The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1952-01-24
THE GREAT
GAME OF
POLITICS
Copyright by The Baltimore Sun and
reprinted in The Republican by
permission.
BY FRANK II. KENT
Hands Off The Court

las Oh IllS supreme court mas "nlmlN
rejected either first or second place
on the 1852 Democratic national
ticket. Perhaps this is not very i'm
portant but as surprise it is perfect.
What Mr.. Truman, Senator Taft,
General Eisenhower and other con-
spicuous political figures do may have
greater public and political effect
but no decision any of these make will
be as unexpected as that of Justice
Douglas, who, according to the reli-
able Mr.. Arthur krock in the New
York Times has written firmly" to
Mr.. Truman that he now intends to
make a lifetime career of being a
Supreme Court member and is I'M
available for a draft" Certainly
this raises several interesting ques-
tions.
Naturally, the first is: Could Mr..
Douglas be rejecting something that
has not been offered? Or, what makes
him think there is a draft" move
ment for him? 1t has been unani-
mously assumed by all politicians and
all political observers that if Mr.
Truman does not himself want to be
nominated land few think he does) he
will be able to dictate the nominee.
The power Of the White House in
cumbent is such that he can always
do that But it is not reasonable to
believe that Mr. Truman offered
either the presidential or vice presi-
Dental nomination to Mr.. Douglas
because it is quite well known that
Mr.. Truman's choice as his successor
is his close friend, Chief Justice Fred
Vinson. That fact has been printed
thousands Of times Certainly, if Mr..
Truman wants Mr.. Vinson for the
first place, it would be unthinkable to
take another member Of the Supreme
Court for second place
Therefore, it seems clear that in
FIRMLY" rejecting these posts Mr..
Douglas was rejecting something that
had not been offered by Mr. Tru-
man. This being so, the second
question arises-who, then, did make
the offer? We are informed that
Douglas for President clubs had been
formed all over the West and move
ment existed to "integrate" these into
national organization. Of the eXis-
tence either Of these clubs or the in
tegrating movement there has been
no evidence whatever. Up to the time
Of Mr. Douglass rejection no one
seems to have heard Of them.
OF course, it is true that ever since
he went on the bench in 1899, Mr..
Douglas has been "boomed" for
President or Vice President But the
boomers were never able to offer him
anything but publicity. They We're
confined to certain leaders of the
Americans for Democratic Action,
certain leaders of the CLIO, before
whose conventions Mr. Douglas has
made what were generally regarded
as political speeches, and certain left
wing New Dealers and liberal"
journalists of the Roosevelt regime.
Combine them all and they We're not
worth one delegate vote in a Demo-
cratic convention.
1t is now said that Mr.. Roosevelt
wanted Mr. Douglas to run with him
in 1914 and that Mr.. Truman wanted
him in 1948-and that Mr. Douglas
declined both times. That hardly fits
in with his attitude toward his left
wing boomers. Toward their efforts
he has been anything but discourage
ing. In fact, he has seemed, not only
to outsiders but to colleagues on the
court, literally to revel in the pub
LEFTY they engendered to meet it at
least half way; to be more than avid
for the draft" Frequently, news
paper stories from his intimate
friends appeared to the effect that he
was fed up with the court, wanted to
get off; that he was bored on the
bench, eager to get into politics.
There was no secret that other jus
tees resented this sort of thing,
thought it violated the traditions Of
the Supreme Court, diminished its
dignity, damaged its prestige. Now, it
seems, Mr.. Douglas has withdrawn
encouragement from his boosters and
for the rest of his life will keep
aloof from politics, devoting himself
to the duties Of his high judicial
position. There is no use saying that
this is what he should have done long
ago. There is no use saying that his
political publicity was pointless,
fl.uitless and clashed with the dignity
of the court. Now that he has done it,
the only thing to do is to commend
him and, perhaps, hope that the Chief
Justice, whose name is almost daily
batted around in one political story
after the other in quite undignitied
way, may find some effective means
of putting an end to it. 1t would be
a really fine thing if, between them,
Mr.. Vinson and Mr.. Douglas could
establish once and for all that the
C,,,,,.o,,,a Co1i,+ Of tho Trpitad States