Evening star. [volume], July 26, 1937, Page A-9, Image 9

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

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President Held
Clinging to
Court Plan
Claim Tribunal Chang
ed Views After Feb. 5
Move Is Disputed.
BY DAVID LAWRENCE.
PRESIDENT ROOSEVELT has
learned very little from the
recent controversy over the
"packing” of the Supreme
Court and still insists that the Execu
tiv* has an obligation to coerce or
stampede the courts.
Instead of a graceful yielding to
the manifestations of public opinion
to the effect that
the judicial proc
> esses should not
be tampered with
by politics, Mr.
N Roosevelt has in
dicated that he
Is only waiting
for a better op
. portunity to re
vive the issue
and. if possible,
carry it into a
political c a m
paign.
These impres
sions are derived L,wrence.
from a study of
the remarks of Mr. Roosevelt in his
first conference with the press after
his court "packing" plan was re
jected by a new majority in the Sen
ate—a coalition of independent Demo
crats and Republicans.
What did the President say? Here
•re the principal points:
First, he recalled that there was a
lot of feeling about the time of Theo
dore Roosevelt for judicial reform
snd that it took form in 1912 in the
campaign of the Progressive party for
all kinds of things like the recall of
judges and the overriding of decisions
by popular vote, and that this demand
had a very great effect on the courts
and that the courts listened.
Second, during the Coolidge and
Hoover administrations, the courts
slipped back to a supposedly legisla
tive instead of judicial position and
that he. Franklin Roosevelt, revived
the agitation and submitted his mes
sage to Congress on February 5.
Third, the President has received an
Interesting check on what happened
in the last term of the Supreme Court,
that before the 5th of February the
‘ Supreme Court held the A. A. A. un
constitutional. limiting the spending
| power, and that after February 5,
through the social security act de
cision, the A. A. A. ruling was re
versed: that before February 5 the
Guffey act was held unconstitutional
* but after February 5 the Wagner act
was held constitutional. He com
pleted the list with a reference to the
fact that before February 5 the court
held the New York minimum wage
law unconstitutional and then after
that date reversed itself in the Wash
ington minimum wage case when he
insists the New York minimum wage
decision was overruled.
\ lews on Objectives.
Fourth, the President feels that the
net result is that we have obtained
certain objectives talking in the large,
that the country still wants insurance
* of the continuity of that objective and
the country wants more and better ju
dicial mechanism for getting the max
imum justice in a minimum of time.
Fifth, that the people have been mere
court conscious and they are more
constitutionally minded since 1910 and
1912 and the country understands
pretty thoroughly that the Constitu
tion is not intended to block social
and economic reform through court
legislation for those reforms are nec
essary to the Nation for the general
welfare with changing times.
’ Sixth, when asked if the President
Is satisfied with the progress thus far
made, he declared we were getting
somewhere and we have a long way to
ro, and he thinks the country pretty
well understands what it is all about.
Careful examination of what the
President communicated to the press
* In his characteristically informal fash
ion leads to a query as to w hy if the
courts were listening last Spring, it
was necessary for him to pursue his
court-packing plan through June and
July. The answer was given by the
President himself when he indicated
that the country still wants insurance
of the continuity of the objective he
has expressed and that this is just
•s true after a majority of the Senate
has rejected the court-packing plan
•s it was before that event occurred. \
If Mr. Roosevelt feels he has a long
way to go on the issue, and if he is
confident the country understands
- what it is all about, the only con
clusion that can be reached is that the
President intends to keep the issue
•live and using public agitation as a
means of controlling the decisions of
the Supreme Court of the United
States and carrying out his "objective"
• Iso by filling of future vacancies on
the highest bench with men who will
conform to his idea of what is
'‘legislative'’ and what is "judicial.’’
.''uunpecung Disputed.
Mr. Roosevelt's comment on whether
the Supreme Court was stampeded
Into deciding certain New Deal cases
in his favor, as he would now like the
Nation to think, will be sharply dis
' puted Not only is it a reflection upon
the disinterestedness of the court, but
In at least one instance the claim has
»o foundation in historical fact.
Thus the Washington minimum
♦ age case was argued during the week
of December 14 last and a vote of the
court was taken the following Saturady
♦ ehowing a 4-to-4 division. Writing of
the opinion and the final 5-to-4 vote
was delayed till the return in March
of Justice Stone, who had been ill.
