Evening star. [volume], March 11, 1937, Page A-11, Image 11

About Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972

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'Packing’ Foes
Fear Chronic
Changes
Feel Age Limit Sets
Precedent for Arbi
trary Reasons.
BY DAVID LAWRENCE.
THE impression made by President
Roosevelt’s radio speech on
most persons in Congress, In
cluding those who disagree with
his plan to enlarge the Supreme Court,
may be summed up in one word—
plausible.
The President's arguments, it Is
recognized, have
the great advan
tage of being pre
sented tn a per
suasive manner
because the aver
age man is never
Interested in pro
cedures but in
quick results, not
in prolonged de
bate but in as
sertive leadership.
Yet precisely
because the Presi
dent's speech
makes cut a piau- _ .. .
, , _ David Lawrence,
sible case for en
largement of the Supreme Court, the
plausibility of the other side of the
matter is not being overlooked by the
large number here who dissent.
Thus Mr. Roosevelt talks about a
three-horse team and the need for get
ting efficiency in Government. One
need not traverse far inside the United
States Government to find men, them
selves violently opposed to fascism and
dictatorship, who will be able to prove
to you rather convincingly that if really
efficient government is wanted Mr.
Mussolini and Mr. Hitler have the most
direct machinery for achieving it. Not
having to bother with a parliamentary
body, being able to issue decrees that
have the force of law. there can be no
doublt that a one-man government has
it all over a democracy. If absolute
efficiency is the goal, then democracy
has plenty of defects. Indeed, it may
be said that the price of liberty is the
cumbersomeness of democracy.
Brandeis Held View.
This view was expressed by no less
a liberal than Justice Brandeis 11 years
ago when he was 69 years of age and
presumably then considering the new
age standards in the full vigor of his
liberalism. Said Justice Brandeis in
the famous Myers case:
“The doctrine of the separation of
pow'ers was adopted by the convention
of 1787, not to promote efficiency, but
to preclude the exercise of arbitrary
power. The purpose was. not to avoid
friction, but. by means of the inevitable
friction incident to the distribution of
the governmental powers among three
departments, to save the people from
autocracy."
If the President's plan is adopted
by Congress and thus a precedent is
established for future enlargement of
the Supreme Court, there would be
nothing to prevent some other Presi
dent from deciding that 65 or 60 years
wras an advanced age, depending on
how many justices of the Supreme
Court he happened to feel were not
rendering decisions in accordance with
hi* wish. By adding justices who did
agree with a President’s views, the way
is opened up to influence decisions of
the Supreme Court by merely adding
Justices.
Threat Lies in Future.
Whert Mr. Roosevelt says his record
as Governor and President is sufficient !
assurance that religious freedom would 1
not be interfered with by his pro- i
posal, the opponents of the proposi- j
tiomask how Mr. Roosevelt can give
assurance against the views of some \
other administration or Congress. !
after both he and the present mem
bers of Congress have retired from
office.
Indeed, if it is constitutional for
Congress to provide not a fixed court
of a definite number, but a court of
fluctuating size—something that has
never before been done—then the basis
for such action opens up a variety of ;
possibilities. The Roosevelt plan de
clares that new justices shall be added
contingent upon the age of present
Justices. The same principle can be
applied to decisions. In other words,
it could be set forth in the act of
Congress that any number of justices
could be added whenever a majority
of the court ruled adversely on the '
Federal Government's power to regu
late wages or hours or anything else
desired by the legislative body and the ;
President. To make the size of the i
court contingent on age is not very j
different from making it contingent ;
on some other characteristic of the
Supreme Court, including principles
of its decisions.
Constitution Specifies Life.
The view is growing here, therefore,
that Mr. Roosevelt's plan is not at all
within the Constitution, as he argues, i
but plainly in violation. The President
•ays, for instance:
"I suggest only the addition of
Justices to the bench in accordance
with a clearly defined age limit.”
But the Constitution sets forth that
Supreme Court justices shall hold
office for life and there is no congres
sional power whatever to set any age
limit or to impair the decisions of the
Supreme Court by an attempt to defeat
the life tenure provision of the
Constitution.
The question being asked, now that
the President has made over the radio
his best arguments for the enlarge
ment plan, are numerous, but none
more vital than this: What powers
does the Federal Government lack
which could arrest a boom like that
©f 1929?
The query, stated in another way,
Is: What can anybody suggest in
addition to the powers over banking,
over security exchanges, over credit
and finance generally—powers already
upheld by the Supreme Court—that
may be urgently needed to meet the
orisls of which the President speaks?
