An Analysis on the Process of Adjudication

An Analysis on the Process of Adjudication Law is a â€Å"strange compound which is brewed daily in the caldron of the Courts† Hon. Benjamin N Cardozo[1]. The work of deciding cases goes on every day in hundreds of courts throughout the land. Any judge, one might suppose, would find it easy to describe the process which he had followed a thousand times and more. Benjamin Cardozo begins his Judicial Process with these words which with lyrical lucidity show what goes on in a court. It is deciding cases. To a layman, adjudication presents a picture of a court where a judge presides, listens to arguments of rival parties through their counsels and in the end, renders a decision which holds a person liable or acquits him of the charges that were labelled against him. To a lawman who is not untutored in the craft, adjudication means something more. When courts decide cases, they perform two distinct, though interrelated, functions. First, they settle the controversy between the parties: they determine what the facts were and apply the appropriate rules to those facts. This is the function commonly known as adjudication[2].While performing their second function, courts decide what the appropriate rules are and how they fit in a particular case. Deciding what rules are applicable often requires the courts to reformulate and modify the scope of existing rules. The second function is sometimes referred to as judicial lawmaking[3]. While adjudicating cases, a judge may be faced with a question of law or a question of fact or a mixed question of law and fact. Besides, he may come across a case which the existing law does not cover, that is the question to be decided by the court was unforeseen by the legislature while enacting the law. Tools available to a judge while deciding a question generally include the statutory provisions, pr ecedent laid down by an earlier court, and the certain overarching principles like that of natural justice and equality. Judicial function performed by the judges requires them at times to use their discretions and rely on certain -principles that lie extraneous to the realm of the enacted law. This is one aspect of adjudication that has stirred much jurisprudential waters over a long period. Questions invariably asked have been: whether judges only declare the law; whether they only interpret the law; whether they only discover the law or whether they make law also. There are two aspects of judicial function that come to fore: The first-which can be traced back to at least Hale and Blackstone-is that judges merely find and declare the law rather than create it. Thus, judges are, allegedly, not a source of law†.[4] The second aspect of judicial juristic techniques that receives much publicised attention is the doctrine of precedent.[5] The function of adjudication subsumes certain intricately intertwined issues. The tool of interpretation plays an important role in adjudicatory process. It may be said that Adjudication is interpretation[6], given the fact that Adjudication is the process by which a judge comes to understand and express the meaning of an authoritative legal text and the values embodied in that text.[7] Interpretation, whether it be in the law or literary domains, is neither a wholly discretionary nor a wholly mechanical activity. It is a dynamic interaction between reader and text, and meaning the product of that interaction.[8]To recover an old and familiar idea, namely, that adjudication is a form of interpretation would build bridges between law and the humanities and suggest a unity among mans many intellectual endeavours. A proper regard for the distinctive social Function of adjudication, and for the conditions that limit the legitimate exercise of the judicial power, will require care in identifying the kinds of texts to be construed and the rules that govern the interpretive process; the judge is to read the legal text, not morality or public opinion, not, if you will, the moral or social texts. But the essential unity between law and the humanities would persist and the judges vision would be enlarged.[9]The words and phrases are symbols that stimulate a mental reference to referents.[10]And it becomes relevant given the fact that the problem of interpretation is a problem of words and their effectiveness as a medium of expression to communicate a particular thought. One of the important aspects on interpretation is to find the intention of the members of the legislature whose creation, that is the enactment, outlives them. Salmond says that the true duty of the judicature is to act upon the true intention of the Legislature-the mens or se ntentia legis. However, the way this duty is to be performed becomes tedious in that judges have only the barren words to confront with and to find the intention of the legislature. The question of interpretation also brings forth the question: do judges make law while interpreting the law? Does the finding of intention amount only to discovery of law or does it mean creation of law? Interpretation often is instrumental in the birth of new precedents, and there have been arguments put forth that say precedents are clearest examples of judicial law making. Dworkinian thesis of how judges decide cases avers that judges merely discover law; they do not make law. However, it has been argued that when judges discover legislative intent, they in fact invent it instead of discovering it[11]. The growing complexities of modern day life throw new challenges and problems in myriad manifestation before the judges, who at times may be tempted to cross the