Manuscript
My Early Years at Work
I became a lawyer–a member of the New York State Bar–at the old age of twenty-one. The laws of the State of New York require that to take the Bar exam–to be admitted to the Bar–of the State of New York–you had to be a minimum of twenty-one years of ages. There weren’t many that were. No, not that there weren’t ever many who were twenty-one, but there were very few who at twenty-one had completed pre-law and law. So as to be qualified to take the Bar, hopefully to pass it and be admitted to the practice of Law in the State of New York. I had done all of that. I had taken a grueling Bar exam. And it was grueling. Several days seated at a desk, scribbling away, but low and behold, I not only had taken it, I had become admitted to the Bar of the State of New York! It was a heavy duty. I shouldered it and looked forward to a great future.
However, I had a detriment, as Mama, my mother had so often said and said it so well, “We are not poor, we have no money.” I had no money! I was dependent on my services for whatever recompense I might receive so I could meet the expenses of life. True, I did have my Mama. She would never let me go hungry–not while she lived. But there were other things in life that I needed and I had to earn them myself.
My father, Julius Gerber, who was not the best father in the world, probably did have concern for me. I say probably because very little of such concern was ever expressed or shown to me. Nevertheless the day I entered Law School, my father had made an appointment and he took me personally to see his great friend, Morris Hillquit. I say great friend, meaning that his friend was great. My father’s motivation in taking me there was in the hopes that Mr. Hillquit might employ me as a law clerk. Morris Hillquit was one of the foremost international lawyers that existed then. He, too, was a Socialist.
Remember my father was the head of the Socialist Party of the United States. For New York State, for a while, and the United States–in its entirety. Mr. Hillquit was the Executive Secretary of the Socialist Party of the United States and delegate to the International Socialist Convention. Mr. Hillquit was also a well-known public speaker, so I’m sure that my father had in mind that his son, Ludwig, might follow in the great footsteps at the beginning of his legal career.
Yes, my father had done me this one great service. As chance would have it, Happenstance, Mr. Hillquit’s law clerk that day had been admitted to the Bar of the state of New York and, therefore, Mr. Hillquit did have a vacancy. I do not believe that he would have given me a job except that there was a vacancy, a vacancy which had happened (Happenstance!) that day. And so I became a law clerk. Under the laws of the state of New York, before you could become admitted to the Bar, even though you had passed the Bar exam, you had to serve as a law clerk in a lawyer’s office for at least a year. By the time that I was ready to be admitted to the Bar, I had served as a law clerk in Morris Hillquit’s office for more than four years!
At the beginning, I received the salary of twelve dollars a week. Now twelve dollars today wouldn’t be very much, but it was then. Remember this was back in the Twenties. This was during the great depression. Now at that time young law students, young lawyers, were glad to get a law clerkship in any prominent attorney’s office. Oft-times they accepted the job at no salary at all. There were some instances where they even paid the office. But I received twelve dollars a week. Now twelve dollars does not sound very much, but it was enough for me to pay for my entire law school training, transportation to the office, and I had money to clothe myself and feed myself. I remember there was a little hotel with a restaurant adjacent to it, called the Pickwick Arms, down the street. I could have a fine luncheon for forty-five cents each day. And so I had a job. I had entered law school, I had a job as a law clerk, I got enough money to pay for my law school, enough money to clothe myself, feed myself, pay for my books, my newspapers, and never again, never, was I dependent on anyone for my sustenance.
