Promise Kept

As he motored to the Capitol on March 4 for the inaugural of his successor, President Hoover turned anxiously to Franklin Roosevelt with a personal patronage problem. It had to do with Walter Hughes Newton of the White House secretariat. Born & bred in Minneapolis, Mr. Newton had been elected in 1918 to the House where by his wits he had worked himself up to a position of Republican importance. When Mr. Hoover took office in 1929, he felt the need for better contacts with the House leadership, persuaded Representative Newton to resign his seat and join the White House staff. As the President's liaison agent, Secretary Newton chinned with his one time colleagues in Capitol lobbies, helped wangle through the Administration's measures, ran political errands and otherwise worked hard and well for his chief. But Secretary Newton was not a man of independent means and his job meant bread & butter to him. After the 1932 election, therefore, President Hoover had nominated him to be a Federal district judge. But a balky Senate had refused to confirm this or any other Hoover nomination.

Would it be asking too much of the new President, asked the old President, to give Mr. Newton a job? Why, of course not. The new President would be glad to take care of the old President's special friend. President Hoover looked happy for the first and only time on that ride up Capitol Hill. Last week President Roosevelt kept his March 4 promise by appointing Mr. New ton to be a Republican member of the moribund Federal Home Loan Bank Board. The job pays $9,000 per year. Though Nebraska's Norris called the nomination a "slap in the face to all progressive Republicans," the Senate confirmed it, 43-to-30.

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