The Daily Alaska empire., 1937-08-21
THE NEW ASSOCIATE JUSTICE

. HE NEW ASSOClAI F. JOOIlCE Hugo Lafayette Black new Associate Justice le Supreme Court and until his recent appointm y President Roosevelt to the bench the senior Ser ,r from Alabama, is an interesting fellow In years in the Senate he made an enviable reco Jith his elevation to the highest court in the la ational interest centers in just what kind of m e is. Cal Tinney is one of his recent columns le Philadelphia Record gives some interesting sit ghts on the former Senator and now Associate J ce. MT. Tinney comments:
 He's an affable young man of only 50 sum- mers, with his l63 pounds so distributed on his five feet nine-inch frame that he looks like he might do for the romantic lead in a WPA production of Romeo and Juliet"
 By the way WPA art suits him right down to the ground. He has a three-foot-square painting of corn-crib. anyway a corn-crib on his office wall
 He never painted himself, but time was when he talented in a musical way. He even broke down and confessed to me the other day that he used to play the piano, the harp and the violin, and. if the temper of the audience permitted, he could yodle Sweetest Little Teller" till their ears ached
 Nowadays his rich Southern voice is bent to no such purposes. He just orates with it, $-3with his intonations doing a Patrick Henry while his left hand does a Will Rogers as he makes no effort to take it out of his pocket.
 There is plenty of room for his hand, as he never carries comb nor, for that matter, a pSckesbodk saA ssaellar%biA his pocket mingles .democrRtfcalg with dimes, Any way, it does" he says, whenever I have dollar bill"
 l, old book once in a while. He had one on his desk this week that was published in 1902. It was an account of the debates on the Jefferson Court bill in 1901
 Of course he had read Gone With the Wind" Either you have read Gone With the Wind" or they don't let you back in Alabama any more
 His desk has on it the usual array of docu- ments, seasoned this time with tube of den- tai floss matches, pamphlet c'Patform Of the Two Great Political Parties'D, and bottle of shoe -whitener.
 He takes the fight with great calm. haven't seen him lighting too many cigar cites. As for liquor he is now, and always has been thumbs down on it completely.
 When opposftnh cropped up to his wage hour bill I asked him if he thought swing to conservatism was occurring in this coun- try. He said, T think that improved condi-
 .
 tions would naturally tend to make people more cautious in approaching changes"
 He's fighting, though for the poor guys he was born and raised with down in Clay county. Ala. A dollar day always has been big pay down there.
 - The Senator's father a farmer till Hugo was 5. Then the family moved to town Ito Ashland population: 400 There was college" in Ashland and Hugo went there through algebra. f z
 Then at IT he got packed off to Birming ham Medical College. He took two-year course in one year, and it looked for sure like "Dr Black" would be the name.
 He had however sat around the town S-eourthouse too much as kid, and. the legal ssssbug something he couldn't find any germi- eide at school to kill. So the next place they found Hugo was in the University of Alabama, studying to be a lawyer, s g. E {
 Being still impatient to amount to some- thing before old age overlook him. he learned all his law in two years and began the prac tice of that profession at the mellow age Of \ 20
 He did all right-so well that Birming- hams city commissioners showed a city Judge ship off him before long. Again in 1914, he took on the job of prosecuting attorney. And in 1917 he joined the army being ip many stiff engagements with Oklahoma (Fort SilD mosquitoes, but never glimpsing the bonny shores of France. Sa
 Except for these interruptions he prac- tced law in Birmingham. Not till 1926 did he quit life where all you said was "Yc Honor!" and take up one where instead you say MT. President
 Yes sir he blew into the Senate II years ago The first thing he did was to blast Ship ping Board for letting lawyers pull down fat fees for thinking up excuses to defeat just claims of citizens.
 Since Roosevelts advent, he's been power. You can't serve chairman of the Education and Labor Committee and be anything else.
 He likes 1t just fine in Washington, and though his wife ana three children have gone home to Birmingham, Hugo will be here till Christmas if it takes that long to pass his wage-hour bill.
 Of course. Judge, Black probably will be in Was lgton many sCfiffstfiases now that he has left enate and his wage-hour bsl fight to take s n s .kser