What an opportunity! Now the law office of Morris Hillquit, the great attorney, was on 44th Street right off Fifth Avenue. It was a fine office. It was not a grandiloquent office, but it was very adequate and very, very imposing. There was a large entryway, and in that entryway, adjoining the library, there was a desk. And it became the desk of the young law clerk, Ludwig Gerber. Now as a law clerk, I must say, that I was also an office boy and I served the function of an office boy, and did chores that were those of an office boy. But I did not feel in any way that this was downgrading. Mr. Hillquit was a very imposing presence. It was a pleasure to work for him. It was an honor. I would go to court with him and carry his briefcase, and sit and listen to him as he pled his cases or waited, spoke his appeals, and performed as a great lawyer. What an opportunity! I was proud to be the law clerk of the great Morris Hillquit. I had a conversation with my father shortly thereafter and said, “Pop, you have given fine names, middle names to your sons.” I didn’t quite understand why I was just plain old Ludwig Gerber, that I had no middle name. My father had given his sons grandiloquent names. My oldest brother, for example, Gustave, was named Augustus Gerber. Pop looked at me, thought for a second, and said, “What else? Ludwig Hillquit Gerber.” And so I became Ludwig Hillquit Gerber. We didn’t ask Mr. Hillquit for permission. I don’t think my father ever mentioned it to him. But I had a middle name and I have a middle name. A name that I am proud of: Ludwig Hillquit Gerber. I had never learned to type, to use a typewriter. I almost purposely had avoided this, knowing full well that I would have to serve a law clerkship and fearful that if I could type, I would become a stenographer. Nevertheless, at this point I found that it would be an asset in could type. And so I taught myself a one-finger system of typing. There were, of course, typewriters in the Hillquit office and I was permitted to use them. And I did. I wrote quite a bit of poetry at that point in my life. I have quite a collection. I may even include some of those poems in this book. I’ll decide that later. In any event, one day I typed out a poem and signed it Ludwig Hillquit Gerber. Mr. Hillquit’s daughter, Nina, served as his personal secretary. She saw the poem, read it, and saw the name Ludwig Hillquit Gerber. I don’t know whether it upset her, but for the first time she had seen that my middle name was Hillquit. I remember when she read the poem; she looked up at me and said, “Ludwig Hillquit Gerber. Where did you get that name?” I said, “Well, my father named me that and you’ll have to discuss it with him. I am Ludwig Hillquit Gerber.” It’s rather an imposing name and I, again, repeat I was proud of it then and I am proud of it now. And when I get to Congress and thereafter... Who knows where I’ll go? I shall be known as Ludwig Hillquit Gerber.
Abraham Lincoln would have placed greater stress on such a clerkship. Mr. Lincoln never even went to law school. He served a clerkship in the office of an attorney and then was qualified, therefore, to take the Bar exam without ever going to law school. I, however, intended to do both; to serve a clerkship–a law clerkship–in an attorney’s office and take the Bar exam. I was eighteen. Law school would take four years. That meant that at the “old age” of just over twenty-one, if all went well, I could become a member of the Bar. The office was located on 44th Street just off Fifth Avenue. As I remember it was on the fifteenth floor–had a great view–and was a very dignified office. There was a large law library, which I could use–probably had to use as part of my duties–and next to the law library was an entry room, which had a table–which became my desk. And so I was ensconced as a law clerk the day that I went first into law school and I served thereafter until I got out of law school as a clerk in the office of that great attorney, Morris Hillquit. Mr. Hillquit was venerated by the Bar of New York State–of the world–even though the world may not have approved of his Socialist leanings. He was known for his erudition–his studious background–his great voice–when Mr. Hillquit spoke in the courtroom they all stopped and listened. And he didn’t usually speak, except on behalf of winning causes.
While I served in his office, he had made great international law–in the case that he had initiated and tried and appealed to the Supreme Court of the United States. The case was called Hillquit v. The National City Bank of New York. The National City Bank of New York was a great international complex of banking. One of its branches was located in Moscow, Russia. One of the first organizations of importance that was seized by Communist Russia was the National City Bank. And why not? Its wealth was tremendous.
Mr. Hillquit, a Socialist, who had always fought Communism, had always fought suppression of human liberty, had the temerity to fight international Communism. Hillquit had the courage to bring a class action lawsuit against the national government of Russia against the seizure of the National City Bank on behalf of its depositors and its stockholders claiming that it had been an illegal takeover of an American corporation. He fought the battle through the state courts–remember the National City Bank was a minion of the American government. It was a state bank founded in New York. He fought the battle through the state courts, the appellate courts, and finally the Supreme Court of the United States. And he won! In the famous case of Hillquit v. The National City Bank, he obtained a verdict in favor of the depositors and the stockholders. The case of Hillquit v. The National City Bank is one of the fundaments of law today. It was a momentous decision of national and international significance. Thereafter it had a restraining influence on the forces of tyranny that sought to override individual rights.
