e position from a Republican administration, his job security had again come under question. He used everything at his disposal to try and save his position. Harlan Stone, who had by now been appointed to the Supreme Court, came to aid his earlier protg by writing to an advisor of Roosevelt to praise the Director's administration of the Bureau. Apparently the Justice had never found out about Hoover's secret dealings that were in contradiction to Stone's rules as attorney general. Hoover himself made use of his contacts in Congress by calling the Democrats that he knew to try and gain some insurance against being removed. As Director he also removed several agents that had been in the Bureau for years to replace them with southern Democrats so that by the time Roosevelt was inaugurated there were over one hundred Democrats already on the payroll. Even with these types of efforts, it seemed that Hoover would still be replaced as Roosevelt named a former senator that had been on the committee hearings of the Palmer raids. This new man was determined to replace most of the patronage jobs in the Department of Justice. He would have accomplished this and quite possibly been able to discover many of Hoover's secrets had he not died while away with his new wife. This left a gap open for Hoover to jump into by using his talent of seeming completely loyal to his superiors. In this case it was the newly appointed attorney general Homer Cummings. He was somewhat of an unscrupulous man, and the only real convincing that he needed from Hoover was that one of his rivals would be investigated. Hoover had now overcome one of the largest threats to his career and more importantly to his empire. He had spent the last several years quietly behind the scenes gaining influence with constituencies in the nation's police and judicial systems, powerful lobbies like the National Association of Manufacturers and veteran's groups, as well as his elected friends...
