Evening star., 1937-09-16

time member Of the Klan. then, In
my Judgment, he Is subject to i'm
parchment. For part OF the oath OF
the Klan and several Of its well-known
beliefs are in fiat contradiction with
the oath and obligations he would
have to assume as justice Of the
Supreme Court. II Mr. Blacks status
is one Of present membership in the
Klan, then, in my Judgment, he will
be impeached and ousted.
But If Mr.. Blacks status Is only
one Of past membership, II he was
once member but resigned years ago,
resigned wholly and in good faith--in
that case he can hardly be impeached
In that case the only way to get him
out is for Mr.. Roosevelt to ask him
to resign. Mr.. Roosevelt can only
ask and plead with him, he cannot
demand.
Press Conference Remarkable.
1t looks as If Mr.. Roosevelt will ask
for the resignation. In saying this,
I rely mainly on observations Of Mr..
Roosevelts manner at the newspaper
conference at which he dealt with the
Black situation. 1t was a remarkable
conference.
Preceding the conference, while the
newspaper men waited in the White
House lobby, they made guesses what
the President would do about Mr..
Black. Some thought that Mr.. Roose-
velt would ignore the Black sensation
or try to. Some thought he would
try to blanket the Black situation.
try to push it out of the public mind
by giving out something sensational
about some other subject, perhaps
about the seriousness of International
affairs. One man, guessing that Mr..
Roosevelt would take quite a different
turn, thought he would have a resig-
nation from Mr.. Black in his hands
and would read it to us. All assumed
the feature of the conference would
be Mr. Black-either discussion Of the
Black case, or determined ignoring of
1t, or covering it up by sensational
news about some other subject.
AS it turned out, Mr.. Roosevelt met
the Black case head-on. His first
words, before any OF the newspaper
men spoke, were to the effect that he
knew what we were all thinking about
and that he would save us time. he
would read us a statement which we
could print in quotation marks.
His manner was that for which the
French have loaned us the word
"aplomb." His air was one of complete
confidence in his ability to handle
the situation. Yet one felt that Mr..
Roosevelt had arrived at his confidence
by-to borrow another French term
tour de force. One felt sure he had
been perturbed by the revelations. and
had debated with himself what would
be the best strategy.
Nicholson Present.
Evidently he had taken advice. too.
for Charley Nicholson was there. sit
ting behind him. Mr.. Nicholson. ex-
perienced publicity man of the Demo-
cratic National Committee, is the ad-
ministration's expert in the arts of
starting favorable currents of public
psychology-and offsettiR unfavor-
able ones. Mr. Nicholson, I felt sure
as l observed him, had been seriously
disturbed. He knows, perhaps be er
than Mr.. Roosevelt, the explosiveness
OF the particular kind of dynamite as
sociated with Mr. Black and the Ku
klux Klan. While Mr.. Roosevelt was
reading his statement, Mr.. Michel
son, sitting behind him, watched the
faces OF the newspaper men to see how
they took it. He had his hand over
his mouth. In the familiar, uncon-
Sclous gesture OF poker player who
has pair of sevens and fears he NAV
need queens at least
Mr.. Roosevelt's statement read.
Il know only what I have read in
the newspapers. I note that the
stories are appearing serially and that
puohcation is not complete. Mr.. JUS
tice Black is in Europe, where un-
doubtedly he cannot get the full texts
OF these articles. Until such time as
he returns there is no further COM
ment to be made"
AS MIR. Roosevelt read his statement
his aplomb grew; he is the type of man
VINO acquires confidence from the
sound OF his own voice. When. in
reading his statement, he reached the
word 'serially" he ventured a char
EDUCATIONAL.