And I can remember that, as a law clerk, I proudly took the first payment made by the National City Bank in New York to Mr. Hillquit–on behalf of his plaintiffs, the stockholders and depositors–for deposit in the Hillquit Trustee Account in the International Ladies Garment Workers’ Bank on 23rd Street–off Fifth Avenue–in Manhattan. One million dollars was the first payment. Subsequently:, there were many more–in greater amounts. I carried that check-faithfully-fearfully-but well. I held tightly to that deposit check–put it into the Trustee Account for Mr. Hillquit–in the famous case of Hillquit v. The National City Bank, which was a setback for the Communist regime in Russia. As a law clerk, I felt very honored to have the opportunity to make that deposit. It was a great day. I sat on the top of the Fifth Avenue bus, going from 45th Street where the office of Mr. Hillquit abounded, down to 23rd Street–or maybe it was 18th Street–I don’t remember now–where the International Ladies Garment Workers’ Union had founded a bank. (More later about the International Ladies Garment Workers’ Union and its effect on the life of Ludwig Gerber–the effect of David Dubinsky, one of the greatest union leaders that ever lived–one of the most honest men to this day.) I well remember that day. I remember holding tightly to that check for one million dollars. That’s a lot of money! You can be sure that it was a lot of money to young lawyer, Ludwig Gerber. And he thought it was a great honor to be able to carry that check and make that important deposit. Oh the days of glory! How peculiar they are sometimes. But, nevertheless, days of glory–great glory–ebullient glory.
I treasure a book in my library written by Mr. Hillquit. He called it Loose Leaves in a Busy Life. It would be a good title for my book, except that my book is even a little bit more. My book, because I was born in 1911 and I’m still around in 2001, encompasses a span of the entire Twentieth Century! From the beginnings in the struggle against economic disaster–the panic of 1929--the poverty stricken days of the Twenties–World War I, actually, it was just the end of World War I, World War I came to an end in 1918--World War II, the Holocaust by Hitler in Europe in which millions and millions of people were brought to horrible deaths–the war that followed the Holocaust–Pear1 Harbor, the entry of the United States into the war following Pearl Harbor–the terrible days of World War II–the glorious days of the victories and the end of the tyranny of that awful, awful tyrant, Adolf Hitler. It’s hard to realize that one person could cause so much misery, so much death, and so much deprivation–changed the lives of the entire century. But he did. Born in obscurity, raised in obscurity, he did achieve a sort of glory–a glory bathed in blood, horror, misery, but ultimately evil was defeated, good triumphed, and World War II came to an end with a glorious victory of the allies, including the United States. More about that later. Sufficiently now, however, to say that my life encompassed all of these things. And so I think that it is worthy of being told here. It is a resume of the Twentieth Century. I had mentioned that Mr. Hillquit, in addition to being a prominent attorney was the leader–the head–of the Socialist Party of the United States. The Socialist Party at that time was a very powerful influence in Europe, in the civilized countries, power rested in the various Socialist Parties. In England there was a labor prime minister, in Germany the President of the Republic of Germany was a Socialist–truly Socialism was in flower at that time. Yes, my father was the Executive Secretary of the Socialist Party in the United States. And so there was some reflective glory on his son, Ludwig. And what an honor to be able to serve in the office of Morris Hillquit!
Unfortunately, Mr. Hillquit was an elderly gentleman. He was not well. I can remember his last public appearance–his last public appearance consisted of his struggling to come to the office to escort me across the street to the New York Bar Association where he introduced me to the Character Committee and requested that they approve me for admission to the Bar. He died shortly thereafter of cancer at the age of 78. I was proud to be a law clerk, a young lawyer who had the opportunity to be on the staff of Morris Hillquit, that great attorney who fought for the individual rights. But alas–alack–Mr. Hillquit was an aged man. And the toll of years finally took his life and he was gone. And with him my job. You see great events sometimes have remarkable influence of the rights of the little, the affairs and circumstances of those who are small. And so there I was at the beginning of my law career–had Mr. Hillquit survived–had he’d grown older and older–and had I remained on his staff–who knows where I might have gone. But it was not to be. My mother had another expression Es asez beshert. That means it is so fated. It was not fated to be so. But he did serve as a member of the Bar–as my employer–long enough for me to become a young attorney. Again, going back to that munificent salary of twelve dollars a week-it doesn’t sound like much does it? But it was enough for me to become independent from that first day of my employment. Thereafter I was able to defray all of the expenses of my law school, my books, my transportation, my lunches, all that on my salary. Oh, of course, my salary during the course of the years rose :from twelve dollars ultimately to twenty-five dollars a week. Again, today it doesn’t sound like much, but then to a young law student, it was quite a bit. It was enough. Again as my Mama used to say Es vas genug. Genug means enough. And so I was launched in the world.