Absentee

Conspicuously absent from all last week's super-functions in Washington was the fine, bearded figure of the U. S. Chief Justice. Stricken with a duodenal ulcer, Charles Evans Hughes, 77, lay in his bed at home, so sick that his friends regretfully concluded he would never again take his place upon the Supreme Bench.

Flu forced Mr. Hughes to stay away from the Court from March 6 to April 17, but when he returned everyone commented on what an amazing comeback he had made. His step was firm and vigorous, his color high, eye bright, voice strong. Then he began to fail. His last appearance was on the Wednesday preceding the term's end, and observers expressed doubt then that he would be able to finish out.

Mr. Hughes is the second man in history to have been both Justice and Chief Justice. The first was Edward Douglass White, whose colleagues in 1910 unanimously petitioned President Taft for his elevation to lead them. Mr. Hughes resigned from the Court in 1916 to run for President, went back as Chief in 1930 by President Hoover's appointment. Washington insiders last week predicted that, if Franklin Roosevelt must pick a new Chief Justice and follows precedent by picking from the field, his choice will lie between Frank Murphy and Robert Houghwout Jackson. If he promotes a Court member, they said, the lucky man will be either Felix Frankfurter or the Court's baby, William Orville Douglas, 40.

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