No Request in Congress.
Inquiry here does not disclose any
request of Congress for more powers
to deal with a financial or economic
crisis. There is, to be sure, much
discussion of how to handle the labor
problem, but the Supreme Court has
not yet acted on the Wagner labor act,
and labor unions themselves, when it
.suits them, do not wish to avail them
selves of the protection of the Wagner
act, as for instance in the General
Motors strike.
The principal point made by sev
eral members of Congress who are
Inclined to be sympathetic with Mr.
Roosevelt’s plan is that .even if it were
adopted it would never achieve the
purposes he has outlined. Impracti
eality is suggested on every side, par
ticularly by those who declare that
the President could get no assurance
of unanimity with a court of nine
men, much less with a court of 15
men. Knowing the niceties of legal
News Behind the News
Difficulty of Controlling Expenditures Threatens to
Outmode Roosevelt Budget.
BY PAUL MALLON.
THE budget which President Roosevelt submitted 60 days ago Is
already becoming obsolete. At least, his chances of staying within
it are not very good. His friends, not his enemies, are responsible.
For example, Gov. Lehman et al. are joining with congres
sional libs to fight for bigger and better W. P. A. appropriations and the
inside dope is Mr. Roosevelt will have to boost the ante.
The House Democratic Steering Committee, supposed to be a party
agent, is protesting against paring the permanent C. C. C. to save
$50,000,000.
The farm crowd, including Agriculture Secretary Wallace, is backing
new farm legislation which may cost $500,000,000.
Senator Wagner wants a big housing program—so big that
Treasury Secretary Morgenthau has suggested there must be addi
tional taxation it it goes through. The question of how much money
utill actually be put into it is still in the conference stage.
Mr. Roosevelt's spending policy thus seems to be becoming more and
more dimcuit for mm to control,
just as is his labor policy in view
of the spread of the sit-down craze.
The charge of the heavy bri
gade in Congress to discredit mailed
protests against Mr. Roosevelt’s
court program is not progressing
very well.
The brigade leadership was
forcefully undertaken by Senate
Leader Robinson and the success of
the whole program may De meas
ured in his accomplishments. So far, these add up to one apology, one tea
party and one inconsistency.
Robinson galloped into the fray waving one particular letter which he
inferred came from Ku Klux sources. It has now developed he had the
wrong man. He has apologized for that. Furthermore, it has developed
that the right man is not a member of any secret society, but a Kansas
minister. ,,
But, with another letter, the Senator has been §ble to prove conclu
sively there was a meeting and tea at Mrs. Blank's on East Fifty-second
street in some city or other at 5 o'clock, February 15.
A third letter, urging the clubwomen to get busy, but not in Demo
cratic clubs, bore a reference to September 15. As there has been no Sep
tember 15 since Mr. Roosevelt proposed his court plan the general assump
tion in the Senate cloak room is that Mr. Robinson got hold of a cold one,
left over from the last campaign.
However, Robinson is still trying.
* * * *
A warning has been coyly planted in the Congressional Record without
comment by Senator Clark of Missouri. It did not attract attention except
among a dozen or so insideis whom it was supposed to reach, but among
them it caused a sensation.
Clark read the id^otten section 201 of the criminal code, which
authorizes a year's imprisonment or a 1500 fine for any official trying
to influence members of Congress, except through "proper official
channels." Clark said he would mention no names, but he did not
need to. The first two ichich popped into senatorial heads were
Charles West and James Roosevelt, the presidential undercover liaison
men.
Congressmen, whose buttonholes have been pulled out of shape by
other secondary officials working on them, have no intention of appealing
to the Attorney General to enforce the law. However, several have clipped
Clarks warning irom me uecora
and are carrying it around In their
pockets to show to the next presi
dential worker who comes around.
Government authorities have
been racking their imaginations to
find out what Philippine President
Manuel Quezon wants. He has been
leading an active campaign here
abouts upon practically every issue
now {lending between Manila and
Washington, but he has been re
luctant to say what he would settle for.
The answer may be offered shortly. Don’t be surprised if it comes in
the form of a proposal for immediate independence for the Philippines.
They then can negotiate a trade treaty for preferential tariff treatment
such as we have with Cuba.
* * * *
Those with ears to the floor around Democratic headquarters have
been expecting the official seei, Emil Hurja, to retire since the last election.
