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Tennessee's Finis James Garrett served in the House of Representatives continuously from 1905 to 1929. In 1923. 1925 and 1927 he was nominated for what has often been called the second most important job in the U. S.--the House Speakership. Republican majorities defeated him each time and by 1928 Representative Garrett was convinced that the best he could ever hope for in the House was the minority leadership he had held for five years. In 1928, he ran against bumbling Kenneth McKellar in the primary for the U. S. Senate. Opposed by Memphis' potent Boss Edward Crump (TIME, Nov. 1), he was roundly defeated. If Finis Garrett had stayed in the House in 1928, he would almost certainly have been elected Speaker by the Democratic majority of 1931. If Finis Garrett had been Speaker, John Nance Garner would not have been boomed for the Presidency in 1932. Without the Garner boom the famed deal whereby California and Texas delegations gave their support to Franklin Roosevelt at the Chicago Convention of 1932 would have been impossible. Without the Hearst-Garner-McAdoo deal, Franklin Roosevelt might never have become President of the U. S.

In 1929, Calvin Coolidge made Finis Garrett an associate judge of the U. S. court of customs and patent appeals (salary: $12,500). Three weeks ago, the court's Presiding Judge William J. Graham died. Last week the Senate Judiciary Committee was considering the man Franklin Roosevelt had nominated as Judge Graham's successor: 62-year-old Finis James Garrett.

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