But since Mr. Stone had voted previ
ously to uphold the New York State
minimum wage statute, it means that
to all intents and purposes as a
matter of historical fact the Washing
ton wage law was actually upheld by
the Supreme Court last December and
not after February 5 as Mr. Roosevelt
contends.
Likewise, the President has been
t misinformed if he thinks the A. A. A.
decision of January. 1935, limited the
spending power whereas the social
security act did not. The truth is, as
was pointed out in January, 1935, in
these dispatches and in the writings
of others at the time, the A. A. A.
ruling paved the way for exactly the
kind of ruling which later appeared
Jn the social security act.
The same lack of accuracy may be
charged to the President wtih refer
enoa to his contention that the Wag
. ner act opinion reversed the Guffey
case opinion. The truth is the court
% held that Congress in the first Guffey
*" act had set up a compulsory mecha
• \
nism for the regulation of wages and
hours m a production industry, where
as in the Wagner case it said Con
gress had the right to compel only
negotiations and not agreements be
tween employer and employe for col
lective bargaining, and definitely said
the decision in the coal case did not j
apply. I
Wagner Act Distinction.
Since the Wagner act opinion was
handed down by the Supreme Court :
last Spring, a 'United States Circuit
Court of Appeals in a decision has
pointed out that it fully understood
the distinction between the Guflev :
case and the W'agner act opinion and
held that they were rulings on two :
absolutely different points.
Mr. Roosevelt could know these
things if he cared to give weight to
the views of lawyers other than the
"yes men” at his side.
But Mr. Roosevelt's whole approach
to everything he does or says is polit
ical, and that's why, notwithstand
ing the temper of the country which
caused more than half of the members
of his own party in the Senate to vote
against him, the President insists on
his own "objective," namely to in
fluence the courts. Perhaps he thinks
history will repeat itself, and the
Democratic party will have to be split.
(Copyright, 19a? )
CTHE 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.
Gov. Lehman’s Desertion of Roosevelt Court Fight
Seen Work of "Professional Banker.”
BY JAY FRANKLIN.
THE “stab-in-the-back” letter
from Gov. Herbert H. Lehman
of New York to Senator Wag
ner, urging the latter to oppose
the President’s Judiciary reform bill.
Is the work of a professional banker
and an amateur politician.
Incidentally, it serves President
Roosevelt exactly right for having put
his trust in the sort of man who thinks
that an honest, businesslike adminis
tration of the State government is the
same thing as advanced political lib
eralism.
Last year, when Roosevelt and Par
ley were bringing pressure on Lehman
to run for the governorship of New
York onoe more, this column publicly
warned the New Dealers against re
liance on the conservative investment
banker. It seemed then that if Mr.
Roosevelt couldn't carry New York
State without Lehman's aid, the New
Deal was a pretty weak sister. My
advice was ignored, as usual, and Leh
man was sent back to Albany, against
his will, as a seat-warmer for Big
Jim Parley. Now, acting under pres
sure from the big banking groups
which regard the Federal courts as
their own government within a gov
ernment, he has tried to wreck the
Roosevelt program.
Opposition to Reform.
This need surprise no one who is
familiar with the hundred-billion
dollar opposition which the corpora
tion lawyers have organized against
reform. Once a banker, always a
banker, and Gov. Lehman was a
highly successful money lender for
20 years before he went into New York
State politics as Lieutenant Governor
under Roosevelt.
After graduating from Williams
College in 1899. young Mr. Lehman
went into the textile manufacturing
business, where he rose rapidly to a
position of financial responsibility.
In 1908. he became partner in Lehman
Bros, investment bankers, where he
remained until Roosevelt drafted him
in 1928. with time out for the World
War, during which he served on the
general staff, as assistant director of
purchase, storage and traffic at Wash
ington, receiving the distinguished ser
vice medal in 1919.
In New York City he later became
known for hLs interest in charities, be
ing active in the Henry Street Settle
ment, the Hebrew Sheltering Guar
dian Society, the Bureau of Jewish
Social Research, the New York Foun
dation, the Palestine Economic Corp.,
the New York City Welfare Council
and the Child Welfare Commission,
He was. in fact, a useful and hon
orable citizen, as well as one of those
' good'' bankers who were so rare be
fore the crash of 1929 and so conspic
uous after it.