restraints of written words of law, besides being confronted with question of morality and needs of justice. There may surface a problem which the law when enacted could not foresee. Or the law relating to a particular issue is shrouded in ambiguity. Many a time, a judge may have to trace that golden thread from the labyrinth of legalese and factual matrix that will help him reach the desired goal of rendering justice. Often, it is very difficult to do so. The process of adjudication requires a judge to be attentive and aware of the several factors which at times may have a telling impact upon the rights of people, besides jeopardising the cherished goal of doing justice. Performance of judicial function is an onerous task given the kind of responsibility a judge has to shoulder within the constitutional and statutory constraints that hedge him or her from all sides, though leeway for creativity does exist given the tools of interpretation a judge is armed with.13 Innovation comes to the rescue of judge when confronted with a novel case that demands that the judge acts in a way that justice is done: The discussion and deliberation that follow in the coming chapters focus on some of the key aspects of adjudication primarily that of Dworkins, and an effort is made to critically analyse the various facets of Dworkins theory of adjudication before reaching a conclusion in the light of criticisms levelled against them. 3.2  ADJUDICATION vis-a-vis SEPARATION OF POWERS Within the realm of law, adjudication enjoys a place of prominence. Primarily the task of the courts is to adjudicate upon the issues that arise in disputes between parties which may be an individual, at times, state, and on occasions both the state and individuals. In the modem era, the role of the judges has become more complex and it is now a far cry when compared with the role a judge had to play eons ago. The evolution of the society and the legal system has entrusted the judges with newer powers and functions. Now their area of operation is not confined to decide questions that arise between individuals as Geoffrey Rivlin reminds that First, where there is any dispute about constitutional law, the judges must decide what the law is. Their most important role, however, is to act as an independent check on the power of the executive. Only the courts have the authority to stop any individual or body of persons from exceeding their powers, or making improper use of their powers. Th is is known as preventing an abuse of power. When we speak of judges, it means the entire hierarchy of judges who operate in different courts. The problems arising before the courts and decisions to be rendered are different in nature depending upon the courts. The factors that influence the outcome of an adjudicatory process vary greatly, and so do the decisions of the court. Be that as it may, there are a score of issues that need to be dealt with when we consider the process of adjudication. 3.3  DISPUTE REVIEW BOARD/DISPUTE ADJUDICATION BOARD This method of international dispute resolution, first tried successfully in the 1980s in Central America, is now regularly used in respect of large international construction and infrastructure contracts. These contracts provide for the appointment of a panel of experts, generally construction practitioners (engineers, lawyers, economists), either at the time of signature or in the course of the execution of the contract. For example, contracts relating to the construction of the Vasco Da Gama bridge, over the River Tagus in Portugal, provided for the appointment of two panels (technical and financial) of three experts each. For the Channel Tunnel, between France and the United Kingdom, the designation of apanel of three experts and two alternates was provided for in contracts. Members of the .dispute review board/dispute adjudication board (DRB/DAB) are appointed by the parties in the same way as an arbitral tribunal is constituted, with one major difference. The panel is generally appointed at the very beginning of the project and for its whole duration, whereas arbitrators are appointed only in the context of a dispute. Each party nominates its experts and the two appointed experts designate the third that is, unless the parties have agreed on a different appointment mechanism. A one-member DRB/DAB may also be appointed DRB/DABs typically follow a project from beginning to end (through site visits, study of monthly reports, exchanges of correspondence, miscellaneous reports, etc.), This-is so that they are able, upon the request of a contracting party; to react promptly and knowledgeably and, if necessary, to issue an opinion, recommendation or decision in written form. DRB/DAB experts are usually paid monthly or, for on-site interventions, by the hour. The DRB/DAB may intervene in either a flexible or a more formal manner. In the former, it acts as an advisory body. A party or several parties may, by a simple and informal request, ask for a preliminary written opinion. This opinion is considered provisional in that it does not bind either the parties or the DRB. In the latter, the DRB/DAB plays a more formal role, insofar as it issues either a decision or a recommendation, on a procedure that enables each of the parties to express its ideas fully. Once the panel of experts has handed down its opinion, decision or recommendation, each of the parties indicates, generally within a fixed time limit, whether or not it accepts the decision or recommendation. If the decision is not accepted, recourse to the jurisdictional procedure (before a State court or an arbitral tribunal) remains possible. 