Cohen Again

President Harding appointed Walter L. Cohen, a Negro Republican, controller of customs at New Orleans. He tried to do so while Congress was in session, but the Senate, heeding the cries of the two Louisiana Senators, Broussard and Ransdell, refused to confirm the appointment. This is the first interim appointment (that is, an appointment good till Congress reassembles) ever made by a President once that Congress refused definitely to confirm the nomination of the man in question.

It is regarded as ingratitude to Senators Broussard and Ransdell, Democrats, who supported various Republican measures, notably the Fordney-McCumber Tariff. In the South it is freely criticized as an attempt to capture the Negro vote in 1924. Says The New Orleans Times-Picayune :

" New Orleans counts upon the Elder Statesmen to reaffirm the eminently right and wise decision they rendered in the Cohen case last March."