Evening Star Newspaper, August 13, 1937, Page 3

THE EVENING AIRMAIL INQUIRY PUBLICIZED BLACK Supreme Court Nominee Little Known Before Sen- ® ate Investigation. BY J. A. FOX, Four vears have made a lot of dif- ference in the life of Hugo Lafayette Black, first choice of President Roose- velt in the process of injecting ‘‘new blood” into the Supreme Court. Until this administration came into power, the 51-year-old Alabaman, with | one term in the Senate behind him, | was little known nationally for other | than his advocacy of the short work | week to relieve unemployment. Then | suddenly he was catapulted into the | limelight, and under unfavorable cir- cumstances, by directing the airmail inquiry with is tragic accompaniment, 10 Army fiyers being killed in an ef- fort to move the mail after all con- | tracts let to private carriers in the | Hoover administration had been ab- | ruptly canceled at the direction of the President Hardly had the storm this created been cleared away when Black again | felt the brunt of public displeasure, telegram seizures in a lobby probe of | which he was chairman leading to two court actions to curb his com- | mittee and evoking widespread con- demnation Court Action Fails to Materialize The airmail case broke a few months after President Roosevelt took office | when Black's committee undertook a study of both air and ocean mail sub- | sidy policies under Hoover. These | were administered principally \hmugn‘ the Post Office Department, and while | Black asserted the air inquiry dis- | closures warranted both civil and | criminal action a special investigation later by the Department of Justice found no cause for action The investigation brought 10-day | Jail sentences for contempt of the | Senate to Wililam P. McCracken, for- mer Assistant Secretary of Com- merce, and L. H. Brittin, president of Northwest Airways, and was also Pproductive of new subsidy legislation It was with this background as an investigator that Senator Black headed the inconclusive lobby probe of 1935-6, which dealt principally with the ef- fort to defeat the Wheeler-Rayburn act to regulate holding companies When the committee seized - tele- | grams in furtherance of its probe, | Silas Strawn, prominent Republican | lawyer of Chicago. obtained an in- | junction in District Supreme Court | here, restraining the Western Union | STAR, WASHINGTON D. C, FRIDAY, Camera Studies of New Court Nominee Senator Hugo L. Court bench. News of the nomination of Senator Black brought joy to his brother and siscer-in-law. Mr. Birmingham, Ala., who helped and Mrs. rear him Robert Lee Black of uomma[ed by Preszdent Roosevelt for the Supreme Only vote in the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee today against reporting favorably on the nomination of Senator Black was that of Senator Warren R. Austin, Vermont, Republican (left), who contended that action should be held up pending a With Austin here AU GUST 13 BLACK SUCCESSOR SPECULATED UPON Alabama House Members Discuss Names of Dozen Informally. By the Associated Press. Alabama House members talked in- they considered possibilities for the Senate seat of Hugo L. Black Some said Gov. Bibb Graves prob- ably would discuss the situation with President Roosevelt before making an appointment. It was understood the Governor expected to stop in Wash- ington next week en route to Indi- | anapolis for a national convention of Young Democrats. At least three Alabama Representa- tives were among those immediately mentioned for the office. They were Representatives Boykin, Steagall and Starnes of Guntersville. Meanwhile, from Paris came word | that Representative Hill had an- | nounced he would seek the seat. Hill who is in the French capital with the American Battle Monuments Com- mission, then added tion.” Others speculated on included Gas- ton Scott, president of the Alabama Highway Commission; Horace Wilkin- son of Birmingham, Lawrence Lee | Gov. Graves' legal adviser; | Steiner, & member of the State Dock Commission; former Senator J. Tom Heflin, W. A. Gunter, Mayor of Mont- gomery; Donald Comer, Birmingham Broiled Maine | Lobster Luncheon ___ ESTABLISHED I8%8 [ Air Condition | cotton manufacturer; Orville Rush, | Gov. Graves’ Washington represen(n~ tive; W. D. Graves, Alexander City banker and farmer, and Judge T. D. Sanford of Opehkn HAT BEING TRACED FOR SUICIDE CLUE Found Floating 78chuylkm River With Note and Wash- ington Identification Marks. in in the Schuylkill River with a pur- | ported suicide note tucked in its band formally today of a dozen men whom ' prompted Philadelphia authorities to- | day to ask aid of Washington