Evening star., 1937-08-15
BY WILLIAM ALLEN WHITE.
TINE Presidents appointment of
Senator Hugo Black to the
United States Supreme Court

"HE Presidents appointment of
Senator Hugo Black to the
United States Supreme Coult
a was one of those masterful
strokes of political diplomacy which
hearten his friends in the belief that
the President will extricate himself
from the bog which seems to be slowly
engulfing his second term.
For here he handed his choicest gift
70 the South. which has been stunning
his court. Also, he satisfied the most
liberal OF his sane progressive followers
and he named the most advanced lib
eral who could be confirmed by the
Senate-a veritable ee-bagger.
Yet the appointment of Black, smart
as 1t is from the Presidents personal
standpoint, does not vitality affect the
situation in which the President finds
himself 1t is becoming more and
more apparent that his famous victory
last November left him without a
party He merely led seven distinct
and sometimes antagonistic minorities,
which overwhelmed the Republicans
and left the President nearly as lonely
politically, as Alfred NJ Landon.
Minorites Listed.
Those minorlties we're: First, radical
labor, marching under the banner Of
John L. Lewis; second. the conserva-
tive South, typlfied by Garner. Robin
eon Harrison and Cotton Ed Smith;
third. the farmers. following Secretary
Wallace; fourth, the city Tammanies.
from Tom Pendergast to Jim Curley,
with the Kelly-Nash machine and the
Philadelphia machine all of which are
interested more in patronage than in
principles. fifth. the starry-eyed lib
erals, who are more interested in prin-
ciples than patronage sixth, the
American Negroes; seventh, the un-
employed.
The Negroes distrust the Solid
South. The farmers fear the Tam
manles and are jealous of the prestige
OF labor. The liberals hate the Tam
manies and the Tammanies scorn the
liberals. And, to both. the South is
bunch Of hicks. If the crowd that
elected Roosevelt is a political party,
the seven Switzerland sisters are the
Goddess of Liberty.
Although the appointment of SEN
ator Black leaves the deeply divisory
principles of the seven warning minor
ities unchanged, it does improve the
Presidents status. For it defines his
status. The nomination of a genuine
liberal, whose nomination also re-
moves from the Senate a valiant
champion, makes it obvious the Presi-
dent is never going to turn to the
right.
Can Snarl and Snap.
Moreover, potentially, Blacks ap-
pointment will do a lot toward fore
ing Justices Sutherland and Butler to
get of the bench. For Black, who is
the criminal lawyer type, can be. if
he chooses, as mean as a bench-legged
Bull pup in butcher shop. He can
snarl and snap and show his teeth
at the Supreme Court reactionaries
and make life a burden for them. So
long as they are completely showed
under by the present prevailing pro-
gresslve majority, it wouldn't be sur
prising to see Sutherland and Butler
come bursting out of the Supreme
Court windows, taking the sash with
them
This Black appointment, in effect,
Advertises to the world that the Presi-
dent hereafter will not compromise
IN situations where he must compro-
mise or wear martyrs crown.
For so years no President has SO
completely lost control of Congress as
President Roosevelt. Certainly not
Herbert Hoover not even Wilson. who
had his party fairly we'll behind him;
not Taft, who chuckled his way out of
many difficulties; not the first Roose-
welt, who always was willing to take
hall loaf and save party fight.
No President since Grover Cleveland
ever was so completely buffeted and
beaten by his own party as Franklin
Roosevelt since his Inauguration last
Winter.
Parallel Interesting.
Indeed, the parallel between Frank
lin Roosevelt and Grover Cleveland
in his second term is interesting. But
Grover Cleveland did have party
behind him when he was elected, an
old conservative party, which literally
blew up on his hands, changed its
attitude and went off and left him.
But the point is that the democracy
was party when it elected Cleveland
In 1892, even though it was another
party and remained a liberal party
fairly consistently for generation
after 1t abandoned Cleveland.
But President Roosevelt today is
the leader of a disintegrating mob
He thought year ago he was leading
1t to the bastille Today, it seems to
be about to lynch him instead of the
economic royalists against whom he
charged such little while ago. That
he can keep his head in the midst of
all these clamors and the caterwaulinp
around him, that he can be a consist
ent, answering liberal, abandoning
Lewis on the left as suavely as he has
deserted the South on the right proves
that America is watching one of the
ablest politicians the country has
known in the White House since jeff
erSon rode away.
The Black appointment indicates
beyond a question that he is keeping
his head, that he knows where he is
going, that he is taking the liberal
course, and, most important of all
that, to complete his program or gain
his martyrs crown, he will have to
60 before the people for third term.
Can He Survive 1910?
The question which he cannot an
swer, which time will solve, is this ::
Assuming that the President can con-
troll the machinery of the present
Democratic organization and force his
nomination or possibly another as his
nominee, is there political party in
the militant liberal group? When the
South leaves Mr. Roosevelt and radi-
cal labor goes its own way behind its
own Farmer-Labor candidate, can the
Il