3.4  DWORKIN’S THEORY OF ADJUDICATION The courts are the capitals of laws empire, and judges are its princes, but not its seers and prophets. Dworkin, Laws Empire, 407(1986) Introduction In laws empire, judges enjoy a prominent position. They are entrusted with the task of adjudication, which affects the lives of people in ways both seen and unseen. Rights of people who approach the apostle of justice stand to lose or gain depending upon how the judge presiding over the court views a case. Importance of judges in legal arena is reflected in Dworkins writing when he begins his Laws Empire with these words: It matters how judges decide cases. It matters most to people unlucky or litigious or wicked or saintly enough to find themselves in court.[12] The difference between dignity and ruin may turn on a single argument that might not have struck another judge so forcefully, or even the same judge on another day[13]. A single nod of a judge may rob a person of his liberty or protect his liberty. It may mean life or death for a person.[14] The role played by judges assumes more importance today. Given the fact that they perform one of the tedious tasks in a society, it becomes desirable to see and analyse how they do what they do. In view of the foregone discussion in the previous chapter that touched upon the vexed question of what is law and the myriad facets of adjudication that are crucial to the understanding of how law operates in laws empire, the theory of adjudication as developed by Dworkin assumes due importance, especially given the parallels that are perceptible in the time that preceded Dworkins theory. One such parallel can be seen in Blackstones declaratory theory that dealt with the famous account of judging which holds that judges find (or declare), rather than make, law. In the introduction to the Commentaries, Blackstone states that the judges job is to determine the law not according to his own private judgment, but according to the known laws and customs of the land; the judge is not delegated to pronounce a new law, but to maintain and expound the old one. 3.4.1  ADJUDICATION: DWORKIN’S APPROACH To Dworkin, law is an interpretive concept†. By making this claim, he tries to distinguish his philosophy from what he calls semantic theories of law, which refer to positivist theories, like that of John Austin and Herbert Hart. According to him, these theories suppose that that law has a meaning which is shared by lawyers and others. This shared meaning consists of rules for using the word law. These rules, in turn, tie law in positivist theories to historical facts, such as the enactment of a statute or the decision of a case. Dworkin suggests that disagreement about the law, under positivist theories, would invoke legal argument in adjudication only about the historical fact made relevant by the shared meaning of law. He considered three theories of law-conventionalism, pragmatism and law as integrity in Laws Empire. Only the last of these is interpretive, but each, he argues, is compatible with his interpretive theory of meaning, which he describes as the view that the doc trinal concept of law is an interpretive concept. 3.4.2  ADJUDICATION OF HARD CASES The theory of hard cases provided by positivism, according to Dworkin, envisages that when a particular law suit cannot be brought under a clear rule of law, laid down by some institution in advance, then judge has discretion to decide the case either way. He says the opinion of the judge seems to assume that one or the other party had a pre-existing right to win the suit, but idea only is a fiction. In reality, he has legislated new legal rights, and then applied them retrospectively to the case at hand.[15] Dworkin tries to provide an alternative method of adjudication which he calls naturalism. It is noteworthy how he builds up his theory of adjudication in the following manner:[16] I shall start by giving the picture of adjudication I want to defend a name, and it is a name which accepts the crude characterization. I shall call this picture naturalism. According to naturalism, judges should decide hard cases by interpreting the political structure of their community in the following, perhaps special way: by trying to find the best justification they can find, in principles of political morality, for the structure as a whole, from the most profound constitutional rules and arguments to the details of, for example, the private law of tort or contract. Prior to elaborating further on the methodology adopted by Dworkin, it will serve some purpose to see how he disagrees with the general understanding of how judges go about doing what they actually do. He believes that the common story about the way judges function is misleading, and misses certain notable points. He finds a further level of subordination in such a story which goes unnoticed. It is expected that when make law, they will act not only as a deputy to the legislature but also as a deputy legislature. However, Dworkin reasons:[17] They will make law in response to evidence and arguments of the same character as would move the superior institution if it were acting on its own. This is deeper level of subordination, because it makes any understanding of what judges do in hard cases parasitic on a prior understanding of what legislators do all the time. According to him, this subordination is both conceptual and political. He believes that judges are not deputy legislators, and they should not be as well. It is misleading to assume that they are legislating when judges go beyond the political decisions which have been made already by someone