Impeachment No. 13

A small, thin, white-haired man of 67 last week sat with his wife in the gallery of the House of Representatives and watched himself become the 13th man in U. S. history to be impeached for high crimes and misdemeanors.* He was U. S. District Judge Halsted Lockwood Ritter of Florida. As in the last two impeachments voted by the House (Judge George W. English of Illinois in 1926 and Judge Harold Louderback of California in 1932), the charge, in effect, was skulduggery for private profit in bankruptcy cases.

Halsted Ritter, for 30 years a Denver lawyer before he went to Florida, was appointed as a Republican by President Coolidge in 1929. On the bench he was apt to be a little stiff, sometimes peppery. Once when a bootlegger thanked him for imposing a fine of only $50, Judge Ritter roared: "Don't thank me! To thank a court or a jury for doing its duty is an insult. Your fine is raised to $75." He was first investigated as the result of a resolution introduced in the House by Representative J. Mark Wilcox of Florida in 1933. Last week Congressman Wilcox was the only member of the Florida delegation to vote against the Ritter impeachment. Said he: "If [Ritter] were charged with being a consummate fool, the House would be justified in voting Yes, and I would vote with you."

The subcommittee of three which first investigated Judge Ritter voted 2-to-1 against recommending impeachment. In January the full Judiciary Committee voted 12-to-7 to drop the charges. Same day Florida Congressman Robert Alexis Green, who wears a flowing Windsor tie, uprose on the House floor, made a rousing speech against Judge Ritter. Three weeks later the Judiciary Committee reversed itself by voting (10-to-8) an impeachment resolution. The constitutional "high crimes and misdemeanors" of which the Democratic majority accused Republican Judge Ritter: He granted an exorbitant fee of $75,000 to his onetime Partner Albert L. Rankin as receiver of Whitehall, a Palm Beach hotel, and accepted $4,500 from Rankin in return; he collected $7,500 through other receiverships; he took a $2,000 legal fee while on the bench; he accepted free food, lodging and valet service at the bankrupt hotel of which his sister-in-law was made manager.

Rasped Chairman Hatton Sumners of the Judiciary Committee arguing for impeachment: "The last case of this kind we took to the Senate [the Louderback impeachment] resulted in the greatest farce ever presented. At one time only three Senators were present, and for ten days we presented evidence to what was practically an empty chamber. . . . Quit talking now, boys, and behave. ... An impeachment in this case will be notice to the country that the time has come when a corporation seeking refuge in Federal Court is not a signal to crooked lawyers to flock in and feast on the carcass."

Said Republican Representative William Ekwall of Oregon: "To convict Judge Ritter you would have to pile up presumptions that wouldn't be evidence in Russia, let alone the U. S. The case against him would not stand up in a police court."

Said Republican Representative Louis Ludlow of Indiana: "If accepting a free meal is a crime, how many of us would be here today, instead of in jail?"

After four and a half hours' debate, the House exercised its highest constitutional function by impeaching Judge Ritter by a vote of 181-to-146, sending his case across the Capitol for trial by the Senate sometime next month.

*The twelve others: eight Federal judges, one Senator (William Blount of Tennessee, 1797), one Secretary of War (William W. Balknap, 1876), one Justice of the Supreme Court (Samuel Chase, 1804), one President (Andrew Johnson, 1868). Three judges were convicted and removed from office. One resigned before trial. One was not prosecuted. The Senator's case was dismissed "for want of jurisdiction." All the others were acquitted.

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