Edward Douglass White (1845-1921), ninth chief justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, is known for his enunciation of the "rule of reason" for interpreting and applying antitrust legislation.

Born on Nov. 3, 1845, at the family plantation at Thibodaux, La., Edward Douglass White was the son of a lawyer and sugar planter. A Roman Catholic, White was educated mainly by Jesuits. He was attending Georgetown College when the Civil War began; he returned to Louisiana and fought in the Confederate Army. After the war he studied law at what became Tulane University and was admitted to the bar in 1868.

A conservative Democrat identified with the overthrow of the Radical Reconstruction government, White was named to the Louisiana Supreme Court in 1878. When his faction of the party lost power, he returned to a lucrative private practice; when it regained influence, he was elected to the U.S. Senate in 1891. Save...