Evening Star Newspaper, December 1, 1935, Page 17

LAW TESTS HINGE ON“DUE PROGESS” Fresh Interpretations of Clause in Constitution Are in Making. By the Associated Press. NEW YORK, November 30.—The spotlight today turns to the “‘due proc- ess” clause as opponents of many phases of the New Deal prepare to demand the test of constitutionality before the Supreme Court. Fresh interpretations of that much- controverted section of the Cdhstitu- tion are in the making, and may go as far or father in determining the ulti- mate reach of the New Deal as did the interpretation of the commerce clause which proved a major bar to the N.R. A. The graveyard of statutes is full of laws found unconstitutional under the *due process” clause, and, on the other hand, the statute books are full of laws that survived the same test. “Due process” has been a favorite legal weapon in the past against laws that related particularly to wages or hours of labor, social security, price fixing or business regulations—subjects covered in many of the laws coming up for decision these days. Two Decisions Significant. Two recent decisions reflect the in- terest that may center upon this sec- tion. Judge Willlam C. Coleman of Baltimore cited it as one of the four grounds upon which he declared the Federal utilities holding company act unconstitutional, a decision that may yet be passed upon by the Supreme Court. Judge Elwood Hamilton of Louisville rejected it as a ground for objection to the Guffey coal law, sometimes de- scribed as setting up a “little N. R. A.” for the coal industry, and centered his attention largely upon the com- merce clause in finding the act valid. The clause was an issue in the Su- preme Court’s N. R. A. decision, but the court made its decision upon other grounds and was silent regarding the | clause. | Twice the clause appears in the Constitution, the first time as a re- struction upon the Federal Govern- ment, the second time as a restriction upon the States. simplicity itself: “Nor shall any person * * * be deprived of life, liberty or property Wwithout due process of law * * *” says the fifth amendment. o Nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law * * * ” says the fourteenth amendment. “Person” Also Corporation. Yet the fifth amendment has come to mean much more than a bar against the mere condemnation of a private house and lot without compensation, and the fourteenth does much more than safeguard the rights of emanci- pated Negroes, the purpose for which it was drawn. By judicial interpretation a “person” also is a corporation. Into the clause, by gradual judicial interpretation, has been read the con- cept of “liberty of contract,” which in varying degrees has been held to pre- vent Government interference with wages, hours, prices. 4 Under one decision relating to the clause was founded the entire Ameri- can system of public utility regulation. Under it the Supreme Court in 1932 In language it is | “I cannot believe that framers of the fourteenth amendment * * * in- tended to deprive of the power to correct the evils of technological un- employment and excess productive ca- pacity which have attended progress in the useful arts.” On the other hand, in 1934, in the New York milk case, the court held price fixing, frowned upon previously, except in public utility cases of war emergencies, was not invalid in its invasion of the rights of private property, except when arbitrary. Even should ail the New Derfers’ laws be buried in the graveyard of “due process,” they might hope for some eventual resurrections. It was in dissenting in the de- cision that invalidated the 10-hour day for New York bakeries that Jus- tice Holmes made his famous remark: “The fourteenth amendment does not enact Mr. Herbert Spencer’s social statics.’ Justice Holmes lived to see laws declared constitutional which went much further than did the New York bakery law, On Last Walk CHOIR SINGER SNAPPED ON WAY TO GALLOWS. PR Essen Opens ‘‘Steel Book.” ESSEN, Germany - (#)—Steel has been substituted for gold in this home town of the famous Krupp works, | where the city fathers decided to dis- card the “golden book” and henceforth have illustrious guests of the city enter their names in the “steel book,” which, they hold, “honors the bir place of high-grade German steel.” 7 SRS Stein Bloch Clothes Mallory Hats Arrow Shirts Beau Brummel Reginald Tracy, Manchester, Towa, ghoir singer, who was hanged for plotting the murder of his wife, is shown walking to the gallows at Fort Madison, Iowa, accompanied by a deputy. —Copyright, A. P. Wirephoto. tion for public utility regulatfon. Next, the court eventually began laying emphasis upon the reasonable- ness, fairness or necessity of laws in- terfering with the use of private prop- erty. Limited Working Laws. Dealing with a serjes of State laws interfering with long working hours, | the court declared a Utah law limit- | ing work in mines to eight hours a | day constitutional, and a New York law limiting work in bakeries to 10 hours a day unconstitutional. The court accepted the judgment of the Utah Legislature that the law was reasonably necessary to health, but declared there was no reasonable con- nection between public health and working hours in bakeries. In