OCR Text |
Show Washington Comment j The highlight of Washington's ; week an annual affair of great importance which has become in- creasingly spectacujar since Mr. Roosevelt's ill-fated efforts to ! change its personnel and functions func-tions was the opening of the su-' su-' preme court for its 1938-39 term. The chamber was filled to capacity i with spectators and an overflow ot j hundreds of interested citizens j lined the outside corridors of the ! majestic white edifice on Capitol ; hill. It was a solemn and sad occasion oc-casion this year because a beloved justice, remembered for his wisdom, wis-dom, his kindliness and his gentle i voice, was gene: the chair of the late Justice Cardozo was vacant! j It was the same chair by point of ! succession which the other revered rever-ed justice, the late Oliver Wendell j Holmes, had occupied. Twice now j within a decade, it has been made j (Continued on last page) Washington Comment (Continued from first page) ther successor and common opinion opin-ion has it that Felix Frankfurter, Harvard law school professor, who is spending: this week-end as the president's guest at Hyde park, will be his choice to fill the vacancy. vacan-cy. At the opening session on Monday, a session that lasted only IS minutes but was packed with solemnity and deep emotion, Chiei Justice Hughes eulogized the lute Justice Card, zo while the spectators specta-tors paid the tribute of a deathlike death-like silence. The day had its happier hap-pier angle too: it was the first anniversary an-niversary of his membership for Justice Hugo Black; and for Justice Jus-tice .Stanley Reed, the most recent appointee to the bench, it meant, as it did also for Justice Black, a new seat on the basis of advancing a notch in seniority. When the court meets again on this following follow-ing Monday it will begin the real business of the session. Among the particularly interesting cases awaiting its august consideration are the T. V. A. case, postponed from October 17 to November 14 because of the nomination of one ot the government's attorneys, John Lord O'Brian, by the Republican party as its candidate for senator fiom New York and that old hardy perennial, an appeal by Tom Mooney, serving a life sentence at San Quentin for complicity in the llllfi preparedness day bombings in San Francisco, (which this highest tribunal in "the nation refused re-fused to hear.) While Republicans confidently count on four or five additional seats in the senate and about GO more in the house, and while G. O P. leaders are moving to initiate ouster proceedings against Senator Sena-tor Alben Barkley, if he is reelected, reelect-ed, the changes already indicated by the primary elections foretell a mad scramble and a drastic change in the congressional committee set-ups. Wide gaps have been left in some of the major committees by the political casualties, and at least five important committee chairmanships have been vacated: Rules, Revision of the Laws, Pen-. Pen-. sion, Printing, and District oi Columbia. The defeat of Representative Repre-sentative O'Connor of New York leaves "Rules" without a chairman apparently, and though Representative Represen-tative Salbath of Illinois, dean ot the House, is in line for the post , it is thought that the final selec- 1 tion will be a mere forceful leader. lead-er. It is expected that Representative Represen-tative Kennedf of Maryland win' succeed Representative Palmisanu as chairman of "District of Columbia"; Colum-bia"; Representative Jarman ot Alahama is in line for "Printing"; Representative Smith of Washington Washing-ton has the leading chance at "Pensions", and Representative McKeough of New York will like ly get "Revision of the Laws". Although Al-though the opening of congress ,s several months away, the hectic scramble for the juicy plums is already on since the coveted committee com-mittee assignments mean more to the congressman than making the best club and fraternity does to the collegian, so they pull wires and angle unblushingly. A congressman con-gressman without a good committee commit-tee assignment gets a black mark "back home" and it takes all his eloquence to explain away his failure fail-ure to friends, constituents ana associates. This season there art vacant by death! It awaits ano-over ano-over 50 vacancies, aside from chairmanships, in the membership personnel of the various commit- I I tees, so a goodly number of palpi-i palpi-i tting congressional hoai ts shouhl be made happy. |