Amateur In Politics.
Unfortunately for F D. R., Mr.
Lehman was a rank amateur in pol
itics. if you accept Joe Weber's classic
definition of an amateur as "an artist
who wants to begin at the top.” Be
fore going into his family's banking
house he had served an eight-year
apprenticeship In industry, as a mat
ter of course. But he entered pol
itics as Lieutenant Governor and was
automatically promoted to the gov
ernorship when Roosevelt went to
Washington. He gave the State a
calm, businesslike, efficient adminis
tration, and does not seem to have
considered that the roots of his polit
ical power imposed any obligation
upon him. He would immediately
have discharged any banking subor
dinate who sold Lehman Bros, short,
but he had no hesitation in selling the
President's program short. It must
be "conscience," but there is another
name for it.
He has his reward. He is being
praised by Representative Hamilton
Pish. Senator Burke of Nebraska
now thinks that Mr. Lehman is a
great man, and all the pack of peo
ple who have opposed every liberal
reform for decades will give him three
hearty cheers. There never yet was
a deserter who was not welcomed by
the other side. After a little he will
doubtless get used to his new political
bedfellows and persuade himself that
after all he acted for the best. Like
many assumed liberals, he believes
in reform until it begins to bring
about real changes, and then he can
produce highly conscientious reasons
for joining the standpatters.
It is possible, though not easy, to
laugh off a stab in the back. Even
so, such a stab is less deadly than
a slap on the back from the wrong
men. Roosevelt is Joved by the peo
ple for the enemies he has made. Mr.
Lehman can scarcely survive his new
found friends.
(Copyright, iy3T.)
---.-1_
MISS DETZER TO SPEAK
AT CONVENTION ABROAD
Plea for Mandatory Neutrality to
Be Made by Secretary of U. S.
Peace League.
A plea for mandatory neutrality
will be made by Miss Dorothy Detzer
of Washington, national executive sec
retary of the United States section of
the Women's International League for
Peace and Freedom, at the ninth in
ternational congress of the organiza
tion, to be held in Czechoslovakia be
ginning tomorrow.
In announcing the subject of Miss
Detzer's talk the organization stated
‘considerable opposition" was ex
pected to her plea from "European
delegates who regard American neu
trality as isolationism and believe that
a policy which would give the Presi
dent discretion to apply economic
pressure to aggressor nations would
he a more constructive policy for this
! nation to adopt."
Miss Bertha McNeill of this city
also will be among the delegation of
11 women attending the congress from
I the United States.
What’s Back of It All
Roosevelt Still Believes Something Must Be Done
About Court—May Give "Fireside Chat” Soon.
BY H. R. BAUKHAGE.
THE President has turned his cheek—but not in the Biblical sense.
That's what some of his friends are saying.
This apparent change of face is what might be de
scribed as an optical illusion, they explain—such, for in
stance, as you get if you look first at one side and then the other of
Daniel Chester French’s statute of Lincoln. If you have imagination,
you see on one side the determined and relentless politician. On the
other the penial, philosophical and persuasive statesman.
If you had seen President . -r> .
Roosevelt on the day after the
court defeat, quiet, calm and cool
as a julep, you would have had the
feeling that the splinters of the big
stick had been consigned to the
woodshed, thus serving to con
firm the unpublished decision that
the dress order from now on is
"charm.’’
* * * *
The President at his first press
conference after the debacle did not speak for publication on the court bill.
Members of the charm school of thought privately declare that he was
gazing over the heads of his audience, and that his thoughts were directed
toward “a high official of the administration” described as "the country."
That anonymous commentator declared that the President believed "the
country wanted a guarantee” that there would be "a continuance of the
objective" set forth in his original message on the court bill.
The administration has announced no further campaign plans
for court reform. The “high official’’ also remarked that the Presi
dent feels that "the Nation's future" is largely "up to Congress."
If this Congress leaves Supreme Court reorganization out of Its plans
for "the Nation's future,” the President will take up the task. He will bring
his radio personality to bear.
Under such conditions, you can count on a fireside chat in the very
near future.
