Home-Town Boy

It was "Fred Vinson Day" in the valley town of Louisa, Ky. (pop. 2,100), and 5,000 people crowded into town for the doings. U.S. Supreme Court Justices Stanley Reed, Tom Clark and Sherman Minton, all the Kentucky court of appeals judges, the governors of Kentucky and nearby West Virginia were there to honor the home-town boy. They ate country ham and fried chicken as guests of cousin R. L. Vinson, a retired banker. Then came the ceremony at which a bronze plaque, bearing Chief Justice Vinson's mournfully dignified likeness, 'was dedicated. "The happiest day of my life," said Vinson.* Said a whiskered old mountaineer: "For a feller who started life in jail, Fred sure has gone a long way."/-

He sure had. Frederick Moore Vinson had solemnly mounted the Washington ladder--Congressman, U.S. court of appeals Judge, U.S. Economic Stabilizer, Director of War Mobilization and Reconversion, Secretary of the Treasury and then Chief Justice--lately with a helping hand from his good friend Harry Truman. The question now: How much further will Fred Vinson go, with Harry Truman's help? White House Democrats, who don't really know what the boss's plans are (as of last week they thought he probably wouldn't run again), think that Harry Truman, if he does not run, will designate Vinson as his successor. Vinson is a poker-playing, Williamsburg-weekending pal of the President's, and regularly gives the President advice on appointments and legislation--a practice that might have horrified some of his predecessors as Chief Justice. Besides, he is conservative enough, regular enough, and close enough to the South to enjoy the respect of Southern Democrats, most of whom have lost their respect for Harry Truman and spend their off hours thinking up ways to thwart the President. Harry Truman licked the Dixiecrats in 1948, but the Southern Democrats now arrayed against him are a more influential and formidable lot.

* For news of another observation by the Chief Justice, see RELIGION.

/- Fred's father was Lawrence County jailer when Fred was born on Jan. 22, 1890, in the Louisa building that housed the family's quarters in front, the jail in back.

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