Evening star., 1941-09-07

| 0lIuculC assignment IN FTeSlQenC fLOOSe-
| velts emergency cabinet. The new At
| torney General will have to cope with
| the tide of wartime emotion as 1t en-
croaches on ancient American rights.
On his department will converge the
| demands that inevitably will rise as the
crisis deepens. Advocates Of the stern
hand and equally impassioned disciples
Of tolerance will besiege him. Difficult
decisions are certain to haunt his days.
For this reason, perhaps, his predeces-
sor in Office, Robert H. Jackson, was
genuinely relieved when he was ap-
pointed to the Supreme Court. Leaving
the Department of Justice, Jackson
worked to get the post for Biddle, who
had been Solicitor General during his
term, believing that Biddle, as Attorney
General, would be strong enough to re-
sist the pressure to convert the Office
into Witch-hunting headquarters, as
happened toward the close of the first
World War. Biddle, Jackson predicted,
would not become a second A. Mitchell
Palmer whose so-called Red raids were
denounced by the chief legal lights of
the time, including retired Chief Justice
Charles Evans Hughes and the new chief,
Harlan Fiske Stone.
Trotzkyites Indicted.
Already Biddle faces what may become
a major controversy. AS Acting Attorney
General after Jacksons resignation he
ordered Federal grand jury investiga-
1f ", Nr,y,r ax1I
Dunn, brothers who head Local 544 of
the General Drivers. Helpers and Inside
Workers Union in Minneapolis and st.
Paul. The Dunn brothers are also
leaders of the Socialist Workers party,
a Trotzkyist faction of the Communist
party.
AS a result of Biddle's action grand
jury in Minneapolis indicted the Dunns
on eight counts. They were charged with
| engaging in a seditious conspiracy; with
attempting to gain control Of key utility
and industrial positions for their men in
order to bring about general paralysis
of industry; with attempting to get their
men into key union positions; with in
citing rebellion among the military
forces, and last and most important,
with accumulating arms and explosives
to carry out a revolution on the Russian
pattern. Along with the Dunns, 81 of
their associates were also indicted
Behind the action ordered by Biddle
was widespread local antagonism to the
Dunns and their union. Another factor
was the C. I. GA. F. L. feud. Daniel
J. Tobin, head of the powerful A. l..
Teamsters' Union and strong admin
istration supporter. looks on the Min
neapolis union as the beginning of an
effort to split his ranks. Tobin had good
reason to be pleased that the Depart
ment Of Justice acted against the Dunns.
Liberal Friends Disturbed.
Many of Biddle's liberal friends have
been disturbed by the Minneapolis in
dictments. Roger Baldwin and Arthur
Garfield Hayes of the American Civil
| Liberties Union came down to Washing
ton the other day to protest that this
was actually indicting men for their
| opinions If the Dunns and their asso-
ciates had accumulated any weapons,
! these liberal friends argued, it was
either to defend themselves in the course
of industrial warfare or to resist their
Fascist enemies"
When the Dunns go to trial the pres
sure on Biddle is likely to increase. Some
of the young men whom he and Jack
son brought into the department are
apprehensive that his new RESPONSE
bility may inevitably make him con-
servative in his judgments. Certainly
his liberal philosophy will undergo
| severe test.
1t was from one Of the chief prophets
| of American liberalism that Biddle ac-
| quired his convictions. just out of Har-
ward law school as an honor graduate,
he came to Washington to be law clerk
| to the late Justice Oliver Wendell
Holmes. He was deeply impressed, as
were so many young men before and
after him. by the great Justices wise
outlook on life.
Aristocratic Philadelphia Family.
| This experience was superimposed on
his relationship at Harvard with Prof.
Felix Frankfurter, who was to become
one of Biddle's closest friends. 1t is
thanks in no small part to Frankfurters
backing that this Philadelphia aristocrat
has a place in the New Deal cabinet.
Biddle is, of course, in the Roosevelt
tradition. He was follower of T. r.
long before he enlisted with F. D. r. AS