NOTED LAWYER

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22393, 14 April 1936, Page 9

NOTED LAWYER

DEATH IN AMERICA MR. JAMES M. BECK (Received April 13, 7.15 p.m.) WASHINGTON. April 12 The death is announced of Mr. James M. Beck, a former member of Congress. He was an eminent constitutional lawyer and one of the leading Republican critics of the Eoosevolt Administration. The late Mr. James Montgomery Beck was born at Philadelphia in Jtil.y, 1861, and educated at the Moravian College, Pennsylvania, where he graduated in 1884. Taking up the study of law, he was admitted to the Philadelphia bar and spent several years in general practice in. the courts. From 1896 to 1900 Mr. Beck was United States Attorney in the eastern district of Pennsylvania and was then appointed Assistant Attorney-General to the Federal Government. After holding that office for threo years he was admitted to the 'New York bar and was a member-of the firm of Shearman and Sterling until 1917 when he founded that of Beck, Crawford and Harris.

In poiitics Mr. Beck was an ardent Republican and was widely known as a vigorous and eloquent speaker on his party's behalf. When Mr. Harding became President in 1921 Mr. Beck was appointed Solicitor-General, but on Mr. Harding's death in 1923 he resigned and resumed practice in Washington and New York. Mr. Beck wrote books on problems and controversies of the day. His first, " The Evidence in the Case," was followed in 1916 by " War and Humanity," in 1918 by " The Reckoning " and in 1920 bv " The Passing of the New Freedom.'* Two years later his work on " The Constitution of the United States " appeared and in 1926 " The Vanishing Rights ol' the States." Elected to Congress for a Pennsylvania seat, Air. Beck was re-elected in 15)29 and 1933 He became a fierce critic of the methods adopted in 1933 to enforce President Roosevelt's National Recovery Act. Mr. Beck was a member of* many American and foreign societies and had French, Belgian and Polish decorations.