police | its | in establishing | owner. | The note, which “Washington, D. C.." said: “It was fun while it Long, Vi. | love to all.” The hat was found Wednesday near | the East River drive in Fairmont Park, Philadelphia. Size 7' made of dark felt, cleaner's mark, “F-4022-W.” Police planned to check cleaning establish- ments in an effort to identify | owner of the hat. the identity of was “There is no question of confirma- | Robert IS Al\\A\S FIRM, B TAREYTON NOW ONLY Theres SOMETHING aboul thewm Discovery of & man's hat floating | signed | lasted—so I love you and the kids— | NOW I EAT MELONS Upset Stomach Goes in Jiffy with Bell-ans and | the hat bore a | the | Saddlery and T R “ " K Luggage Repairing of Leather Goods G.W.King, jr., 511 11th St. N.W. Motor Re rs aley’s 2020 M ST. N.W. Let "ul:y s Do lf Right! VEVER SOGGY CIGARETTES you'll like” OUR ANSWER TO MMER TRAVEL! Here they happily Cnpzmqm, A. P. Wirephoto. study of the legal status of the nomination. is ASrnator Genmr McGill of Kansm To ATLANTA? We make the trip 8 dmzk a tnn:t to him in Ihmr hmnr pleasantly cool excursion. Not a long, from making its files available to the | Investigators. Justice who granted this, denied an injunc- tion to William Randolph Hearst, who | had directed his action acainst the | committee itself, the court holding it was without power to interfere with the Senate group Fire Swung Career, It was the combination of a grocery #tore fire and the shifting tides of political favor that started Black on | the path from obscurity The Alabaman was a struggling backwoods lawyer when the blaze wiped out his office and turned his thoughts toward larger fields. The decision of the late Oscar W. Under- wood, outspoken foe of the then powerful Ku Kilux Klan, not to seek re-election to the Senate in 1926, gaw\ Black his chance to go to the Senate. Black is of humble origin. When | he decided upon a law career he was forced to work his way through the University of Alabama to win his degree. The first office where he hung out his shingle in 1906 was on the second floor of a grocery store in | Ashland, a hamlet of less than 500 population in Clay County, where he | was born. When the fire wiped out his worldly effects, Black was left with a working capital of just $1.20 It was then he turned Birmingham and a new start. ognition as a lawyer came quickly, | and when, in 1910, the city decided | that action was necessary to clear out the overcrowded jail, he was named | recorder. It is related that his ini- tial act was to free about 500 colored men who had been jailed under the | fee system for crap-shooting. Elected Prosecutor. Tn 1915, Black made the race for eounty prosecutor in Birmingham, with the slogan “It is as much the duty of a prosecutor to see that the innocent are acquitted as it is that the guilty are convicted.” The voters apparently liked that idea, for he‘ was elected. | Then the war came along, and Black was commissioned a captain of Field | Artillery, but the armistice was signed before his regiment got overseas. Returning to Birmingham and pri-’ vate practice, Black became widely known through his State when he was | named special Federal prosecutor in | 8 liquor case in Mobile, and after Sen- } ator Underwood announced in 1925 | that he was through, Black entered | the race with four other aspirants. | The Klan was potent in those days, | and the State group threw its support behind Black, while the national Klan | organization indorsed L. B. Musgrove. Black won easily, his nearest rival being John H. Bankhead, now junior Benator from Alabama, who was elected in 1930 when Senator J. ‘Thomas Heflin was read out of the Democratic party for his fight on the BARGAIN toward | Rec- | Lincoln-Zephyr DEMONSTRATOR V-12—LOW MILEAGE As a result of our policy of placing new cars in demonstra- tion service at regular inter- vals, we now have for sale a slightly used 4-door Sedan. Has been carefully driven and fully serviced at all times. In every way it is practically a brand-new car. Yet, you can buy it at a substantial reduc- tion from its original price. Gives 14 to 18 miles per gallon. Your Car in Trode EASY TERMS Warfield Motor Co. Lincoln-Zephyr Distributor 1727 Conn. Ave. De. 4300 Open Eves. Alfred Wheat, |~ | Congress should itself write the laws | | instead of delegating the job to repre- | presidential candidacy Smith two vears before Black. chairman of the Senate Labor Committee, leans decidedly to the “liberal” viewpoint. and has supported virtually all of the New Deal legisla- tion, including measures to which his of Alfred E | Southern colleagues objected. In join- ing with the late