else. He argues that such an assumption misses the fundamental distinction between arguments of principle and arguments of policy. It is noticeable, Dworkin argues that the distinct outline here is an improvement upon the distinction between principle and the policy that he made under chapter two of Taking Rights Seriously, one of the virtues among others being that this formulation â€Å"prevent the collapse of the distinction under the artificial assumption described before[18]. It should be pointed out here that both the arguments justify political decisions; it is only the way they justify such decisions that differs. Arguments of policy justify a political decision by showing that the decision advances or protects some collective goal of the community as a whole[19] whereas the arguments of principle justify a political decision by showing that the decision respects or secures some individual or group right.[20]The justification of legislative program of any complexity, says Dworkin, will require both sorts of arguments. According to him, a program that is chiefly a matter of policy may require strands of principle to justify it[21]. Sometimes, it may so happen that a program which is generated by policy may be qualified by principle and vice versa. In a hard case where no settled rule dictates a decision either way, then, Dworkin says, it might seem proper that a proper decision could be generated by either policy or principle.[22]He cites the case of Spartan Steel Alloys Ltd. V. Martin Co. f02. In this case, the employees of the defendant company had broken the electric cable which belonged to a company which supplied power to the plaintiffs factory, which was shut down during the period the cable was repaired. Whether to allow recovery for economic loss following negligent damage to someone else’s property was the question to be decided before the court. Here, there are two ways open before the court. Dworkin says â€Å"It might have proceeded to its decision by asking whether a firm in the position of the plaintiff had a right to recovery, which is a matter of principle, or whether it would be economically wise to distribute liability for accidents in the was plaintiff suggested, which is matter of policy. Dworkin lays down his thesis: Judicial decisions in civil cases, even in hard cases like Spartan Steel, characteristically are and should be generated by principle not policy. 1 [1] Benjamin Cardozo, The Nature Of The Judicial Process, 10 (1921) [2] James L. Houghtling, The Dynamics of Law 13(1963) [3] Ibid [4] Rajeev Dhavan et. al. (ed), Judges and the Judicial Power 1 2 (1985) [5] Ibid. [6] Owen M. Fiss, Objectivity and Interpretation, 34 Stan. L. Rev. 739. [7] Ibid [8] Ibid. Fiss says, It is an activity that affords a proper recognition of both the subjective and objective dimensions of human experience; and for that reason, has emerged in recent decades as an attractive method for studying all social activity. The idea of a written text, the standard object of legal or literary interpretation, has been expanded to embrace social action and situations, which are sometimes called text-analogues. [9] Ibid. Indeed, interpretation is defined as the process by which the meaning of a text is understood and expressed, and the acts of understanding and expression necessarily entail strong personal elements. At the same time, the freedom of the interpreter is not absolute. The interpreter is not free to assign any meaning he wishes to the text. He is disciplined by a set of rules that specify the relevance and weight to be assigned to the material (e.g., words, history, intention, consequence), as well as by those that define basic concepts and that established the procedural circumstances under which the interpretation must occur. Id. at 744. [10] G Williams, Language and the Law, 61 LQR 73. [11] For a detailed analysis see, Chapters 4 and 5. Also see, Upendra Baxi, On How Not to Judge the Judges: Notes towards Evaluation of the Judicial Process, 25 JILl 210 (1983). [12] Ronald Dworkin, Laws Empire 1(2002, Indian Reprint) [13] Ibid. [14] Dworkin says, People often stand to gain or lose more by one judges nod than they could by any general act of Congress or Parliament. Ibid [15] Supra note 70 at 81 [16] Ronald Dworkin, Natural Law Revisited, 34 University of Florida Law Review 165 at 165- 166(1982). Suppose the question arises for the first time, for example, whether and in what circumstances careless drivers are liable, not only for physical injuries to those whom they run down, but also for any emotional damage suffered by relatives of the victim who are watching. According to naturalism, judges should then ask the following questions of the history (including the contemporary history) of their political structure. Does the best possible justification of that history suppose a principle according to which people who are injured emotionally in this way have a right to recover damages in court? If so, what, more precisely, is that principle? Does it entail, for example, that only immediate relatives of the person physically injured have that right? Or only relatives on the scene of the accident, who might themselves have suffered physical damage? Ibid. [17] Supra note 70 at 82 [18] Ibid [19] Ib.id. F~r example, The argument in favour of a subsidy for aircraft manufacturers, that the subsidy WIll protect defense, is an argument of policy. Ibid. [20] Ibid. For instance, The argume~t in favour of anti-discrimination statutes, that a minority has a nght to equal respect and concern, IS an argument of principle. Ibid. [21] Ibid. [22] Supra note 70 at 83. Emphasis added.

