Futile, Brief

Vice President Dawes sat before the Senate in hurried solemnity. Fifty-three Senators bowed their heads in speedy prayer, last week.

"Hear ye, hear ye . . ." droned Sergeant-at-Arms David S. Barry as he proclaimed that the Senate was sitting as a court "for the trial of articles of impeachment exhibited by the House of Representatives" against George Washington English, U. S. Judge for the Eastern District of Illinois. Suddenly, under the clock, swinging doors swung; the doorkeeper announced the Managers (appointed by the House of Representatives to conduct the prosecution at the bar of the Senate). Four of the eight strode in, headed by Representative Michener of Michigan. He said, as everyone knew he would, that Judge English had handed in his resignation a week before, that President Coolidge had accepted it, that the primary purpose of the impeachment proceedings had been accomplished. Then Senator Charles Curtis moved that the Senate adjourn as a court of impeachment until Dec. 13. Since Congress reconvenes on Dec. 6, the House will have a week to confirm the recommendation of its Managers to abandon the trial of Judge English.

Majestic events, when futile, are brief. The Judge English episode, which was to have been the tenth impeachment* in the history of the U. S., lasted only six minutes+- and was the shortest session ever to go on the Senate records.

Last March, as a result of an investigation brought about by the St. Louis Post Dispatch, the House voted, 302 to 62, that Judge English of East St. Louis, Ill., should face an impeachment trial on charges of "usurpation of powers and other high misdemeanors." Among other things, Judge English is charged with illegal manipulation of bankruptcy funds, with using profane language from the bench, with threatening attorneys and juries. Although his resignation does not openly admit his guilt, it is an admission that he is unwilling to risk an impeachment trial.

* The first was the impeachment of Senator William Blount in 1797, the last was that of Judge Archbald in 1913 ; the most famed was that of President Andrew Johnson in 1868.

+- Four more minutes were consumed while the Senate met as the Senate to swear in David W. Stewart of Iowa as the successor of the late Senator Albert B. Cummins, and to hear the announcements and condolences of the deaths of Senators Cummins and Bert M. Fernald of Maine.