Page:The Presidents of the United States, 1789-1914, v. IV.djvu/194

156 LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS years ; and the brief of the young solicitor-general, which cleared up every point and convinced the court, gained him recognition abroad as well as at home. His next conspicuous case was in defence of the constitutionality of the McKinley tariff law of 1890, which had been attacked on the ground that it was passed in the house of representatives by a quorum counted by the speaker but not shown by the responses to the roll-call. Mr. Taft won his case by citing the clause of the constitution under which a minority of either house may "compel the attendance of absent members in such manner and under such penalties" as it may provide a pro ceeding which would be futile if the returned absentees could still prevent the transaction of business by sitting silent. After two years of service as solicitor-general, Mr. Taft was appointed a United States Circuit judge for the sixth circuit, which embraced his old home and other important districts of the mid dle west. Here he prepared a few decisions that hold a high place in the annals of the court. The engineers of the Toledo, Ann Arbor & Northern Michigan railroad company had struck for higher wages, and several connecting lines were afraid to handle freight billed to or from the road under siege, because their own engineers had threatened to desert them if they did. Hence, the Toledo com pany had sued out injunctions against the connect-