Justice Ileriot Clarkson
When you begin to make a note of the vari¬
ous activities anil lines of service in which
Judge Clarkson was interested, you find the
list to he an amazingly long one.
THE two pillars upon which our
civilization rests are those of
Church and State, and when
this is considered, I am not simply
writing my subject “fair in death"
but paying his memory a justly
merited tribute, when I say that
no man in the history of our Com¬
monwealth has rendered our people
a more distinguished service on a
wider field of public service than
did Heriot Clarkson. For from the
day he was graduated from our
University in 1884, down to the
date of his lamented death, his
entire career was wholly given
over to the public weal, and he
has written his name high upon
the roster of the eminent sons of
Carolina who have linked their
names with the fame of their State.
Charles Wesley said "the world
is my parish." a phrase which might
well be applied to Justice Clark¬
son, for his service was outstanding
in every field of worthwhile effort,
and there was no movement during
his lifetime, social, moral, economic
or political but that felt the deep
impress of his unremitting zeal for
the public good. The quality of his
public service should be an inspira¬
tion to the youth of today, and
for that reason I here briefly, im¬
perfectly and most inadequately
list just a few of the services ren¬
dered by this eminent son of our
soil.
Humanitarian Service
Realizing that the raw youth of
today is the State of the morrow-.
Judge Clarkson took a lifelong
interest in the YMCA, serving that
cause in every capacity, from di¬
rector in the Charlotte organization
to that of president of the Inter¬
state Association; he promoted,
fostered and nurtured the great
Florence Crittenden Home in Char¬
lotte; he served for many years
as director of the State Hospital
at Morganton; he secured the pas¬
sage of the act authorizing counties
and cities to establish reforma¬
tories. These services alone would
justify the title of Doctor of
Humanities, but they merely repre¬
sent the alphabet as a beginning
of his great humanitarian service
in the South.
«I/
R. C. LAWRENCE
His was the hand that drafted
the charter for the Society of the
Cincinnati; he was chairman of the
legislative committee which pre¬
pared the fundamental Building
and Loan law of our State; he
played a leading role in securing
the adoption of the Municipal
Finance Act; he secured the enact¬
ment of the original Drainage Law-
in Mecklenburg. His was such a
leading role in securing the enact¬
ment of the great basic Hard Sur¬
faced Highways Act of 1921 — still
the fundamental highway law of
the State — that the pen used in
ratifying it was presented to him
by the Speaker of the House. He
served many years as member of
the State Historical Association
and in a hundred similar capacities
he rendered service on the widest
fields of public service.
He began a distinguished legis¬
lative service in 1899, where he
played a leading part in securing
the establishment of the great tex¬
tile school at State College — a
speech displaying such far-sighted
statesmanship that it is incorpo¬
rated in full as an appendix in Dr.
Lockmiller's authoritative history
of that great institution.
His eminent legal attainments
brought to him the appointment
of solicitor by Governor Aycock in
1905, and he was elected to that
highly important office and con¬
tinued in service until his volun¬
tary retirement in 1911. He was
one of the most fearless and vigor¬
ous prosecutors our State has ever
known, and every conviction se¬
cured by him was affirmed upon
appeal save only one. Here is a
record which can be equalled by
few- and exceeded by none who
have held the solicitorial office.
Staunch Prohibitionist
From his early manhood he was
a firm believer in the credo that
А. В.
C. truly represents the words
“Alcohol Brutalizes Consumers,"
and as early as 1892 his vote as
a member of the Charlotte Board of
Aldermen was cast against the is¬
suance of license to sell intoxicants.
Like Martin Luther before the Diet
of Worms, this determined man
of devotion to principle might well
have exclaimed: "Here I stand:
God helping me, I can do no other."
The cause of prohibition was the
cause of his devotion, and he per¬
sisted in his efforts until liquor
was banned from his beloved Char¬
lotte. Such a record did he make
in the cause of temperance in that
section that in 1908 he was called
upon to serve as Chairman of the
State Anti-Saloon League, and
under his guidance the drys carried
the State by a majority of over
forty thousand, and he was subse¬
quently chairman of the committee
which prepared what became
known as the “Turlington Act."
making the liquor law- governing
the shipment of intoxicants con¬
form to the Federal sta'tute upon
that subject.
While many men considered
Judge Clarkson as an extremist in
his views on the liquor question,
yet those who knew- him fully
understood that he was an emi¬
nently fair and just man even on
this question, as show-n from the
fact that even in his early days
as Solicitor he refused to stand
aside men from jury service be¬
cause he knew they possessed views
on temperance at variance with his
own. lie would not exercise the
prerogative of his power to worst
those who differed w-ith him.
On the Supreme Court
His outstanding career as law¬
yer, layman and statesman caused
his appointment by Governor
Morrison in 1923 as Associate Jus¬
tice of the Supreme Court, a bench
graced by him until his death, and
for many years he was the Senior
Associate Justice of this eminent
tribunal, and none of his distin¬
guished predecessors in that high
office rendered more efficient or
effective judicial service. He was
a studious, learned and laborious
Judge, and the calibre of his mind
and the quality of his judicial serv¬
ice is testified by the fact that
(Confirmed on page 23)
THE STATE. October 26 1046
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