The fact is, Seer Hurja and Seer Farley do not seer eye to eye.
For example, Hurfa’s inside prediction on the last election teas
figured upon sound mathematical reasoning. He assayed the best
poll for error, added a reasonable assumption for increase of votes,
u'eighed them on the basis of historical voting figures—and deduced
that London u-ould get about 167 electoral votes. It was sound com
mon sense, and apparently convinced Mr. Roosevelt, whose figures
were the same, but not Mr. Farley.
Mr. Farley took the most optimistic predictions of his enthusiastic
county chairmen and hit it exactly.
(Copyright, 1937.)
j interpretation, most members of Con
: gress who have been lawyers will ad
i mit that even a three-judge court
i does not always look at questions alike
and that the chances of disagreement
! where 9 or 15 judges are concerned
| increases immeasurably. Rarely has
any act of Congress ever been passed
| by unanimous vote, or even by a two
' thirds vote. If the legislators differ
it is natural that justices will differ,
too.
(Copyright, 1937.)
Hot Idea Brings Fine.
Thinking an electric iron would be
a good substitute for a hot-water
bottle, a housewife of Helsingfors,
Finland, placed it in her bed and
turned on the current, but her in
ventiveness brought unexpected rec
ognition by the city. She forgot
about the iron, the bed caught Are,
and she was fined for wasting elec
tricity.
15 OF 745 PASS TESTS
FOR ENGINEER CORPS
Rigid naval standards for officers in
the Civil Engineer Corps came to
light yesterday, when the Navy De
partment announced that 745 candi
dates submitted application, but only
15 passed the recent examinations.
Five will be commissioned immedi
ately. and the remainder will be placed
on eligibility list from which addi
tional appointments can be made.
Representing 132 colleges, universi
ties or institutions, the 745 candidates
made their applications.
Of this group, 236 passed the pre
liminary test and were authorized to
appear for Anal examination. Actu
ally 140 presented themselves for ex
aination and 58 failed to qualify phys
ically. On the written examination
80 completed the test, but only 15
obtained passing grades.
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OUTFITTERS TO GENTLEMEN
CJ"HE opinions of the writers on this page are their own, not
necessarily The Star’s. Such opinions are presented in
The Star’s effort to give all sides of questions of interest to its
readers, although such opinions may be contradictory among
themselves and directly opposed to The Star’s.
Delay Becomes a Weapon
Staunch Foes of Court Plan Might Balk Action at
Present Session.
BY MARK SULLIVAN.
MR. ROOSEVELT, in his radio
address about his court pro
posal Tuesday night, said:
"I believe that it can be
passed at this session of the Congress."
That can be interpreted as an ex
pression of intention on the Presilent's
part to keep the question before Con
gress until decision is reached. In
this there is nothing new. Mr. Roose
velt has said the same in private con
versations. It is a natural thing for
him to do.
ii, now, oppo
nents of the court
should determine
upon a strategy of
averting decision
in this session,
there would be
some justification
for such a course.
By averting deci
sion in the pres
ent session, the
question would be
thrown into the
c o n g r essional
campaign of next
year, and would, Mmrk
of course, be the
principal question.
Those congressional opponents of
the President’s court proposal, who
have most Interest in throwing the
question into next year’s congressional
election, are the Democrats. They
would then be able to go before the
Democratic voters of the Nation, in
the primary contests for renomina
tion, and ask for an expression of
opinion by Democrats, as distinguished
from the public generally. Many Dem
ocratic voters are against the court
proposal. If the question were kept
open through next year, it might con
ceivably result, as the expression of
popular opinion in Democratic pri
maries, that opposition to the court
proposal is the true Democratic posi
tion.
Victory Alters Election.
If. however, the question is settled |
in this session of Congress, a different
situation would arise. If it is settled
by the President winning, then those
Democrats in Congress who voted
against his court proposal would be
quite surely labeled as not true Demo
crats. The Democrats who are op
posing the President's court proposal
in Congress are in the classic position \
of those who resist authority. If they
win, it is a successful revolution and
they are heroes. If they lose, they are
rebels and likely to be beheaded.
What is the chance of decision be- |
ing deferred throughout this session?
Normally, without any practice of
deliberate dilatory tactics, the final
vote on the measure might not come
for months. The first turning of the
legislative wheels, the holding of hear
ings before the Senate Committee in
charge of the measure, began this
week. The hearings may be long.
