The Nome Nugget

Delegate Bartlett Makes Unreserved Recommendation of Walter Hodge For Second District Court Judgeship

WASHINGTON, (P) - Delegate Bartlett Tuesday recommended "without any reservations whatsoever" the confirmation of Walter H. Hodge for a second four-year term as U.S. District Court judge for Alaska's Second Division.

"In all my experience, there has never been a situation where a man without previous judicial experience so promptly and effectively rose to the duties of the high office to which he was entrusted as was the case in reference to Walter H. Hodge," he wrote Sen. Eastland (D-Miss), chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee.

Hodge's nomination by President Eisenhower for reappointment to the court position now is pending before Eastland's committee.

Although Hodge is headquartered at Nome, Bartlett said he has traveled widely throughout Alaska to aid other judges whose calendars were more crowded than his.

A poll by the Board of Governors of the Alaska Bar Assn., among attorneys in all four judicial divisions of the territory, Bartlett said, "discloses a support for Judge Hodge to a simply amazing extent and degree."

Service by Hodge, a Republican, "has been a credit to the administration and, more appropriately put, to the nation he serves," the Delegate declared.