The Waterbury Democrat., 1938-10-29

smartest thing we could do poli- tically is not to play sectional poll tics on this appointment, but to get nationwide credit for doing the right thing.
 'The right thing is CardOza, and you and I know It. But our friend I'm the White House is pr0crastinating on this as he has on everything else. I've done all I can with him. Why don't you go up right away and make him mover"
 At S:30 the next morning, Feb- ruary 18th, Jim Watson and Her. bert Hoover had breakfast at the White House.
 At 10 o'clock Justice Cardoza ar- rived in his chambers at the Court of Appeals at Albany. The whole courthouse was abu2z with news that the President of the United States was trying to reach Car doza on the telephone.
 ''Where I Am Happy"
 Cardoza, suspecting what the call might mean and in his nod- esty very much worried whether he ought to take the place, de- ferred answering the phone until he could confer with his col- league and friend, the late Cuth- bert Pound, another judge of the same court. At the conclusion of the conference with Pound, Cardoza took the call from Hoover.
 '.Mr. Justice, want to ap- point you . member of the Su- preme Court of the United States"
 "Mr. President, if my wishes only are to be considered, | would respectfully prefer to re- main here in New York, where I am very happy"
 ''Mr. Justice, you have no right to consider only your own wishes. The country needs you here; I want you to take the place"
 every we'll, Mir. President, Thank you"
 The appointment was confirmed unanimously in the Senate. There was no anti-Semitic reaction, no Justice was ever more loved and respected by the American peo- pie.
 But from the standpoint of his own personal happiness, Cardoza was right when he asked to re- main at Albany. The members of the Court of Appeals of New York had become close personal friends, and revered Cardoza almost as Q father.
 From this Elysium in which he had spent l8 years, Cardoza went to the Supreme Court, just as that periodically strife-torn body was on the threshold of one of the most bitter internal divisions in its history. It became Q court where certain members hardly spoke to each other, where Jus tice McReynolds made personal enemy of anyone who differed with him in his opposition to Roosevelt.
 Defender of Roosevelt
 The Saturday afternoon confer ence and its scarce concealed acrimonieS were an anguish to Cardoza's gentle spirit. Leaving his apartment Saturday noon he used to say, Have the sponges ready to wipe off the blood when I return"
 But this quietest of all the jus- tices, this idealist whom Jim Wat son crammed down Herbert Hoov- CTS throat for political expedi- ency, became the most effective legal defender of Franklin D. Roosevelt.
 As Solicitor General Robert Jackson recently pointed out Cardoxa's opinion uphoIding old age pensions and unemployment insurance under the Social See curity Act not only won the Court fight for the objectives of Franklin Roosevelt, but also forced the Supreme Court to recognize for the first time the full sweep of the constitutional power of Congress to tax to provide for the general welfare.
 But the triumph wasn't fun. This most reasonable of men had eagerly expected to find the quin- tessence of reaSonableness in the holiest place of a profession pro- fessing reason above all things. Instead he found great decisions turning on passion, even preju- dice more subtle but more danger ous than that of the demagogue on the street.
 Tn his court at Albany all were friends. In the court at Wash- ington he felt more and more alone. The courageous mani- festation of friendship by his old friend. Franklin Roosevelt. the adoration of the young lawyers in Washington, helped. But even these could not salve his ultimate disappointment in courts and in lawyers. When the angel knocked it mattered little.
 snon afxy-aA.S