Many persons from all parts of the
country, on both sides, will want to
be heard. The disposition of the com
mittee is likely to be to give generous
time. The committee would do this
naturally, because of the importance
of the measure and the widespread
intensity of interest in it. Besides, the
committee does not have any bias in
favor of the bill which would lead them
unreasonably to curtail the hearings.
Attitude in Doubt.
It is doubtful If a majority of the
committee favors the bill. It is doubt
ful if a majority of the Democratic
members of the committee in their
hearts favor the bill. The chairman
of the committee, Senator Ashurst of
Arizona, long before the measure was
brought forward by the President, de
scribed the very idea of enlarging the
court as "ridiculous, absurd.”
After the Senate debate has gone on
a certain length of time, there will
arise the possibility that the Demo
cratic leaders of the Senate will say
that the time has been enough, and
try to bring about a vote. The only
way to force a vote, when there is
opposition to a measure of the sort
that there is to this one, is by cloture.
To bring about cloture, the Demo
cratic leaders must propose that a vote
be taken on a fixed future date. On
the question of this a'dopting cloture
there will be a roll call. The rule of
the Senate is that cloture cannot b*
adopted except by a two-thirds vote.
That is, 64 of the 96 Senators must
vote that the debate has been suffi
cient and that a roll call should be
held on a fixed future date. In other
words, if 33 Senators resist cloture,
cloture cannot be had.
g More Than 33 Are Foes.
■verybody agrees that much more
tmn 33 Senators are opposed to the
court proposal. Some believe, indeed,
that a majority of the Senate opposes
it, certainly in their hearts. In any
event, any fair estimate would say
that considerably more than 33 Sen
ators are so thoroughly opposed to the
measure that they would vote against
cloture. Besides, there are Senators
who expect ultimately to vote for the
court proposal but are on principle
posed to cloture on any measure at
any time.
If cloture is prevented the matter
then becomes one of staying power in ;
debate. Assuming—though it is not a
safe assumption—that a majority of
the Senate would vote in favor of the
bill—the question then is how long the
i minority opposed to the bill could pro
' long debate. This brings us to the pos- ;
sibility of filibuster. In this session of j
Congress filibuster, while not at all im
possible, would involve long strain.
For the present Congress can theo
retically continue in session until the
3d of next January. Nevertheless,
granted that there are more than 33
; Senators who will oppose cloture, it
We, the People
Old Ideas Are Leading Us Along Road to War, Just
* • as They Did in 1916.
BY JAY FRANKLIN.
BY ONE of those paradoxes which make you feel as if your brain
had hit an air-pocket, pacifist sentiment as it expresses Itself in
Washington is in favor of national defense, holds strong and
passionate hatreds for certain foreign countries, and urges the ad
ministration’s brand of "neutrality.”
History repeats itself. The old ideas of the League to Enforce Peace,
the sentiments of liberalism and peaceful progress, our very impatience
with the notion of "foreign entanglements,” are leading us again along the
road to war, just as in 1916. Does any one believe that the League
Against war ana Fascism—to pick
an extreme example—would de
cline to Indorsees war which was
directed against fascism?
The Peace Foundation is com
mitted to the idea that neutrality
should be "flexible” rather than
neutral, and the Western Senators
who demand a neutrality bill
which will work while they’re
asleep are the same gentlemen who
seek phoney devices to prevent
Argentine cattle from entering our sacred home market and who are al
ways demanding that the government "do something for silver,” without
considering the effect of our silver purchase policies on the dangerous Far
Eastern set-up.
The trouble seems to be that Europe’s rearmament program is doing
the same thing to our economy as the allied war purchases did to it during
the early years of Wilsonian “neutrality.” The very forces which com
mitted our fortunes to the allied cause are again operating to create a
similar type of business boom in war stock, financed with our own money,
as usual. And as long as international peace rages in Europe there is noth
ing the neutrality laws can do about it.
* a « *
The British decision to drop their tariff on pig-iron while they are
speeding up their naval construction coincided very neatly with the treaty
between Mr. John L. Lewis and the American steel trust. As for payment_
there are seven billion dollars of European "hot money" alreadv inside our
markets, ready to meet any of the bills which their governments may incur.
Nations are laying in stocks of raw materials and are purchasing as much
auxiliary equipment as they can lay their hands on, and our business is
beginning to feel the effect in terms of production, prices and profits.
Our country is, of course, the net loser, but so long as we believe
that we can enrich ourselves by shipping our wealth across the North
Atlantic, so long will we fajil for this sr0tem of hitching our New
World wagon to the red star of Mars in the Old World.
