The intimate papers of Colonel House arranged as a narrative by Charles Seymour.

DISCUSSING CABINET MATERIAL

91

Colonel House to the President-elect
NEW YORK, November 22, 1912
DEAR GOVERNOR:... James C. McReynolds, of Tennessee, but more recently of New York, is worthy of consideration. Although a
Democrat, Mr. Roosevelt made him special counsel for the
Government in the suit against the Tobacco Trust and the
Anthracite Coal Trust.
He won the Tobacco suit and he has won the suit against
the Coal Trust as far as it has gone. It is now in the Supreme
Court.
McReynolds severed his connection with the Government
because of his disagreement with Mr. Wickersham regarding
the dissolution of the Tobacco Trust. He contended that
Wickersham's plan nullified the effects of the victory.
He is about fifty years old. He is considered radical in
his views by a large part of the New York Bar.l His character and legal attainments are of the highest.
I lunched with Mr. Brandeis yesterday. His mind and mine
are in accord concerning most of the questions that are now
to the fore. He is more than a lawyer; he is a publicist and he
has an unusual facility for lucid expression....
A large number of reputable people distrust him, but I
doubt whether the distrust is well founded, and it would
perhaps attach itself to any man who held his advanced
views.
Norman Hapgood2 lunched with us and I found in him
an enthusiastic admirer of Brandeis. They are both going to
Hot Springs for a few days as guests of Mr. Charles R. Crane.
1 This reputation doubtless resulted from the vigor with which he had
prosecuted the suits against the trusts. As a member of the Cabinet Mr.
McReynolds displayed no radical proclivities, and after he assumed his
seat on the Supreme Court he was generally regarded as one of the most
conservative of the Justices.
2 Editor of Collier's Weekly, 1903-12; of Harper's Weekly, 1913-16;
later appointed Minister to Denmark.