- Person
- Louis Brandeis
- Lived
- 1856–1941
- Field
- Law
- From
- American
The story
By 1913 Louis Brandeis was one of the best-known reformers in the United States. A Boston lawyer born to Jewish immigrants in Louisville, Kentucky, he had spent years fighting monopolies and corrupt practices, and he was serving as the chief economic adviser to the new president, Woodrow Wilson. That year a congressional investigation led by Representative Arsène Pujo had exposed how a few Wall Street bankers controlled vast sums of other people's savings.
Drawing on the Pujo Committee's testimony, Brandeis wrote a series of articles for Harper's Weekly, published between November 1913 and January 1914, suggesting ways to curb the power of large banks and the so-called money trust. He showed how the heads of a few banks sat on the boards of railways and industrial companies and steered their depositors' money to favour their own interests, squeezing out smaller competitors and inventors. He backed his case with detailed figures, in millions of dollars, showing how much of the nation's wealth specific banks and financiers such as J. P. Morgan now controlled.
In one article, titled 'What Publicity Can Do', he wrote the line on transparency for which he is best remembered more than a century later: 'Sunlight is said to be the best of disinfectants.' He added that electric light was the most efficient policeman. His point was that exposing hidden dealings to public view was one of the most effective ways to stop abuse.
The articles were gathered and published in 1914 as a book, Other People's Money and How the Bankers Use It, and reissued in 1933. Brandeis had long argued against the 'curse of bigness', warning that 'we may have democracy, or we may have wealth concentrated in the hands of a few, but we can't have both.'
His call for openness became a lasting principle. The line is frequently cited in support of regulation through disclosure obligations, and it remains one of the most quoted arguments for honest, open government.
Why it matters
Brandeis's argument that openness prevents abuse became a guiding idea behind financial disclosure rules and public transparency in democratic government.
About Louis Brandeis
“The People’s Lawyer” who became the first Jewish Supreme Court justice in 1916, wrote classic defences of free speech and privacy, and led American Zionism.
More about Louis Brandeis
- Louis Brandeis, the "People's Lawyer" on the Supreme CourtLouis Brandeis, known as "the People's Lawyer", became the first Jewish US Supreme Court justice in 1916 and wrote some of the greatest defences of free speech and privacy.
- Louis Brandeis took on J. P. Morgan's railroad monopolyFrom 1907 Louis Brandeis fought unpaid for nine years to stop J. P. Morgan's New Haven Railroad monopolising New England's railways, and his warnings proved right.
- Louis Brandeis defended "the right to be let alone"Louis Brandeis's 1928 dissent against warrantless wiretapping in Olmstead v. United States was vindicated in 1967, when the Supreme Court overturned Olmstead in Katz v. United States.
- Louis Brandeis brought fair life insurance to workersAfter finding that most low-wage workers' life insurance policies lapsed unpaid, Louis Brandeis created Massachusetts savings bank life insurance, signed into law in 1907.
- Louis Brandeis wrote a classic defence of free speechLouis Brandeis's 1927 opinion in Whitney v. California has been praised as perhaps the greatest defence of free speech ever written by a Supreme Court justice.
- Louis Brandeis helped design the Federal Trade CommissionLouis Brandeis urged Woodrow Wilson to give the government real power to enforce antitrust law and became one of the architects of the Federal Trade Commission.
- Louis Brandeis held 57 hearings to reform Boston poorhousesIn 1894 Louis Brandeis spent nine months and held 57 public hearings on Boston's poorhouses, leading the city to completely reorganise how it cared for the poor.
Sources
- Louis Brandeis Wikipedia
- Other People's Money and How the Bankers Use It Wikipedia
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