania's fourth judicial district in 1841. Four years later, after making an unsuccessful bid for the U.S. Senate, Woodward received an appointment on 23 December 1845 from President James K. Polk to fill the Supreme Court vacancy created by the death of Justice Henry Baldwin.

Although a loyal Democrat from a distinguished family, Woodward failed to gain Senate confirmation. Divisions within the Democratic party—especially the opposition of a senator from Woodward's home state—caused the Senate on 22 January 1846 to reject Woodward's nomination by a vote of 20 to 29. Woodward later served as associate justice and chief justice of the Pennsylvania Supreme Court and eventually won election the U.S. House of Representatives.

Timothy S. Huebner

George Woodward Wickersham 1858–1936, American lawyer and government official, b. Pittsburgh. He began law practice in Philadelphia, and after moving (1882) to New York City, he became a prominent corporation lawyer. As U.S. Attorney General (1909–13) under President Taft, he successfully prosecuted many corporations under the Sherman Antitrust Act. His book The Changing Order (1914) deals with monopolies. In 1929 he was appointed by President Hoover to head the National Commission on Law Observance and Law Enforcement, which came to be called the Wickersham Commission. It concluded in its final report of 1931 that the federal machinery for enforcing criminal law in the United States was inadequate. It found in particular that prohibition enforcement had broken down, and the majority (which did not include Wickersham) recommended revision (but not repeal) of the 18th Amendment.

Woodward, W[illiam] E. (1874–1950), born in South Carolina, author of the novels Bunk (1923), Lottery (1924), Bread and Circuses (1925), and Evelyn Prentice (1933), in addition to popular debunking books for which he was known. His biographies include George Washington: The Image and the Man (1926), Meet General Grant (1928), and Tom Paine: America's Godfather (1945). A New American History (1936) is a breezy narrative; The Way Our People Lived (1944) selects representative episodes; Years of Madness (1951) deals with the Civil War. The Gift of Life (1947) is his autobiography.