* * * *
One anti-court bill speech that was to have been a masterpiece, will
never be made. It was diligently prepared, parts of it rewritten three
times, a vast amount of research made, including a careful inquiry into the
personal political inconsistencies of some of the pro-courters.
The speech is row moldering in Senator Burke's desk. It took three
months to prepare. It would have taken, perhaps, six hours to deliver,
tt is one of love's lost labors, and one of the many which the Nebraska
Senator performed and for which he will never get credit. He never had
a chance to say much on the floor, but he was in the thick of the fight
and his offices were among the busiest Congress has ever seen.
* *
The public works lobby built up by Capt. Jabez Gholston, director
of the Interior Department's inspection service, was a much bigger enter
prise than was officially revealed when Secretary Ickes discharged his
No. 1 plainclothes man.
It involved "a large number of field officers and employes” and in
cluded a canvass of "the whole field service, including State directors and
district project directors and auditors.”
Government stationery and Government time were used in
the effort "to induce State and municipal officers to send identical
messages to influence members of Congress" to vote for the continu
ance of legislation affecting P. IV. A.
Secretary Ickes. whose phrases are quoted above, has issued a letter
to all officers and employes of the P. W A . telling the whole story and
sounding the warning that such practices are illegal as well as insubor
dinate.
* * * *
When Capt. Gholston was called up at his residence by this writer
shortly after he resigned, he de
clined to answer questions over the
telephone:
"This line is tapped,” he said.
The President says he has not
considered Mr. Justice Van De
vanter's successor. Some say he
can't, and now even Senator Borah
is becoming concerned over the
matter.
There has been an ominous ruf
fling of reference works at the
Capitol of late, a number of Senators, largely inspired by the Idahoan,
are considering raising the question of whether or not there really is a
vacancy on the supreme bench.
Justice Van Deianter did not resign. He retired under the
provisions of the Sumners-McCarran act and still draws his full pay.
Some of the constitutionalists are saying: "He can't do that under
the Constitution. He's still a member of the bench subject to call.”
These people point to the fact that no successor can therefore be
namd until the situation is clarified.
(Copyright. 1»3T.)
This Changing World
Mussolini Finds He Cannot Create Stir in United
States Merely by Saying War Debts Won’t Be Paid.
BY CONSTANTINE BROWN.
MUSSOLINI is not as good a journalist as his countrymen gave him
credit. He thought he would set the United States in an uproar
when he wrote ln his cfflcial newspaper that the debtor nations
will not pay their war debts to the United States. That Is no news
to anybody ln this country any longer. He would certainly have created a
sensation had he said that the formei allies—who are now bitter enemies—
would pay their debts. That would
have been news indeed.
The Austrian government is not
as easy going in regard to Germany
as it is generally suspected. Chan
cellor Schuschnigg requires a good
deal of "persuasion" to comply with
the demands of the Berlin govern
ment. The principal reason why
he is so recalcitrant must be found
in the fact that he is a militant
Catholic and personally hates Hit
ler, a former Catholic himself, for the treatment of the church.
Despite the “improvement” of relations between the Reich and
the Austrian Republic, Hitler’s “Mem Kampf” was still banned from
Austria; certain Reich newspapers were forbidden to be sold on
Austrian territory, many Austrian Nazis were lingering in jail and
Niere were in force in the Danubian republic some stringent anti
Nazi laws,
Von Papen, the German representative In Austria, was not able to bring
about an understanding. Schuschnigg was stringing him along with vague
promises. The Austrians are reputed masters in the art of procrastination.
i>n*u ^ Bcr ln ^ost patience and informed Schuschnigg indirectly that unless
all these restrictions were repealed at once, there might be some real trouble
j ntla 8nrt pli*,vhpre- Somewhat reluctantly, the Austrian chancellor
yielded and the danger of a minor explosion ln Central Europe was thus
averted.
* * * *
Some young French students pulled a clever stunt a few years ago.
They sent around to a number of famous French politicians and other men
in the limelight circulars asking them to help render justice to the memory
of that great Frenchman. Hegesippe Simon, whose great work for France
was allowed to be forgotten. They asked these famous men to support the
plan of restoring to the Hall of Fame that very distinguished Frenchman.
All the people thus circularized sent back to the "committee”
enthusiastic answers expressing great interest in the effort, saying
that they personally felt that this ought to have been done long ago.