In the meantime, it should be set down as a matter of record that
the pacifists and other idealistic groups who advocate peace and urge a
flexible neutrality for the President, are themselves far from flexible
and far from neutral. During the last war their sympathies were directed
against "Prussian militarism." Today they are taught to hate German
Nazi-ism, Italian fascism, Japanese imperialism—all of the ideas which
represent the conscious will of the "have-nots" to get a place in the Sun
* * * *
Our idealists also overlook the inconvenient fact that to combat
these uncongenial alien doctrines we must also combat the millions of
perfectly kind, decent, honest people—men, women and children—who
compose the German, Italian and Japanese nations and who are in no wav
resnpnsible for the state of the world.
It is an unhappy fact that much
of the evil in this world is done by
good men acting with the highest
intentions. And it is at least argu
able that the fury of the pacifists
toward those whom they regard as
dangerous war-breeders is itself a
cause of war. The administration’*
neutrality bill is probably not as
wicked a proposal as some believe
it is. The draft measure before the
Senate has plenty of loop-holes in
it and the Roosevelt administration has no interest in trying to bamboozle
the people into another war.
Nevertheless, the fact remains that now is the time for our economic
neutrality to be effective and that we are already becoming an economic
base for Britain’s truculent rearmament program. I should like to see our
pacifists attack this very real situation instead of fussing around wTith laws
and measures which will simply halter the horse after the bam has been
stolen.
!^ ' fCopyright, 1837.)
would not take more than 15 or 20
earnest Senators to maintain continu
ous debater •'
Filibuster, under many conditions,
i has an accepted respectability. It has
been practioed by Democrats and by
Republicans. Especially has it been
practiced by irregular minorities who
were deeply moved
(Copyright. 1037.)
An American
You Should
Know
Conservation Chief
Fights to Hold Soil
for U. S.
BY DELIA PYNCHON.
WHEN you get dust in your
eyes 300 miles at sea you
want to know why. Dr.
Hugh H. Bennett, chief of
Soil Conservation Service, Depart
ment of Agriculture, knows the an
swers.
I think of him in tonic terms of
Deer, iron and
wine.” for he has
stamina, courage
and enthusiasm.
A graduate of the
Univer sity of
North Carolina,
he entered in
1905 the Bureau
of Soils. Depart
ment of Agri
culture, as a
chemist. For
more than a
quarter of a cen
tury he studied,
surveyed and
traveled on im- Dr Hu‘h Bennetu
portant commissions all over this
country. Central and South America,
Cuba, Panama, Alaska. Like a snow
ball rolling downhill, his findings grew
in force and size. He lectured, wrote
enough to fill a library and talked
soil*until he said he became “a joke
and a pest.” Many listened. The
present service was formed in 1933
Farm-raised and farm-bom in 1881
near Wadesboro, N. C, Dr Bennett
chopped cotton at 10, walked 7 miles
to and from school and plowed to
gain a college education. Early in life
he knew what he wanted to do and
he has done it. He saw clearly what
erosion was doing to the Piedmont
country. Nowf he is an international
authority. He combats indifferen e,
saying, “We must not get accustomed
to conditions that exist around the
Sahara Desert."
George Washington and Thomas
Jefferson practiced soil erosion con
trol. Somewhere along the furrows
we have misplaced valuable experi
ence. The Great War tore us up by
; the roots. We gave money, men and
land lavishly as from an inexhaustible
supply. From Dakota to Texas we
plowed the great plains at the rate
of 1,000 acres a day. Year after year
wheat was planted. The land lost its
fertility, the soil its cohesive quality.
We became spendthrifts of an “irre
placeable asset." as it takes from 400
to 1,000 years to produce one inch of
rich top-soil. In 1930 the drought
came. There was nothing to hold the
soil.
Dust in the eyes of this country has
been partially removed. Congress
appropriated 24 millions to set up
through the Soil Conservation Service
demonstration areas of 18 million acres
in 43 States. The Government does not
buy the land. Farmers give the land
and co-operate with a staff of soil
I experts to overcome what they have
I spent so generously.
"Camay really helped me to have
m Hf* OUtAH*. IA. T
. , -bridt compl‘*,on ““
UalP7 Victor. Car.ay-^‘
^XX^-i‘ismy>aw
for that comp**10
tobeaaty- *•'PECK
LD New Orleans—famous for lovely women —is
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.•*t ‘
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C A MAY ^