Monday, Feb. 26, 1940

Even Hand

Eight days after he ascended to the U. S. Supreme Court, Associate Justice Frank Murphy dashed to Palm Beach "for his health." At a cocktail party the evening before he left Washington, he seemed no more pallid than usual. His acquaintances in Washington therefore deduced one more bit of evidence that Frank Murphy would rather be almost anywhere than on the Court. He never did like to read law books; while he was U. S. Attorney General, he read as few as possible.

In his anxiety to get off the bench, Justice Murphy last week let politicos in his home State of Michigan know that he 1) would like to have the Democratic nomination for Vice President, 2) would resign like a shot if they started a boom for him.

Hardly was Mr. Murphy out of Washington before the new Attorney General, Robert H. Jackson, disposed of some old debris. One of Murphy's last acts as Attorney General was to have 16 alleged Communists and fellow-travelers indicted in Detroit for having recruited volunteers for Loyalist Spain. Michigan libertarians raised a great cry. In a Milwaukee court, G-Man John F. Elich related how he trailed one of the 16, Dr. Frederick C. Lendrum, who had examined Loyalist volunteers.

"Why are you following me?" Dr. Lendrum demanded. Not yet ready to arrest his quarry, G-Man Elich replied: "I thought you were the man running around with my wife."

Last week Robert Jackson, ordering dismissal of the indictments, pointedly blamed Frank Murphy for hunting mare's-nests. Said Attorney General Jackson, recalling that the recruiting occurred in 1937 and 1938, was investigated by the FBI last March: "No action was taken until December 1939 when the U. S. Attorney at Detroit was ordered by Attorney General Murphy to conduct a grand jury proceeding. . . . Even-handed and impartial justice would not localize prosecutions of this character to Detroit. ... I can see no good to come from reviving in America at this late date the animosities of the Spanish conflict. ... It seems inappropriate to begin prosecution for activities so long known to the Government."

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