Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-05-08
RIGHT OF SENATE
| TO ADVISE UPHELD
Parker Defeat Held Proof
Constitution to Be Taken
Seriously.
BY FREDERIC WILLIAM VILE.


Determination Of the United States
Senate to give advice" as well as
consent" on Supreme Court nominal
lions is the outstanding lesson Of Judge
Parkers rejection. Taking their stand
on the constitutional duty imposed on
them. both Republican and Democratic
Senators who opposed confirmation de-
clare they have now effectually estab-
hshed that principle. President Hoover
or any Of his successors, they insist, will
dout 1t in future at the same peril
which has just inflicted upon the pres
ent administration the severest reverse
1t has yet suffered.
It Is apparently the theory Of the
men who brought it about that the
White House should have made advance
soundings in the Senate as to Parker's
acceptability, instead of waiting to bring
pressure to bear on his behalf when the
nomination was in danger. This Is the
view of Senators who rang as regulars"
and who ordinarily support the admins
tration. 1t was the votes of handful
Of these Republicans-nott the opposi-
ton of the Borah-Norris progressive
group-which sealed Parkers fate.
The writer asked one of this group, a
man who not long ago was In the fore
front of the pro-Hoover Young Guard"
contingent in the Senate, to explain
what animated him to desert the adj
nainistration on the Parker issue. This
Is what he said:
Believe Hoover Served.
mo vote of mine since entered the
Senate caused me greater heartburn
ings than the one cast against Judge
Parker's nomination. Yet I sincerely
believe that every Republican who voted
as did has done not only President
Hoover. but our party, the most dis
Hnct service that could be rendered
them. It was not possible, as I viewed
It, for us to ignore the attitude Of the
American Federation of Labor. Or
ganized labor represents a tremendous
element of the Nation. I can conceive
of nothing more undesirable than to
undermine the confidence of the eoun-
try's vast working class communAty in
the integrity of the Supreme Court. We
are on the threshold of an awakened
liberalism In the United States. That
does not mean bolshevism. American
organized labor is our surest bulwark
against bolshevism. The Republican
party cannot afford, ostrich-like, to be
blind to the wave of liberal thought
that is sweeping the country.
1.-The Republican party, least of any
party has the right to shut its eyes to
the outraged sensibilities of $4,000, 900
colored citizens. Our party was prac-
tically born with the fourteenth and
fifteenth amendments. For the colored
people, the Constitution is those
amendments. I cannot bring myself to
believe, as Republican, that I was
entitled to support for the Supreme
Court man who, rightly or wrongly.
is held incapable by the colored COM
n1unity Of safeguarding its full con-
stitutional rights. I know that infiuen-
tial non-colored elements, which are
interested in tnter-racial peace, made
eleventh-hour efforts to persuade them
selves that they could conScientiously
approve Judge Parker's nomination.
They decided 1t was impossible.
There was finally the question Of
Parker's ability and availability for Su-
preme Court service. Nothing in his
record made me think that he meas
ured up to the full, high stature which
the people additionally associate with
our tribunal of highest instance.
concluded he had done nothing, in the
course of judicial career which en-
braced 400 decisions, which raised him
above the commonplace. I could not
reconcile his nomination with my
theory that we must not elevate
tnediocrities to the Supreme Court"
Watson Blames Socialists"
Administration adherents in the Sen
ate, 1t goes without saying, do not
identify themselves with the foregoing
shortcomings. Senators like Watson of
Indiana, the Republican Senate leader,
who worked tooth and nail for confir-
nation, went down to defeat contending
to the last that Parker was a victim
of the "socialistic'' drive against the
Supreme Court. The drive first showed
its head when Chief Justice Hughes
name was before the Senate, the adj
mln1strationists point out, but collapsed
When Parker was nominated the
socialists" were shrewd enough to
make common cause with the Negro
association, and between those two
groups, Senate Hooverites assert, It
proved possible to accomplish in Park
er's case what failed of achievement
In the case of Hughes.
It was for this reason, above all
others, the Presidents Senate friends
say, that Mr.. Hoover stubbornly resisted
overtures to withdraw Parker's name in
the face of possible defeat. The adj
n1inistration's answer to surrender sug-
gestions was the issuance O. orders to
fight for confirmation to the bitter end.
Those orders were carried out with q
ferceness such as Capitol Hill has not
known for years. If a single doubtful
Senator could have been won over to
the Presidents side. yesterdays vote
would have been a 40-to-40 tie, making
1t possible for Vice President Curtis to
utter the decisive aye in Parkers favor
No effort is made by White House
spokesman in the Senate to conceal the
gravity of the rebuke the President has
had dealt him. Not since the Senate
rejected President Cleveland's nomina-
ton Of Judge Peckham of New York,
nearly 40 years ago, has Supreme
Court nomination been rejected.
fa4nN