to "regulated capitalism" confronted the country with "the question not how governmental functions shall be shared, but whether in substance we shall govern at all." The result of these dynamics was a steady drift of the court towards a crisis; the 1935 term was labeled by Stone "one of the most disastrous in [the court's] history." New Dealers decried the court's actions as "economic dictatorship" and some communities even hanged the justices in effigy. Reform Bill of 1937 When Roosevelt rolled out his reform plan in early 1937, all Four Horsemen of Reaction were over the age of 70. Roosevelt, who himself would never make it to the age of 70, indicated that the elderly justices lacked energy. He said, "A lower mental or physical vigor leads men to avoid an examination of complicated and changed conditions." It was the success of the Horsemen in striking down New Deal legislation that led to Roosevelt's court-packing scheme, a controversial proposal in February 1937 to appoint more justices in order to change the composition of the court. This was rendered unnecessary when Roberts, who had supported the Four Horsemen on several decisions during the 1935–1936 term, sided with the Three Musketeers in a landmark minimum wage case in March 1937 (known as "the switch in time that saved nine"). This, together with the retirement of Van Devanter in June 1937 and his replacement by Hugo Black ended the Four Horsemen's domination of the court. Black and Roosevelt considered the Four the "direct descendants of Darwin and Spencer." References Footnotes Bibliography Supreme Court of the United States people Quartets