Evening star., 1937-09-26
BY MARK SULLIVAN.

r EFT us look at the Black case
from the beginning. In try
ing to construct a consecutive
- narrative there will be some
surmise, some secondhand evidence
/ do not like that In writing history
I have come to prize direct evidence,
the exact and proved fact, the literal
quotation. When I lack that I am
uncomfortable. But in writing cur
rent newspaper dispatches it is fire.
quently impossible to have all the
evidence. Much of the most impor-
tant evidence about any current event
does not emerge for years, until per-
sons who took part in intimate con-
versations print their diaries. Inevi-
tably, in newspaper writing, gaps be-
tween known facts must be pieced out
by bridges of inference. If We ex-
cluded all inference we could have
hardly any writing about contempo-
seasoned newspaper man is able to
bring to his work is a certain skill in
inference.
In the relations between Mr.. Black
and President Roosevelt there is some
faint evidence that the President did
not like Mr. Black, that he felt about
some of Mr.. Blacks traits the same
distaste that many others feel.
The principal evidence of this is
something that Gen. Hugh johnson
wrote after the Black sensation broke.
Gen. johnson has close knowledge
of the inside of the White House
circle; future historians can rely on
him-though they must bear in mind
that the general always tries to make
out as good case for Mr.. Roosevelt
as he can. The general in writing
about Mr.. Blacks personal traits, not
about his membership in the Klan,
but about his narrowness, his secrecy,
his thin-lipped lack of generosity, or
even fairness, said:
ITO suggest that the President did
not know these traits is to belittle not
only Mr.. Roosevelt's splendid intelli-
gence, but also his fine inbred instincts
which are so sensitive that he is made
visibly uncomfortable by even a few
moments in such a contact"
If Mr.. Roosevelt did not like Mr..
Black there is a possible concrete
reason. I speak partly from memory
and partly IN surmise, but 1 think I
recall that Mr.. Black was responsible
for one of the Presidents most re-
grettable early mistakes. I think it
was Mr.. Black who led Mr.. Roosevelt
abruptly to cancel the airnail con-
tracts and turn the mails over to
young Army officers. unframed and i'll
equipped for that kind of work. with
the result that some 10 of them met
Heath.
But if Mr.. Roosevelt did not like
Mr.. Black why did he appoint him
to the Supreme Court?
That is easy enough to answer
any one familiar with Mr.. Roose-
velt's moods during the last few
months can surmise. Mr.. Roosevelt
was in a fury, double fury. He
had begun by being mad at the Su-
preme Court Because he was mad
at the court he demanded the power
to change it. When the Senate de-
MED him that power he became mad
at the Senate, too. His double rage
was paramount to all other considera-
tions. He wanted to do the worst
things he could think of to express
his anger at the court and the Sem
ate. He wanted to satisfy what Mr..
Arthur Krock spoke of as his "venge-
full impulse" In that mood he
considered appointing Mr.. Black to
the court. Counting the very un-
suitability Of Mr.. Black as thing
that now served his angry mood and,
ignoring his personal distaste for Mr..
Black, his mind dwelled upon max
ing an appointment to the court
that would most express his fury at
the court and the Senate.
Yet it is doubtful if he would have
actually appointed Mr.. Black but for
another incident There was pend
ing in Congress at the time a wage
and-hour bill which bore Mr.. Blacks
name. The bill was held up. And
it was held up in the House largely
by Southern members whom Mr..
Roosevelt regarded as reactionary.