Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1932-01-13
WASHINGTON OBSERVATIONS
BY FREDERIC WILLIAM VILE.

Unless President Hoover continues
the process of rejuvenating the Su-
preme Court bench many insiders
wouldn't be surprised If he appoints
Chief Justice Arthur Prentice Rugg
OF the Massachusetts Supreme Court
to succeed Justice Holmes. The re-
firing veteran occupied that post in the
Bay State when Holmes was brought
to the United States Supreme Court
by President Roosevelt in 1902. Presi-
dent Coolidge once had Rugg under
consideration for the highest Federal
tribunal. Though nearly 10, Chief
Justice Rugg is virile and vigorous. A
chip of the old block, Charles B. Rugg,
is an assistant attorney general at
Washington. If Democrats are con-
sidered for the Holmes successorship,
Judge Benjamin N. Cardozo Of the
New York Court of Appeals will be
among the conspicuous possibilities
along with Newton D. Baker and John
w. Davis. Naming Of Attorney Gen
eral Mitchell or George Wharton Pep
per would mean more youth on the
bench like the Stone and Roberts ap-
pointments, but might be "geograph-
ically" barred, both Minnesota and
Pennsylvania already having repre-
sentatives in the Supreme Court. Judge
Wilkerson of Chicago, Al Capone's
nemesis, is being discussed. Illinois
has not had man on the bench since
Chief Justice Fullers days.
No one who remembers Justice
! Holmes plaintive radio talk in March
year ago, on the occasion OF MS
ninetieth birthday anniversary, Is
sstonished by. the veterans desire TO
end his great public career. There was
the sad ring of resignation In Holmes
yoice-an unmistakable confession that
he realized the sands were running out
and that his active days were rapidly
growing fewer Yet in the intervening
nine months the dean of the Supreme
Court showed. in his work few signs
that his powers were in any way less
virile than they have been for the past
decade. His opinions continued 10
breathe brevity and brilliance. A little
less duty was assigned him by Chief
Justice Hughes as the months wore
on. and Justice Holmes himself became
more and more of recluse, being seen
away from home and the supreme
Court hardly at all. Everybody VINO
| has had contact with his personal
charm and towering intellect at wash
| tngton agrees that those immortal lines
from Hamlet" will apply for all time to
Oliver Wendell Holmes He was a
man, take him for all in all. snail
not look upon his like again
President Hoover selected the man
| who is probably his closest personal
| friend in the Senate, Frederic c. Wal
! colt, Republican, OF Connecticut, to
sponsor the $4,000 900 600 ReconStruc-
| ton Finance Corporation bill, which
| the Upper House has just passed by an
Overwhelming majority. The Whlte
House considers this project the most
| important item in its whole economic
relief program; Senator WalcoCt Is noe
only the Presidents friend, but his ten
| ant the Connecticut solons family hav-
| ing leased the Hoover mansion on S
street northwest three years ago. Wal
| colts comradeship with the President
| dates from their association in the
| World War Food Administration. He
was chosen as Mr. Hoover's assistant In
| 1917, and remained with him until. 1919
MIR. Walcott's hobby is conservation OF
| forests water resources and wild life
| He has been active in those domains for
years in Connecticut.
| X y ~
Politically minded Washington, once
having taken a notion about a thing,
clings to it like hungry dog hangs
on to a bone. Therefore, strange rs II
may seem, the Capital contains Coubt-
| ing Thomases who think Charley DAVIS
| left a loophole in his statement about
President Hoover, through which he
might still crawl into a receptive mood
for the G. o. P. presidential nomina-
ton. Nobody knows Gen. Dawes mind
through and through as thoroughly ms
E. Ross BARLEY, his private secretary
of vice presidential days. BARLEY Is In
Washington this week. laying wires for
his new work as director Of promotion
for the Chicago Century Of Progress. "
the great 1898 World Fair, which u q
good deal Of Dawes show. The gen
eral never meant anything more IN his
life, according to ROSS BARLEY, than
he did in his statement indicating that
- Uth not ~ word, tAeu9ht -sw deed