Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-05-06
Sift the CHARGES!

Charges that Federal judgeships and
other Federal offices are being used
as bait to win senatorial votes for
the confirmation of Judge John j.
Parker as associate justice of the Su-
preme Court have been made on the
floor of the Senate. The charges have
been made by Senator Ashurst of Ari-
IONA, an opponent of Judge Parker
Senator Ashurst said that no offer of
any appointments had been made to
him. His information was, he said
that such offers had been made to
other members of the Senate. 1t is q
serious charge and one that should be
stfted. 1t is a charge that should
never have been made unless Senator
Ashurst had substantial proof upon
which to base his statement. AS SEN
ator Tess of Ohio pointed out during
the stormy Senate debate, the President
alone has the power to appoint to Fed
eral judgeships. The Arizona Senator
Immediately denied that he had referred
to President Hoover when he said that
Federal judgeships were offered as
brides to vote for Judge Parker's con-
firmation. The implication, therefore,
is that some one else, some one pre-
sumably in position to be able to
deliver" has offered to one or more
Senators Federal judgeship.
Charges are easy to make. Charges
of all kinds are made on the floor of
the Senate, where immunity from prose
cution for libel is guaranteed by law.
For that very reason Senators should be
careful to ascertain all the facts before
they make charges which may blast
regulations for honesty and upright
ness. In the present case, however,
Senators who believe that they have
been offered Federal judgeships as a
price for voting for the confirmation OF
Judge Parker should be able to stand
up in the Senate and say so. To
spread a rumor of this character, with
nothing to back it UP, sounds like an
effort to draw red herring across the
trail in order to throw the Senate of
its proper track. Senator Ashurst has
suggested that the Senate lobby COM
mittee call members of the Senate be-
fore 1t to ask each member whether an
effort has been made to bride him by
promise of Federal Office to vote for
Judge Parker. The lobby committee so
far has confined itself to the investiga-
ton of one member of the Senate, SEN
ator Bingham of Connecticut. Inter-
rogating Senators is not a popular
pastime.
The administration has been charged
with playing politics with the appoint
ment of Judge Parker because of a
letter written by Assistant Secretary
Dixon of the Interior Department to
Walter Newton, one of the Presidents
secretaries, declaring that the appoint
ment of Parker would be a master
political stroke" The Attorney General,
writing now to Senator Stephens of Mis-
sissippi asserts that the letter was never
brought to the attention of President
Hoover and that politics had nothing to
do with the selection of Judge Parker.
The country is not ready to believe that
either Attorney General Mitchell or
President Hoover would tell an untruth
in regard to this letter. So the implica-
ton that politics was the governing
motive in the appointment of Judge
Parker, sought to be made by the oppo-
nents of his nomination, falls. AS a
matter OF fact, there is a great deal of
political opposition to the Parker APP
pointment, and if his nomination be not
confirmed by the Senate it will be be-
cause of politics rather than because of
any lack of qualification on the part Of
Judge Parker.