The Montgomery advertiser., 1905-11-15
THE CASE OF ATKINSON
NAME TO COME BEFORE SENATE
 FOR CONFIRMATION.
Former Governor of West vsswinia wac Has Been Appefnted to M Va- caney on the Court of
 CaalmA.
By N. H. watkins.

| washington, Nov. 14.--(speeiaI )-- When the United States Senate TO. sutnes its sitting in reguiar session. of all the duties awaiting it none is more immediate and interesting to the Senators themselves thah Che handling and consideration Of nominations made by the President of the United States during the recess of Congress. 1t is usually within that period that nonui- nations are made which require the most inquiry and scrutiny, sometimes some of them proving to be entirely , objectionable to the wise old men of ! the Senate.
 |. It may be that some of the names are of men who failed of confifma- 1 tion at the last session for reasons sufficient to the President he sends , them back to the Senate in this way seeking a reconsideration of the tardi- ness of action fin that body It may be too that for one reason and another the person nominated between ,oon- gresses may turn out. upon, investiy gation. to be unsuited by training, ex. perience or other disqualifying ohjec- tions for the office for which hs is named. Some of the appointments made In this time are of men about whom the majority of Senators know nothing. and after they have found out about them they may turn out to be out of the question. It is only when the Senators come to exercise their inestimable constitutional privilege of givingadvice and consent as to fiomi- nations, that an unwise nomination, may be lawfully and rfghtfuli rejected.
 The Case of Atkinson.
 Among the recess nominations made by President Roosevelt is that of Q prominent West virginlan, whose case Is of peculiar interest to the people not only of his State. but to. the bar of washington, to the latter more par- ticularly on account of the ultimate bearing 1t will have upon another pros- pective nomination wh1h much con- Governor George w. Atkinson, of west Virginia, is the man in question. and In very serious question. April 1b. last, he was appointed to vacancy on the Court of Claims in this city left by the death of Judge Laurence Weldon.
 The Atkinson case possesses some fea. make it perhaps the most unique of all that will come to the Senate Of the recess batch of nominations.
 It Is related that Governor Atkinson, in December, 1901, when West Vir~ ginia was divided into two federal Judicial districts. was promised ap- pointment as judge of one of the dis-
 
 came generally known that such a was contenpla AI shere arose so great a manifestation of dis- and opposition from the entire bar of West Virginia that Pres- ident Mckinley paused in the execu- tion of his promise.
 It was represented to the President that the appointment would certainly provoke unpleasant controversy be- of the fact that the prospective appointee was palpably deficient in the legal Knowledge and training requisite for so important position as judge of a federal court.
 Something Else Promised. So serious and insistent were the ob- jections urged to the appointment Of Governor Atkinson by the lawyers who best knew him that President McKin- 1 ley was finally constrained to recon sider his promise. This he told 70 | Senator Scott. who requested Mir. Me- 1 Kinley to convey the bad news himaelf to the Governor. President Mckinley feeling that he could not Eisk serious 1 blunder in the case. but anxious to 1 serve the Governor. assured him he ! should haVs 4omethinG equally k8odH