The Waterbury Democrat., 1938-01-10
member of the Ku Klux Klan.
 Senate Issues Warning

mCnDef or the hu hluX Kan.
 Senate Issues Warning
 In that connection, the Senate also has given strong warning that the appointee, regardless of his or her station, will be thoroughly in- vestigated by the judiciary commit tee which did not question Blacks background prior to confirmation. Sen. Fl. Styles Bridges, R., N. H., re- leased a letter he had written to Chairman M. M. Medley, D., w. Va, of the rules committee, urging action on his resolution requiring public hearings on all court nominees.
 Bridges said that the Black incl dent had prompted him to introduce the resolution end that he was con- f1dent it would be approved by the Senate if the committee would re- port 1t favorably.
 The presidents consideration of candidates for the post, which will give the New Deal 8 definite "lib- eral" majority on the court, was de- scribed as exceedingly thorough.
 Asks About Woman Justice
 MT. Roosevelt asked one visitor with whom he discussed the prob lem whether he thought it would be wise to nominate a woman. Without waiting for his guest to reply, the president went Cn to recall that he had appointed ire first woman cab inet member, Secretary of Labor Frances Perkins.
 He went on to discuss what he be- neved would be the reaction to ap- pointment of woman to the court, indicating belief that it would be favorable generally and particularly pleasing to the women of the nation.
 The name of Judge Allen, who was first appointed to the circuit bench in 1884 by MT. Roosevelt, was men, tioned in passing.
 Held Two JudgeShipS
 Twice already in her legal career Judge Allen has been the first woman to hold two different judge ships. She was the first of her sex ever to be elected to the Ohio state supreme court and is the only wom- an that has ever been appointed to the federal circuit court.
 The president discussed the pos Sibility of selecting Murphy or McNinch at greater length, it was said. It was believed by some ob- servers that the appointment of 8 Catholic to the court might be con- sidered as 8 wise r,ove after the con- troversy over Blacks Klan mem- bership.
 Several other names were under Stood to have been mentioned by MT. Roosevelt, but so far as could be learned he did not discuss Judge Sam Bratton, of New Mexico, or Gov. Philip F. LaFollette of Wisconsin, who has been strongly urged on the president by one of his most viz oreus congressional supporters.
 Precedents Vanished
 Precedents haven fallen before Judge Florence Ellinwood Allen, a former music critic, suffrage leader, democratic and champion of humane and liberal opinion. At 53, she is an attractive woman of strong physique, good public speaker, fair Portia who has decreed death when the law made it unavoidable. She is un- married.
 Judge Allen was born in Salt Lake City, the daughter of a Western Reserve University professor, March g, 1884. She learned Greek and Latin from her father, and was ready for college at 13. She attended Western Reserve, the University of Chicago and New York University.
 She studied the piano in Germany, and was for several years music critic of the Cleveland Plain Dealer Although she turred from music to law for her nfe's work in 1909, she still plays the piano privately.
 Admitted to Bar 1914
 Miss Allen was admitted to the Ohio state bar in 1914. In 1916, she won an important victory before the Ohio supreme court in case involv- ing the right of women to vote in east Cleveland. She entered public life in 1919 as assistant prosecutor of Cuyahoga county, Ohio, the first woman to hold that position.
 She was elected judge of the court of common pleas on non-partisan ticket in 1920, the first woman to sit on a court of general jurisdic- tion. Another precedent was broken in 1922 when she was elected to the Ohio state supreme court. She was reelected in 1928.
 When President Roosevelt was called upon to fill a vacancy on the sixth U. s. circuit court of appeals in March, 1884. he selected Miss Allen and she became the first wom- an to sit on a federal bench. She wrote the courts decision upholding Ohib's minimum wage law for women and children.