Comparing Amy Tans The Joy Luck Club and Waiting for Mr. Kim :: comparison compare contrast essays

The Joy Luck Club and Waiting for Mr. Kim    Throughout Asian American literature there is a struggle between Asian women and their Asian American daughters. This is the case in The Joy Luck Club, written by Amy Tan and also in the short story "Waiting for Mr. Kim," written by Carol Roh-Spaulding. These two stories are very different, however they are similar in that they portray Asian women trying to get their American daughters to respect their Asian heritage. There are certain behaviors that Asian women are expected to have, and the mothers feel that their daughters should use these behaviors.   In The Joy Luck Club, the novel traces the fate of the four mothers-Suyuan Woo, An-mei Hsu, Lindo Jong, and Ying-ying St. Clair-and their four daughters-June Woo, Rose Hsu Jordan, Waverly Jong, and Lena St. Clair. Through the experiences that these characters go through, they become women. The mothers all fled China in the 1940's and they all retain much of their heritage. Their heritage focuses on what is means to be a female, but more importantly what it means to be an Asian female.      In the short story "Waiting for Mr. Kim," the main female character Gracie understands what it means to be an Asian female, but she does question the meaning because of her sisters. Her sisters ran away from home and eloped before their marriage could be arranged. This is totally against Asian culture, and it causes Gracie to question her heritage and her Asian femininity.    In both of these stories there are certain characteristics of females that are the same, they are inner strength, obedience, honor and respect, the good of the family is better than the good of the individual.    In the chapter "Scar" the characteristic of honor and respect is first noticed. In this chapter An-mei finds out how her mother deserted her, her mother did leave for a good reason, which was to maintain the honor of her family, but either way her mother left her. Her grandmother had to raise her, and she learned much about the Asian woman from her. An-mei was showing some disrespect towards one of her aunts, and her aunt told her that she was being disrespectful. Her grandmother then interjected and said, "When you lose your face, An-mei...it is like dropping your necklace down a well. The only way you can get it back is to fall in after it.

An Analysis of the Poem Miss Rosie by Lucille Clifton

Clifton’s use of repetition in the poem â€Å"miss rosie† displays the narrator’s compassion for Miss Rosie, thus showing he is the only one who's been affected by her. By repeating the same phrase multiple times, emphasis is put on the fact that no one besides the narrator is compassionate for Miss Rosie. For example, when the narrator states, â€Å"when I watch you / wrapped up like garbage† (1-2), â€Å"when I watch you / in your old man’s shoes† (6-7), and â€Å"when I watch you / you wet brown bag of a woman† (12-13), Clifton indicates the narrator is the only one looking at Miss Rosie, because of her use of singular pronouns, rather than plural.If the narrator is the only one paying any attention to Miss Rosie, he must be concerned for her in some way, which further shows his compassion for her. This is a result of her affecting him and only him. Another portrayal of this compassion for Miss Rosie is demonstrated in the following quote, â€Å"I stand up / through your destruction / I stand up† (16-18). Once again, Clifton uses a singular pronoun to prove the narrator is the only one who’s been affected by Miss Rosie.Since the narrator is the only one standing up against Miss Rosie’s destruction, he proves to be the only one who shows compassion for her due to being affected by her. Repetition of these phrases helps to show how the narrator is the only one affected by Miss Rosie because they indicate no one besides the narrator is compassionate enough to do something about it.

