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Man with a Bow Tie. Attorney General Francis Biddle, whose Groton-Harvard background and passion for civil liberties endeared him to Franklin Roosevelt, had nevertheless been on his way out for so long that the names of his possible successors had been bandied about the gossip columns for months. Last week one columnist (the New York Post's Charles Van Devander) found, in flipping through his scrapbook, that he had actually picked Tom Clark for the post 15 months ago. But none of President Truman's three new appointments was more surprising.
Thomas Campbell Clark came to Washington in 1937 with the blessing of Texas' Senator Tom Connally. In the Justice Department, he worked his way through antitrust and war fraud cases, finally handled many a law violation turned up by the Truman Investigating Committee.
Since 1943 he has been the Assistant Attorney General in charge of the Criminal Division, specializing in civil rights and peonage cases. He has a collection of 50 bow ties, an authentic cowboy Stetson, a broad grin, and a soft Southern drawl. He likes to be called Tom, "because that's the way folks address Senator Connally." Among Washington legal eagles, he is known for his bulldog tenacity in preparing cases. Said he: "A good lawyer doesn't file a suit unless he's sure he'll win."
Man with a Tongue. The most significant appointment was that of big, balding Lewis Schwellenbach.
A few days after his inauguration, Harry Truman got a letter from Indiana's onetime Senator Sherman ("Shay") Minton, now a federal judge, recommending Schwellenbach for a top job in the new Administration. (Truman, Minton and Schwellenbach had all been "freshman" Senators together in 1935, occupying seats in the back row.) Harry Truman did not need the letter. He had already ordered Lew Schwellenbach to Washington. When Schwellenbach arrived. President Truman told him that he wanted him to be the Harry Hopkins of his administration. Schwellenbach, secure for life in a federal judgeship, demurred. Then Truman offered him the Labor secretaryship. Knowing what a hot seat that would be, Schwellenbach flatly refused, went back to Spokane. But more Presidential phone calls did the trick. Washington insiders say that, for acceding to the President's wishes, Lew Schwellenbach was promised the first Supreme Court vacancy.
As a young Senator, traditionally supposed to hold his tongue, Lew Schwellenbach baited Huey Long, voted down the line for Roosevelt measures. He was a rampant hatchet man in the fight to pack the Supreme Court. One close associate, in a gross understatement, described him as "at least as New Dealish as President Roosevelt." A man with a saw-edged temper, he tirelessly baited the Hearst press and Wall Street, called Liberty Leaguers a group of "leeches, rascals and crooks." Once a labor lawyer in labor-conscious Seattle, he has the backing in his new job of the C.I.O., A.F. of L., and also of the West Coast's potent labor czar, Dave Beck of the Teamsters.