Men of Law

To the White House last week went men great in the law. They took to President Hoover their knowledge, experience and advice for his law enforcement investigation. A trained engineer about to sink a new shaft in quest of buried facts, the President plotted his operation cautiously. Six or nine worthy men had first to be found, men without passion or prejudice on prohibition. Their descent must be well charted-where to break ground, how far down to go, what machinery to use to bring up the ugly ore of crime.

Youngest of the legal technicians to be called was Dean Robert Maynard Hutchins, 30. Brooklyn-born, fair of face. Into three decades Dean Hutchins has packed much successful living. On the Italian front he won a Croce di Guerra for U. S. ambulance driving. A Yale graduate of 1921, he captained the debating team, was class orator, achieved prominence without athletics. Two years later while a Yale Law School student he was chosen secretary of the University. His LL.B. came magna cum laude in 1925. In 1927 he was made Dean of the Yale Law School.

Herbert Hoover has a rare gift for kindling new fires of moral endeavor within young men, for sending them forth on missions of nobility. An influence at New Haven where he is in close contact not only with the student body but also with returning--and "reuning"--alumni, Dean Hutchins may find himself a Hoover missionary spreading the gospel of abstinence among college men. The Yale Law School has been conducting a survey of court administration. Dean Hutchins, with Prof. Charles E. Clark, told the President of this work. If asked, he could have given President Hoover an illuminating account of the college attitude toward prohibition.

Next, to the White House, to spend the night, came Charles Evans Hughes, just back from a bask in Bermuda. From his rangeful knowledge of courts, prosecutions, procedure, he drew much solemn counsel, many a suggestion to help President Hoover on the mechanics of his inquiry.

Third to say his say was Silas Hardy Strawn of Chicago, onetime (1927-28) President of the American Bar Association and a conspicuous member of Chicago's Crime Commission, warned Mr. Hoover against commissioning professional prohibitors to make investigations. Said Mr. Strawn: "Prohibition . . . cannot be enforced by making more drastic laws such as the Jones Act. The opinion of the American people must support the law. . . . How this can be brought about is hard to say." Last and most august came Chief Justice Taft, to discuss with President Hoover the U. S. Courts and their relation to the problem of law enforcement. Long has the Chief Justice been troubled by the decline of criminal justice. Having set his own high court at the Capitol in spick-and-span order, he was ready to make suggestions to the President for judicial improvements else where.

P:With proper pomp Michael MacWhite presented himself at the White House one afternoon last week and said he was King George's new Minister from the Irish Free State. President Hoover, in U. S. diplomatic uniform,* received him in the Blue Room. Offering his letter of credence Minister MacWhite said: "My government has entrusted to me the very agreeable mission of conveying to you their most sincere good wishes for the continued and increasing prosperity of the great people whose destinies are committed to your care." Replied President Hoover: "I will ask you to convey to your Government my cordial and friendly greetings and my best wishes for the welfare and prosperity of the people of the Irish Free State.''

P:Once a handshake with the U. S. president was advertised by sightseeing companies as an attraction for Washington tourists. President Hoover shook 4,000 hands his first week in office. Last week he reduced handshaking days to two per week, Monday and Wednesday. The first Monday only 143 hands received the presidential grip.

P:Off into Virginia President Hoover sent his secretary, Lawrence Richey, in search of trout streams for presidential fishing this summer. The President does not favor Mount Weather in the Blue Ridge, selected by Calvin Coolidge, as a week-end retreat (TIME, Feb. 25). He said it is hot and offers nothing much but scenery.

P:Mrs. Catherine Shea went over from the Treasury to the White House last week with an envelope for President Hoover. In it was a check for $2,083.33, the President's salary for March 4 to March 15, inclusive.

P:New York's Senator Copeland is a physician. He has crusaded for fresh air in the Senate chamber. Last week he went to the White House, sniffed the air in the President's office, remarked professionally that it was much too hot. President Hoover got up and raised the window.

*Formal evening clothes.