The Waterbury Democrat., 1939-08-19

AAACtA4 SLOC4 UAAClA AOWOy1 AAAN more prominent than Bricker-a man who can come forward in the last months and please all fac- tions at the 1940 convention.
 Such a man, according to some COP master minds, now has been found. He is none other than Owen J. Roberts, Associate Justice of the Supreme Court. How ser- ious his candidacy may become will be decided in the future. But 1t is significant that Republican strategists are giving Justice Roberts the careful once-over, and find that he has many of the qualities so necessary to a knock down presidential cat-and-dog fight.
 Roberts is . good campaigner, makes the best speeches of any one on the Supreme Court. He is handsome, statuesque, more than six feet tall, and has some of the McNutt "oomph"-with. out being too blatant about it.
 A sprinkling of liberal activity has been peppered through his life, such as his vigorous prose- cution of the Teapot Dome scan- dals. However, he also comes from a conservative Philadelphia back ground and the big COP contrib utors would sign checks with much less persuasion than they did for the less known and semi- liberal Landon.
 Finally, Roberts has the irnpor- tant advantage of having been sticking to his legal knitting on the Supreme Court, where he alienated the neither Hoover con- servatives nor the Kenneth Simp- son liberals within the Republican Party.
 PRESIDENTITIS
 There was a day. three years ago, when Justice Roberts was af- flicted with bad dose of pres- identitis and cried out in anguish. The dilemma, too, was difficult. He could not decide whether to risk his very uncertain chances of attaining the White House or con- tinue with sure job as a dis tinguished, dignified member of the Supreme Court.
 Some political observers thought Justice Roberts lost 6 sure-fire nomination in 1936 when he told friends he was not in the race. But, whether he meant 1t or not, his withdrawal was political sa- gacity. For no one could have beaten Roosevelt in 1886.
 This does not mean that Jus- tice Roberts Is hurrahing for himself from the housetops to- day. On the contrary, he has only secondhand information about the undercpver campaign to put him into the race, and he isn't doing anything about it-yet.
 A Republican all his life, Justice Roberts occasionally has words of praise for Roosevelt. When the President vetoed the bonus bill, Roberts remarked: "That veto will not cost him sigle vote. Every- one respects a man who has the courage to say No"
 JUSTICE IN SOCIETY
 For many years, Justice Roberts was about the only member of the Supreme Court, save Justice Stone, who went about in Washington society. Both men, then much younger than their colleagues, were favorites at dinner parties. At one of these given by Mrs. Borden Hartman, Heywood Broun remarked:
 Every seven years, Mir. Jus- tice, you ought to 60 out and get acquainted with people take . sabbatical leave like the college professors and find out what the rest of the world Is doing"
 'But," replied Justice Roberts, T haven't been on the Court seven years."
 Although Roberts was the youngest man on the court until Roosevelt began to appoint young sters, Mrs. Roberts was always able Co make him stop talking and come home by saying:
 "owen! Remember you're just an old mani One ef she Nine Old Men,"