A New Leader

When President Harding died, the eyes of the nation turned toward his successor, Calvin Coolidge. Ex-President Wilson's death leaves, technically, no office for a successor. But Mr. Wilson to the day of his death held office as the leader of an outstanding movement--by some admired, by others abhorred--the League-of-Nations idea. By his part in creating the League, by his advocacy of it, which cost him his health, there was no disputing his title. With his death the mantle descends. There is little doubt that it falls upon the shoulders of John Hessin Clarke, former Associate Justice of the Supreme Court. No one except Mr. Wilson has a record of greater service to the League-of-Nations idea. No one else is perhaps so willing to bear this honor which is coupled with so much political dislike. Hoover, Hughes and Root cannot take it, even if they would, because Republicans as a body are against it. Among Democrats, those with political possibilities of a national scope fear to don it completely. There are some --John W. Davis, Carter Glass, Newton D. Baker--who would be willing, but who, for reasons chiefly political, would not perfectly fit. Ironically enough, some of them were "too close to Wil- son." Outside of politics there are Edward W. Bok, a publicist, A. Lawrence Lowell, Ray Lyman Wilbur--but none of national proportions--none except the rugged, unassuming, eloquent bachelor of Youngstown, Ohio. Certainly ex-Justice Clarke never expected the honor. A year and a half ago when he retired from the bench he declared that he was too old to aspire to leadership of so great a cause, but that he hoped to be of service. Leadership comes to those who serve. He began his career as a corporation lawyer in Ohio. In 1914 he was made a Federal Judge in that State. One of his innovations while holding that post was a method of Americanizing aliens. When he granted citizenship he held a reception, with music, speeches, refreshments. He made the newly-fledged, exalted citizens feel important. After only two years he was elevated to the Supreme Court, where his rugged personality lent a certain tonic atmosphere. He was impatient of refinement of argument, preferring by nature a certain blunt honesty of the intellect. He was one of the Justices who dissented when the Child Labor Law was first held unconstitutional. He broke the tradition of the Supreme Court that its members should make no public speeches. When invited to speak, he said what he had to say. As early as 1918, even before the Versailles Conference assembled, he told the American Bar Association that the most important result of the War should be "the establishment of a league to enforce peace." He clung to that declaration and has never left it. In September, 1922, he wrote to President Harding: "I shall be 65 years old the 18th of this month. ... To the end that I may have time to read many books, ... to travel and to serve my neighbors and some public causes, . . . and as a beginning of what I hope may be at least a partial realization of this philosophy of my later life, I hereby resign. . . ." He kept his word; the chief cause which he has served is the League of Nations cause. Last May he made an extensive speech-making tour (TIME, May 5). What he preached was League--League first, and other considerations afterwards: "I believe the future of the United States depends upon our entrance into the League. Reservations may or may not be neces- sary--the main thing to do is to join." Many Americans dissent vigorously from this attitude. Justice Clarke cares little. He endorsed President Harding's World Court proposal. He opposed Mr. Harding's statement last April that America had "definitely and decis- ively" put aside the League of Nations. He is an advocate, but he aims to be an independent advocate. Free of personal or party considerations, the retired holder of the highest judicial position in the land has taken from the retired holder of its highest executive office the torch which was a common light to both. With his associates in the League of Nations Nonpartisan Association -- George W. Wickersham, Everett Colby, Hamilton Holt, Irving Fisher, Manley O. Hudson--Justice Clark, its President, has carried on active work in almost all northern States--as far as his health permits. He declares, challengingly: "I predict the League issue will be a decisive factor in the next election. . . ."