Oregon and Oregonians

Nine grave Justices lent their ears to the argument for and against the school law of the State of Oregon. Oregon has a law requiring all children between the ages of 8 and 16 to attend the public schools. This, of course, is equivalent to the suppression of all private and parochial schools and military academies devoted to primary education. Against the law are aligned the two plaintiffs, 1) the Sisters of the Holy Name of Jesus and Mary and 2) the Hill Military Academy, backed by the North Pacific Union of Seventh Day Adventists, the Domestic and Foreign Missionary Society, the Protestant Episcopal Society and the American Jewish Committee. Defending the law were the attorneys of the State of Oregon.

The argument of the parochial and private schools is that the law was an invasion of constitutional rights, religious and otherwise. The State's argument is that the law was a legitimate extension of the State police power of compelling attendance at school. The law had been declared unconstitutional by a lower court and was carried to a higher court on the State's appeal.

The argument brought once more into the national arena a figure once prominent there, for one of the arguers of the. State's case in the support of the law was George E. Chamberlain.

Mr. Chamberlain, now a man of 70, is a Mississippian by birth, a graduate of Washington and Lee University--in short, a man reared in the traditions of the South. His mature life has been spent in Oregon. It is perhaps significant that he taught school in Oregon until he could secure a law practice. He served in the State legislature, became State Attorney General, from 1902 to 1908 served as Governor.

Being a Southerner, he is a Democrat. The State, during his governorship, was predominantly Republican, but, in 1908, the Republican legislature elected him to the U.S. Senate and the U. S. public inspected him for the first time. He had a retiring chin, a blunt nose, shrewd eyes and, at that time, a fine head of dark hair beginning to be streaked with gray. He was reserved, goodnatured, low-voiced, quiet, yet had the courage to precipitate a party row and fight it through--as afterwards developed.

He served until 1921, during the War doing good service on the Senate Military Affairs Committee, of which he became Chairman. He pushed the Selective Draft Bill ; he introduced a bill, early in 1918, for a War Cabinet and criticized the War Department freely. This brought him into contest with Newton D. Baker, Secretary of War, and drew the wrath of Woodrow Wilson upon his head.

In 1921, he succumbed to the onslaught of the Republicans, and Senator Stanfield was elected to succeed him. He served for a time on the Shipping Board and then retired--only to emerge once more on behalf of Oregon and her school law.