Neither the "committee" nor the men it approached were definite in
what, field Mr. Simon had distinguished himself Finally it came out that
there never had been in France a man of that name and the whole thing
was a huge hoax.
* * * *
This story was told some time ago in private by Prime Minister Cham
berlain when he was approached by the Committee of the Union of the
League of Nations with headquarters in London to join that organization.
No self-respecting English politician dares flaunt that organization publicly,
but they all realize Its romplte uselessness, and the parallel made bv Cham
berlain was rorrect. The British premier did not become the honorary
president of that hoax.
* * * *
If Is an almost hopeless task to understand the whvs and the where
fores of Russia's policies.
A few months ago Radek, the famous bolshevist journalist, barely
escaped the firing squad. iThis, as a matter of fact, is a misnomer Those
who are sentenced to be shot are not placed before a squad. They are
Uken for a walk in one of the large halls of the Kremlin. As thev'walk
slowly a man steps out from behind a pillar and fires a shot Into the back
of the head of the sentenced man.)
Radek is today in jail. Yet his articles signed under a pm
name are published in many Moscow neicspapers and recently he
was allowed to leave his cell, under escort, to attend a meeting of
the Russian Communist party, where he made an excellent speech.
The investigation of officers who have betrayed the secrets of the Soviet
army has not been ended with the execution of the eight general officers a
few weeks ago.
More High-ranking officers are being suspected. To prevent the appli
cation of the "sponge" by the Russian military investigators on their
i colleagues, several intelligence officers of the French army are now In Rus
sia. Their job is to see that those who have communicated military secrets
to the German and Japanese staffs are really punished.
- <
Headline Folk
and What
They Do.
Tibbett Leads A. F. of
L. Drive to Organize
Broadcasters.
__ BY LEMUEL F. PARTOV.
OPERA singers of Genoa had a
union early In the eighteenth
century and Sundry heads
were broken In its furtherance,
but Lawrence Tibbett Is, according to
all available records, the first baritone,
tenor or bass, to make up that line of
work in modern times. Mr. Tibbett, as
head of the
American Guild
of Musical Art
ists, Joins the
drive to form a
union of radio
broadcasters 1 n
the American
Federation of
Labor. It Is in
dicated that thev
are beating the
C. I. O to this
objective. Large
sea 1 e organiza
tion work is to
Lawrence Tibbett. *et Un?"
this week.
Mr. Tibbett was upped to fame on
the night of January 2, 1925. Before
that, he had sung meagre roles undpr
his $60-a-w.-eek Metropolitan contract.
On this occasion, singing in Verdi's
“Falstaff,” he stole the show from
Scotti, with a thundering ovation
rarely given any singer at the Met.
He was the son of a sheriff in the
"Badlands" country around Bakers
field, Calif. His father was killed bv
a bandit and young Tibbett grew up
in Lor Angeles. He knew he had a
voice, but he didn't want to sing. He
wanted to be a Shakespearian actor.
Hoping to study for the stage, he
earned money singing at churches
and movie palaces, becoming soloist
for the California Theater.
In 1922, he arrived in New York on
borrowed monev. He worked up a
concert and sold a lot of tickets, but
he wasn’t there He had the mumps.
All that came out of the concert was
an extra "T" dropped in his name
by the program printer. He let it
ride and that's how he became Tib
bett instead of Tibbet. Numerologists
would say, of course, that that was
what rhanged his luck. At any rate,
the chance came soon after. Gatti
Casazza gave him a hearing and he
was soon on the uptake in the Met
ropolitan.
He Is tall and good looking and
larking in those stellar eccentricities
which make newspaper copy. There
is. though, one little oddity worth
nothing. Apt to have headaches, he
cures them by walking around on his
hands. He says that sluices the blood
down to his head and stops the pein.
(Copyright. 1937.1
-•
A Cape of Good Hope postmark of
1806 was sold at auction in London
recently for $105.
Alaska—Australia
Or Any Other Spot
on the Globe
HOT WEATHER
STOPS at the
HARRINGTON DOORS
Air Conditioned Rooms
Sleep in Cool Comfort—
Your Nerves Need It!
4
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OPEN ALL DAY SATURDAYS IN JULY AND AUGUST
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