Evening star., 1937-02-15
WASHINGTON OBSERVATIONS
BY FREDERIC WILLIAM VILE.

Because Of his achievement in effect
ing a bloodless settlement of the automo-
bile strike, Gov. Frank Murphy is al
ready being talked about as an out
standing possibility for high national
honors. Suggestions variously name
him either as the successor of Miss Per-
kins in the Secretaryship Of Labor, or
for some other cabinet portfolio, pref
erably the War Department, or as ideal
timber for new Supreme Court Justice
ship. Whether the Michigan chief ex-
ecutive would desert Lansing for WASH
ington so soon after assuming his pres
ent Office is not known. What's certain
is that President Roosevelt has bound
less admiration for Murphy's glamorous
triumph as an industrial peacemaker,
along with a sense of profound grati-
tude to him for having rescued the
country from real crisis. Gov. Murphy
once upon q time intended to become a
priest. Having finally decided upon the
law, he took his LII. B. degree at Ann
Arbor, followed by graduate study
courses at Lincoln's Inn, London, and
Trinity College, Dublin. His varied
public career, in addition to the mayor
atty of Detroit and the governor-gen-
eralship of the Philippines, includes a
term as United States attorney for
Eastern Michigan and a judgeship of
the Recorders Court of Wayne County.
Murphys World War service wound up
with the Army of Occupation on the
Rhine.
Three or four years ago, when Mr.
Murphy was Mayor of Detroit, he fell
suddenly and seriously i'll on train
while returning home after comforting
with New York bankers on big mu-
nicipal refunding proposition. The
conductor of the limited, rushing the
length of the Pullmans in anxious
search for a physician, happened to
find that a distinguished member OF
the medical faculty of the University
of Michigan was aboard. The doctor
at once diagnosed the Mayors ailment
as acute appendicitis and directed that
the train be diverted forthwith from
its regular route, so that Murphy could
be taken off at Albany and sent to a
local hospital for an emergency opera
tion. The train was promptly detoured.
and the operation took place a couple of
hours later. Detroit's chief magistrate,
after what he has always considered a
close call, was able to leave Albany In
10 days or a fortnight, completely re-
covered.
Inside the intimate administration
circle the definite opinion is understood
to prevail that President Roosevelt is
acting wholly within the mandate con-
ferred upon him at the polls last No
vember in seeking a reformation OF
the Supreme Court on lines designed to
solidify New Deal objectives. Under
the circumstances, the White House
group apparently doesn't comprehend
why there should be suggestions OF
dictatorship" or other charges that
r. D. r. is eSsaying one-man govern
ment. RooseveltianS consider that ma
tional views on social legislation found
unmistakably clear expression three
months ago, and that the vote rolled up
for the President constitutes irrefutable
evidence of the country's wishes and
purposes. The reasoning along the
executive front, accordingly, seems to be
that it's now a question whether the
will of the people" or "a minority
branch of the Government" shall de-
termine American policy in the humani-
tartan field.
If there were some way of finding out
exactly what Vice President Garner
thinks about the Supreme Court issue,
the country would have . pretty fair
line on how the wind Is likely to blow
In the Senate when matters reach The