64 Chapter 3
Holmes’s standis not unexpectedto thosewhoknow,as RobertBannisterdoes,that
Holmes“typicallymentionedSpenceronlyto criticizehim.. .”^75 ThisSupremeCourt
Justicesidedwiththe aimsofLochnerv. NewYork’s pro-regulationdefendants,whichwas
not unusualfor a governisteugenicistlikehimself.^76 It shouldnot startleanyone,as
Holmesonceconfidedto a friend,“All my life I havesneeredat the naturalrightsof
man.”^77 Consequently,JohnDeweyexpressedstrongapprovalfor Holmes’s opinionon
the matter,commendingHolmesfor beingone to “remind” the otherjusticesthat the U.S.
Constitutiondid not enshrinea laissez-faireliberaldoctrine.^78 On this matter,legalschol-
ar ThomasA. BowdenevaluatesthatHolmeshas “uttered” a terribly“damagingslur” in
“thisoffhandreferenceto HerbertSpencer’sSocialStatics.”^79 Commensurately,Justice
Holmesexpressedhis eugenicistconvictionswhenon May2, 1927,he explainedwhyin
Buckv. Bell, he supportedthe compulsorysterilizationof thosewhohadmentallyill
relatives.“We haveseen morethanoncethat the publicwelfaremay call uponthe best citizensfor
theirlives.It wouldbe strangeif it couldnot call uponthosewhoalreadysap the strength
of the Statefor theselessersacrifices...in orderto preventour beingswampedwithincom-
petence.It is betterfor all the world,if insteadof waitingto executedegenerateoffspring
for crime,or to let themstarvefor theirimbecility,societycan preventthosewhoare
manifestlyunfitfromcontinuingtheirkind.The principlethat sustainscompulsoryvacci-
nationis broadenoughto covercuttingthe Fallopiantubes.Threegenerationsof imbe-
cilesare enough”^80 (emphasesadded).In oppositionto Spencer’s politics,Holmes’s eu-
genicismprescribesthe elevationof the socialcollective’s welfareabovethe individual’s
ownprivaterights.Takea secondganderat my quotationsof Holmes.Holmes’s position
waslogicallyformulatedfromhis premise—one that is shared,in part,by EdwinBlack—
thatthe welfareof the socialcollectivejustifiesStateimpingementsuponindividuals’
Lockeanrightsto privateproperty.In Holmes’s case,the propertyrightsbeingviolated
pertainedto CarrieBuck’s ownershipoverher organs.
OnemightconsiderHolmesto be a capitalistDarwiniston accountof his writingson
the late-nineteenth-centurygas-stokerscase.In the year1872,gas stokerswenton strike
in England.Strikesare notper seinimicalto laissezfaire.In this casethe gas stokershad
agreed,in theirwrittencontracts,not to conducta strikein the mannerthat theydid,and
the employerswentto courtwiththe workersfor contractbreach.The courtrulingmostly
camedownin favorof the employers.^81 In his writings,Holmessidedwiththis ruling,
thoughnot becausehe inexorablysidedwithcorporationmanagersovertheiremployees
or laborunions.Norwasit on accountof any loyaltyto laissezfaire;Holmes’s coming
downon the correctsidewas merelycoincidental.Rather,on accountof Holmes’ rejection
of free-marketeconomics,Holmespresumedthateconomicswasnaturallya zero-sum
game,whereinsomeone’s gainperforcehadto comeat someoneelse’s forcibleloss.On
thatpremise,Holmesfoundit inevitablethatin any legaldisputebetweenemployerand
employee,a courthad to rulein favorof one financialclassto the spoliativedetrimentof
the otherfinancialclass.In fact,in Holmes’s argumentin favorof the courtruling,he
mentionedSpencerby namein an effortto ripostehim.In 1873Holmeshammeredin
printSpencer’s “tacitassumptionof the solidarityof the interestsof societyis verycom-
mon,but seemsto us to be false.The strugglefor life, undoubtedly,is constantlyputting
the interestsof menat variance” withone another.“The morepowerfulinterestsmustbe
moreor less be reflectedin legislation;which,like everyotherdeviceof manor beast,
musttendin the longrun to aid the survivalof the fittest.”^82 Yes,Holmesinvokedthe
phrasesurvivalof the fittest, but in an attemptto denigrateSpencer’s laissez-faireoutlook.
ThesefactsaboutHolmes’s governismgivethe lie to depictionsof Holmesbeingtoo
muchof a laissez-fairesocialDarwinist.It discreditssuchdepictionsby CornellUniver-
sity historianR. LaurenceMoore.Both“WilliamGrahamSumnerandOliverWendell
Holmes,Jr... .” LaurenceMooreasserts,“vigorouslyopposed”^83 the needfor “govern-