A Kick for the Senator

Harry Truman, who can scarcely afford to lose supporters, gave one a kick in the political shins last week. The wounded man: Illinois' Fair Dealing Senator Paul Douglas.

For a year, Douglas has been trying to get the President to fill three vacancies on the Illinois federal bench, where the docket is badly overcrowded. By ancient senatorial privilege, as the state's only Democratic Senator, he is entitled to pick the men whom the President will nominate. He sent the White House three names, one of them a past president of the Chicago Bar Association. Jake Arvey's Democratic machine boys okayed Douglas' choice. But Harry Truman put off his decision, nursing a growing grudge.

In the Senate, Douglas has fought long & hard for Administration bills, including controls. But big Paul Douglas is no party hack. He criticized the Truman budget for having too much fat; he criticized Truman's cronies for their conduct in RFC. He also suggested at one point that if Harry Truman did not want the job next year, Dwight Eisenhower might make a good coalition President. In a full-dress speech in the Senate, he demanded that the Administration pursue a resolute course in Asia (TIME, Jan. 22), and once he called Dean Acheson a war casualty who should be allowed to resign. Worst of all, Douglas had even got himself talked about as a possible presidential candidate.

Last week Paul Douglas decided he had better call at the White House, not to talk about the judgeships, but to make peace. He said he had no White House ambitions, had voted pro-Administration about 75 to 80% of the time, and would continue to. Truman, unyielding, read Douglas a lecture on party loyalty.

Two days later, a White House aide phoned Douglas to tell him that the Illinois appointments had been made. Two of Douglas' choices were rejected. Instead, the President had appointed Cook County

Judge Cornelius J. Harrington (who was introduced to Harry Truman by a mutual friend), and Municipal Court Judge Joseph Jerome Drucker, nephew of loyal and ancient Congressman Adolph J. Sabath. The third nominee was Lawyer Joseph S. Perry, former Dupage County Democratic chairman--on Douglas' list, but only by courtesy. Actually, he had been put up by ex-Senator Scott Lucas.

Douglas retired to nurse his bruises--and to consider appealing to an old senatorial custom; if he opposes the appointments made against his recommendation, the Senate is likely to refuse to confirm Harry Truman's choices.

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