National Affairs: Party Pay-Off

To the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia—which probably handles the largest number of labor cases of any court in the land—Harry Truman last week appointed Missouri’s labor-hated ex-Senator Bennett Champ Clark. It was probably his worst appointment to date. The President owed Bennett Clark little. As Senators they had rarely seen eye to eye. Harry Truman voted 99% New Deal, Bennett Clark had chipped and sniped away at Franklin Roosevelt. In the 1944 primaries, Clark was repudiated by Missouri voters in the primary, largely on the strength of labor opposition. Now labor was furious. Cried C.I.O. Spokesman J. Raymond Walsh: “A scandal, crude and inexcusable. . . . It’s not dishonest, it’s simply dangerous. …”