Woody Guthrie, Influential Songwriter and Folk Singer

Woody Guthrie was an American songwriter and folk singer whose songs about troubles and triumphs of American life, coupled with his raw performing style, had enormous influence on popular music and culture. An eccentric character often viewed as something of a hobo poet, Guthrie created a template for songwriters which, carried along by admirers including Bob Dylan, helped infuse popular songs with poetic and often political messages. His most famous song, This Land Is Your Land has become an official national anthem, sung at countless school assemblies and public gatherings. Though his career was cut short by an incapacitating illness, Guthries songs have continued to inspire successive generations of musicians and listeners. Fast Facts: Woody Guthrie Full Name: Woodrow Wilson GuthrieKnown For: Songwriter and folk singer who portrayed the troubles and triumphs of Depression era Americans and had enormous influence on popular music.Born: July 14, 1912 in Okemah, OklahomaDied: October 3, 1967 in New York, New YorkParents: Charles Edward Guthrie and Nora Belle ShermanSpouses: Mary Jennings (m. 1933-1940), Marjorie Mazia (m. 1945-1953 ), and Anneke Van Kirk (m. 1953-1956)Children: Gwen, Sue, and Bill Guthrie (with Jennings); Cathy, Arlo, Joady, and Nora Guthrie (with Mazia); and Lorina (with Van Kirk) Early Life Woodrow Wilson Guthrie was born July 14, 1912, in Okemah, Oklahoma. He was the third of five children, and both his parents were interested in music. The town of Okemah was only about ten years old, recently settled by transplants who brought musical traditions and instruments with them. As a child Guthrie heard church music, songs from the Appalachian mountain tradition, and fiddle music. It seems music was a bright spot in his life, which was marked by tragic incidents. When Guthrie was 7 years old his mother’s mental condition began to deteriorate. She was suffering from undiagnosed Huntington’s chorea, the same disease that would, decades later, afflict Woody. His sister perished in a kitchen fire, and following that tragedy, his mother was committed to an asylum. When Guthrie was 15 the family moved to Pampa, Texas, to stay near relatives. Guthrie began to play the guitar. With his natural musical aptitude he soon mastered it and began performing with an aunt and uncle in a small band. He also learned to play mandolin, fiddle, and harmonica, and was known to perform in talent shows and plays at his high school. Woody Guthrie portrait. Bettmann  /  Getty Images After finishing high school, Guthrie took off to travel about the South, essentially choosing to live as a hobo. He kept singing and playing guitar wherever he went, picking up various songs and beginning to write some of his own. He eventually returned to Pampa, and at the age of 21 he married a friend’s 16-year-old sister, Mary Jennings. The couple would have three children. Pampa is located in the Texas panhandle, and when the Dust Bowl conditions struck, Guthrie was an eyewitness. He felt great empathy for the farmers whose lives were upended by the severe weather conditions, and began to write the songs that would comprise a body of work about those affected by the Dust Bowl. In 1937 Guthrie was restless to get out of Texas, and managed to hitch rides to California. In Los Angeles he performed, got noticed, and landed a job singing on a local radio station. He was able to send for his wife and children and the family settled in Los Angeles for a time. Guthrie became friends with the actor Will Geer, who was very active in radical political circles. He enlisted Guthrie to sing some of his songs at rallies, and Guthrie became associated with communist sympathizers. In 1940 Geer, who was staying in New York City, convinced Guthrie to cross the country and join him. Guthrie and his family headed to New York. Burst of Creativity His arrival in the big city in February 1940 sparked a burst of creativity. Staying at the Hanover House, a small hotel near Times Square, he wrote down, on February 23, 1940, the lyrics for what would become his most famous song, This Land Is Your Land. The song had been in his head as hed traveled across the country. The song God Bless America by Irving Berlin had become a huge hit in the late 1930s, and Guthrie was irritated that Kate Smiths rendition of it was endlessly played on the radio. In response to it, he wrote a song which declared, in simple yet poetic terms, that America belonged to its people. c. 1940, New York, New York City, Almanac Singers, L-R: Woody Gurthrie, Millard Lampell, Bess Lomax Hawes, Pete Seeger, Arthur Stern, Sis Cunningham. Michael Ochs Archives / Getty Images In a span of a few months in New York, Guthrie met new friends including Pete Seeger, Leadbelly, and Cisco Houston. The folk song scholar Alan Lomax recorded Guthrie and also arranged for him to appear on a CBS radio network program. Dust Bowl Ballads In the spring of 1940, while based in New York, Guthrie traveled to the Victor Records studio in Camden, New Jersey. He recorded a collection of songs he had written about the Dust Bowl and the Okies of the Great Depression who had left the devastated farmlands of the Midwest for a grueling trip to California. The resulting album (folios of 78-rpm discs) titled Dust Bowl Ballads was released in the summer of 1940 and was