Representative Con- nery, Democrat, of Massachusetts, in framing the current wages-hour bill, Black has gone contrary to the wishes | of constituents who had threatened to work for his defeat next year. This, incidentlly. was along the lines of the measure he was sponsoring when the N. R. A. was set up, and for whose need he has argued since the N. R. A. was knocked out by the Su- preme Court. No one in the Senate was more ac- tive in supporting the court reform bill When Senator Robinson of Arkansas died Black fought to have Senator | Barkley of Kentucky named leader in-| stead of Senator Harrison of Missi | sippi, regarded by many as more con- | servative. Charges Narrowness to Court. | Throughout recent vears Black has insisted the Supreme Court was giving | too narrow a construction to the in- terstate commerce clause of the Con- | stitution, the basis of many of the de- | cisions invalidating New Deal meas- ures. | He contended, even after N. R. A. was invalidated, that his 30-hour week bill was fully constitutional | The Alabaman, however, did not | object to the Supreme Court’s attitude | toward the delegation of power in N. | R. A. He had argued consistently | during the framing of the law, that | sentatives of industry and labor. | A few of Black's recent utterances | give an indication of his political philosophy: He said, during the court debates, | that “for a number of years our Con- | stitution has been to all practical pur- ‘ | poses what Justices Van Devanter, Mc- | | Reynolds, Butler, Sutherland and | Roberts said it was.” i He also said the “prevailing five- | . lAWYERS’ BRIEFS § COMMERCIAL PRINTING ADVERTISING SERVICE BYRON S. ADAMS S12 11 sy, EDUCATIONAL. National University Fall Term Begins September 27, 1937 SCHOOL OF LAW School of Economics and Government Resistrar's Ofice Oven for Resistration & AM. to 7 P.M. 818 13th STREET N.W. Telephone NAtional 6617 s/ SECRETARIAL 4 Kupecially desigaed for Academia High School Graduates; Co: reial High School Graduates; College Students and Graduates. ! judge economic and social philosophy” is “gradually and sometimes silently absorbing the Federal judiciary.” He called it a philosophy that “led us to business chaos and in the direc- | tion of social and political disintegra- tion: it brought starvation wages, health-breaking long hours of work, child labor in mills, business to bank- ruptey and farmers to crushing mortgages.” Outlines Objectives. In a radio address he said “a balance between maximum production and distribution of things the people need for their health, happiness and com- fort is the objective for which all good governments strive.” “Measured by this added, objective,”” he “our Government and people | :qun smnkmg and this was his | promise.” ! I confirmed, Black will be the first the Supreme “com- Alabama member of Court since Justice bell's term ended in 1861. He will be the third justice in the State's history Although Black's only judicial ex- | perience was as a police judge. | can point to the fact that 28 of the 75 men who have sat on the high tribunal had no previous experience. These included 6 of the 11 chief justices, Mr. Hughes being one of them. Of the eight men now on the bench, only one —Justice Cardozo—had previous judi- | cial experience. John A. Carap-| he | aged slightly less than 16 years on the | | bench. Their average age when ap- | pointed has been 52. Justice Field of California holds the record for service with 34 years and 8 months. He was named by President | i | Lincoln in 1863. The celebrated Chief Justice John | Marshall of Virginia ranks second. He | served 34 years and 5 months after | being appointed by President John | Adams in 1801. In 1922 Black served as grand chancellor of the Knights of Pythias in Alabama. He is also a Shriner and | |an Odd Fellow. In religion he is a | | Supreme Court justices have aver- | Baptist have made spectacular gains since the | democratic augurated.” Black married Miss Josephine Foster of Birmingham in 1921. three children—Hugo Lafayette, administration was in- ix; | Sterling foster and Martha Josephine. His principal dissapation is a black cigar—unlighted—which he chews fiercely when engaged in argument. A doctor told him five years ago to Specially prepared for use on furnaces, radiators, heating Dpipes. undercoating, ete. Easy to apply. Brightens up other- dull spotx. Phone your order. Flynn 609 C St. N.W. MEtro. 0150 wise RELINED 4 Wheels Complete Ford © § 4.50 Chev. . 4 Plymouth Chr; including FREE ADJUSTMENTS! Other Cars Proportionately Low ENERAL BRAKE SERVICE [ \J 903 N ST. 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