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60 A.B.A. J. 896 (1974)
Books for Lawyers

handle is hein.journals/abaj60 and id is 898 raw text is: Books
for
Lawyers

G O EAST, YOUNG MAN: THE
EARLY    YEARS, THE     AUTO-
BIOGRAPHY      OF   WILLIAM      0.
DOUGLAS. By William 0. Douglas.
Random   House, 201 East Fiftieth
Street, New York, New York 10022.
1974. $10.00. Pages 493. Reviewed by
Patrick E. Higginbotham of the Texas
bar (Dallas), a member of the Advis-
ory Board of the Journal.
In Go East Young Man: The Early
Years, written over the last ten or
twelve years, Justice Douglas, in re-
lating his life from his early years to
his appointment to the Supreme Court
in 1939, reveals and gives definition
to a powerful character in contempo-
rary American history,
The reader follows young Bill Doug-
las hiking  with  polio-injured  legs,
at an energy-eating pace demanded
only by Douglas of Douglas, and on
frequent sojourns away from the cities.
The beauty of the great Northwest is
presented with  photographic clarity.
The man's passion for his great woods
and untrammeled nature is obvious; his
sincerity and humility in the face of
nature are convincing.
Not surprisingly, Justice Douglas,
the raconteur, reveals more of himself
than others as he tells his stories. The
telling suggests a personality blend of
fierce independence, escapism, and in-
security. These qualities, coupled with
the justice's extraordinary mind, offer
the reader an explanation of the drive
that has led to much of his success. At
least, this is an explanation in more
pragmatic and less simplistic terms
than that of predestined ordination to,
which Justice Douglas in his writing
at times seems to subscribe.
Young Douglas rode the rails to
New York to attend the Columbia Law
School, chosen by happenstance, only
to be advised (advice he obviously did
not follow) by then Dean Harlan F.
Stone not to enroll until he had more
money. Seventeen years later he sat
with Stone on the Supreme Court. This
and other events are presented as a

series of almost biblical circumstances
leading  ineluctably  from  Yakima,
Washington, to Washington, D.C.
The book is anecdotal and at times
takes on the warmth of old friends en-
gaged in armchair reminiscences. While
Douglas the advocate occasionally gets
in the way of the story-such as his
remarks regarding the Court's present
workload and his work as an environ-
mentalist-in the main his advocacy
is more subtle and, occasionally, prob-
ably unintended.
These years of Justice Douglas's life
seem to have been constantly at the
midstream of government and law. His
accounts of F.D.R.'s poker club and
F.D.R.'s needling ot Justice Frankfurter
are told with gusto. Such stellar figures
as Prof. Louis Loss (from    Justice
Douglas's Securities  and  Exchange
Commission days) touch his career and
move on with only brief mention.
The book is in many ways an in-
sider's view of the birth and maturing
of many of the administrative agencies
as we now know them. Most have in
Justice Douglas's view outlived their
utility. He observes that: The great
creative work of a federal agency must
be done in the first decade of its exist-
ence if it is to be done at all. After
that it is likely to become a prisoner
of bureaucracy and of the inertia de-
manded by the Establishment of any
respected agency.
The author reminds us that there are
few truly new problems in Washington.
For example, political pressure by those
feeling the bite of administrative in-
vestigation is not claimed to be of
recent vintage. He relates his experi-
ence in an investigation of Trans-
america, a Giannini company in the
Bank of America nest of companies.
Giannini had been a heavy contributor
to F.D.R. Only after he received as-
surances that both the front and back
doors to the White House would be
closed to Giannini did S.E.C. Chairman
Douglas move.
The book is an illuminating insight

into this intriguing loner. Because his
life has been so close to the heart of
government, the book is perforce a
man's view of much recent history. I
commend it.
-PATRICK E. HIGGINBOTHAM
A PRAYER FOR RELIEF: THE
CONSTITUTIONAL INFIRMI-
TIES OF THE MILITARY ACADE-
MIES' CONDUCT, HONOR          AND
ETHICS SYSTEMS. By Michael T.
Rose. New York University School of
Law (available from Fred B. Roth-
man and Company, 57 Leuning Street,
South Hackensack, New Jersey 07606).
1973. $7.50 (paper). Pages 194. Re-
viewed by Ben W. Pesta II of the Cali-
fornia bar, an associate editor of Es-
quire.
While military justice may not stand
in precisely the same relation to jus-
tice that military music does to music,
Michael T. Rose's informative report
points up the need for procedural re-
form within a specific military context.
Cadets at the United States military
academies (military, naval, air force,
coast guard, and merchant marine) oc-
cupy a unique military status as in-
choate officers and members of the
regular armed force denoted by the
name of the individual academy. As
holders of this unique status, they
are subject to the obligations imposed
by the Uniform Code of Military Jus-
tice. But as cadets, they have too often
been deprived of the U.C.M.J.'s pro-
cedural safeguards.
The customary vehicle of these de-
privations has been the controversial
honor system, the cadet code which
forbids lying, cheating, stealing, and
(at the military and air force acade-
mies) the toleration of those who do.
Anyone may report a cadet for an
honor violation, including the offender
himself. When a report is made, the
chairman of the cadet honor commit-
tee appoints an   investigating team
chosen from among committee mem-
bers. The team decides whether there

896 American Bar Association Journal

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