notable enough to receive a very positive review in the New York Times on August 4, 1940. The newspaper praised Guthries writing and said of his songs: They make you think; they may even make you uncomfortable, though not as uncomfortable as the Okie on his miserable journey. But they are an excellent thing to have on record. Dust Bowl Ballads, which is now in print in a compact disc version, contains some of Guthries best-known songs, including Talkin Dust Bowl Blues, I Aint Got No Home In This World Anymore, and Do Re Mi, a mordantly funny song about the troubles of migrants arriving penniless in California. The song collection also contained Tom Joad, Guthries rewrite of the story of John Steinbecks classic Dust Bowl novel, The Grapes of Wrath. Steinbeck did not mind. American folk singer Woody Guthrie performs on a stoop for an audience of predominantly children, New York, New York, 1943. Eric Schaal / Getty Images Back West Despite his success, Guthrie was restless in New York City. In a new car hed been able to purchase, he drove his family back to Los Angeles, where he discovered work was scarce. He took a job for the federal government, for a New Deal agency in the Pacific Northwest, the Bonneville Power Administration. Guthrie was paid $266 to interview workers on a dam project and write a series of songs promoting the benefits of hydroelectric power. Guthrie took to the project enthusiastically, writing 26 songs in a month (often borrowing tunes, as was common in the folk tradition). Some have endured, including Grand Coulee Dam, Pastures of Plenty, and Roll On, Columbia, his ode to the mighty Columbia River. The odd assignment prompted him to write songs packed with his trademark wordplay, humor, and empathy for working people. Following his time in the Pacific Northwest he returned to New York City. His wife and children didnt come along to New York but moved to Texas, intent on finding a permanent home where the children could attend school. That separation would mark the end of Guthries first marriage. New York and War Based in New York as the city began to mobilize for war following the Pearl Harbor attack, Guthrie began writing songs supporting the American war effort and denouncing fascism. Photographs of him taken during this period often show him playing a guitar with the sign on it: This Machine Kills Fascists. American folk singer Woody Guthrie (1912 - 1967) plays his guitar, which has a handwritten sticker that says, This Machine Kills Fascists, New York, New York, 1943. Eric Schaal / Getty Images During the war years he wrote a memoir, Bound For Glory, an account of his travels around the country. Guthrie joined the U.S. Merchant Marine and made several sea voyages, delivering supplies as part of the war effort. Near the end of the war he was drafted and spent a year in the U.S. Army. When the war ended he was discharged and after some traveling about the country he settled in the Coney Island neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York. In the late 1940s, Guthrie recorded more songs and continued writing. Many lyrics he never got around to setting to music, including Deportees, a song about migrant workers killed in a plane crash in California while being deported to Mexico. He had been inspired by a newspaper article that didnt provide the names of the victims. As Guthrie put it in his lyrics, The newspaper said they were just deportees. Guthries words were later put to music by others, and the song has been performed by Joan Baez, Bob Dylan, and many others. Illness and Legacy Guthrie remarried and had more children. But his life took a dark turn when he began to be afflicted with the onset of Huntingtons chorea, the hereditary disease which had killed his mother. As the disease attacks brain cells, the effects are profound. Guthrie slowly lost his ability to control his muscles, and had to be hospitalized. As a new generation of folk song enthusiasts discovered his work in the late 1950s his reputation grew. Robert Zimmerman, a student at the University of Minnesota who had recently started calling himself Bob Dylan, became fascinated with Guthrie to the extent of hitching a ride to the East Coast so he could visit him at a state hospital in New Jersey. Inspired by Guthrie, Dylan began writing his own songs. Guthries own son, Arlo, eventually began performing in public, becoming a successful singer and songwriter. And countless other young people, hearing Guthries old records, were energized and inspired. After more than a decade of hospitalization, Woody Guthrie died on October 3, 1967, at the age of 55. His obituary in the New York Times noted that he had written as many as 1,000 songs. Many recordings of Woody Guthrie are still available (today on the popular streaming services) and his archives are housed at the Woody Guthrie Center in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Sources: Guthrie, Woody. UXL Encyclopedia of World Biography, edited by Laura B. Tyle, vol. 5, UXL, 2003, pp. 838-841. Gale Virtual Reference Library.Guthrie, Woody. Great Depression and the New Deal Reference Library, edited by Allison McNeill, et al., vol. 2: Biographies, UXL, 2003, pp. 88-94. Gale Virtual Reference Library.Guthrie, Woody 1912–1967. Contemporary Authors, New Revision Series, edited by Mary Ruby, vol. 256, Gale, 2014, pp. 170-174. Gale Virtual Reference Library.