A. B. A. Rival (Cont'd)

In the faded Rose Room of Washington's old Hotel Washington last week the National Lawyers Guild blossomed after months of strenuous nurture by its liberal founders (TIME, Jan. 18) into a full-blown national organization, complete with constitution, officers and resolutions of high purpose. Temper of the 315 delegates was demonstrated early in the convention by the manner in which the new fellowship received a layman's slashing indictment of their profession. Barked Scripps-Howard's hard-boiled Columnist Raymond Clapper:

"The legal profession, certainly its most prominent members, have been engaged chiefly in obstruction, in sabotage. Instead of helping us build our bridge [to the Promised Land], they have stood around throwing rocks, saying it never could be done . . . that we should stay right where we are. . . " Every effort that is made [by Congress to build the bridge] is greeted with Bronx cheers from a chorus of Cassandras. [Judges and lawyers] tell us that it will mean the end of our form of government. They try to make our flesh creep by staging a parade of ... imaginary horribles."

Pundit Clapper's speech was not the red flag it would have been before the American Bar Association. He was cheered. So was Mississippi's Congressman John Elliott Rankin when he told the Guild: "You come closer to the heartbeats of the American people than that antiquated institution known as the American Bar Association."

Congressman Maury Maverick of Texas opined that Guild activities would liberalize the A.B.A., which, in effect, is what Franklin Roosevelt hopes. In a welcoming letter read to the convention, the President said: ''It is a time for progressive and constructive thinking, and ... I have every confidence that your deliberations will affect the welfare of your own profession and the well-being of the country at large."

Despite Lawyer Morris Leopold Ernst's protestations that his brainchild wanted no feud with the A.B.A., debate on every resolution showed the two organizations on opposite sides of the legal fence. Washington's dry little Senator Bone charged the A.B.A. had "never waged a battle for human rights." To this the A.B.A.'s president, Minneapolis' Frederick Harold Stinchfield, sent the reply that the A.B.A. was fighting Franklin Roosevelt's judiciary plans (see p. 10). Next day, Senator Bone snapped back that the A.B.A. did not understand the meaning of the words "human rights," had shown it by opposing the Child Labor Amendment. He added: "Put the resolutions of the A.B.A. for the last ten years in reverse and you have ... the Guild."

This is just what the Guild proceeded to do in its battery of resolutions adopted after a constitution had been approved. First, the convention approved Franklin Roosevelt's judiciary proposals "as a legitimate expedient to make possible progressive legislation in the immediate future," adding that more & more was it necessary for "fundamental reform" by Constitutional amendment.

Also plumped for: Constitutional amendment taking from the Supreme Court power to declare State laws unconstitutional, popular referenda on Constitutional amendments, the Child Labor Amendment, State laws outlawing labor injunctions.

Elected president of the National Lawyers Guild at the close of the three-day session was A.B.A. President Stinchfield's fellow townsman and good friend, rubicund John Patrick Devaney, 53, who resigned last week as Minnesota's Chief Justice to return to private practice. His Irish face beaming at his unanimous selection. Judge Devaney agreed to serve only until April.

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