time legisiatures often adopted the device of creating elaborate in- vestigating commissions to lay the groundwork of fact to bolster such legislation, and States continued to | enact laws limiting the working day. | This question of reasonableness or necessity may prove decisive in de- termining the fate of many New Deal laws. | Judge Coleman declared the holding | company law unreasonable and arbi- trary. | The Supreme Court has declared 1 constitutional the Adamson eight- ; hour-day law and s New York law | fixing renits, the former because it re- lated ta interstate carriers and the Iat- ter because it was a temporary meas- | ure growing out of a war emergency, and thus “necessary.” Disapprove Wage Laws. While the court has approved laws Code in Effect Tomorrow Bans Honor Count in Match Point Play. By the Associated Press. NEW YORK, November 30.—A new code of laws for duplicate contract bridge was promulgated today by the American Bridge League, the Ameri- can Whist League and the United States Bridge Association. It is ef- fective Monday and will be used for the first time in the tournament of the American Bridge League starting in Chicago Monday. Since the laws of rubber bridge were changed last March duplicate has been played under a tentative code, which in the main is the basis of the final code approved by the three major bridge organizations. “Perhaps the only change in the du- plicate code from the rubber laws, other than the changes positively necessi- tated by the differences in the two games,” says the introduction to the code, “is the elimination of the count G.SraTu™ - MEN'S S “ % ! 9 0I5.4400 STORE for honors in match-point play. This change has long been discussed and its overwhelming since its adoption has fortified the committee's belief in the wisdom of the innova- A bid of eight is possible under cir- cumstances in rubber bridge. It is for- bidden in the duplicate code. If in the opinion of a tournament director the bidding or playing conven- tions of a pair are so complicated as to place an undue burden upon the opponents, he may bar the use of such conventions. Any conventions widely known, however, are permitted. ‘The duplicate code seeks to prevent “races” to condone irregular bids if of advantage to the non-offending side. In the case of an insufficient bid, has- tily corrected by the offender, the code provides that the first bid is void; the correction may be condoned, in which case there is no penaity, or the insuffi- clency may be penalized. Culbertson Wages Fight, ‘The code was drafted by a national | laws and rules committee representing the three leagues and consisting of ‘William E. McKenney, chairman; Rus- sell J. Baldwin, Edward Hymes, jr. Geoffrey Mott-Smith, Capt. Alfred M. Gruenther, George Reith, Albert H. Morehead and Waldemar Von Zedtwitz. It represents an agreement after Ely Culbertson had waged a hard struggle against the elimination of honors, ‘They are preserved in cumulative scor- ing, though eliminated in match point play. ‘The promulgation of the code comes shortly afier Culbertson announced failure of negotiations for & merger of United States Bridge Association, Yet the American Bridge League and his he is doing the unprecedented thing of ~competing in the American Bridge League's Chicago tourney, having Mrs. Culbertson, Richard L. Prey and Al- bert H. Morehead as teammates. W A Berlin Recovers Admiral’s Flag.; BERLIN (#).—The flag of the cruiser Emden II, Admiral von Reuter’s flag-’ ship, which was sunk with other craft in Scapa Flow in 1919, has reached the Berlin marine museum, thanks to Paul Eggert of Austerlitz, N. Y. Eg- gert, a former German sailor, received the flag from an American sailor, now dead, and sent it to the German naval attache in Washington. Separate Entrance on Tenth Street SPEAKS ON TREATY The Neighbors Hear Talk by| Economic Adviser. By a Staff Correspondent of The Star. | SANDY SPRING, Md., November | 30~American agriculture will benefit under the new trade treaty with Can- | ada, Eric Englung, economic adviser of | the Department of Agriculture, told The Neighbors at their November meeting in the home of Mr. and Mrs, Mortimer Q. Stabler. Frederick W. McReynolds, chairman of the Board of Public Welfare of ‘Washington, explained the serious conditions confronting that body at the present time. Edwin Bateman Morris of Bethes- da presided over the business session of the club. merican Radiator Co. Heating Plant HOT-WATER HEAT Completely Installed in 6 Rooms Upto 3 Yrs. to Pay—First Payment Next Year No Cash Down Written Guarantee No nn‘n payment Nothing to pay until next yeas L n [ ‘made: system for each house. Federal Housing Regulator that open plants proportionate. We ¢ AL RADUATE HEATING ENGINEERS St. N.W. 4 m uD-to-the-m Day or Night) 947 154h ineludes 18-inch Red Jacket -ft. Radi; Boijer. six nd a Thermostatic D: r Larger y. te i on the dr of ng equipmen ing Oil ter_hot-water attachments. HEATING Co. a com) Nat. 3803 Nights and Sundays Phone Adams 8529 gave a black eye to so-called “economic | imiting working hours, it has disap- planning” and experimental legislation, | Proved 1aws interfering with the wage But two years later the same court | 29U8ton of the labor contract, deciar- upheld a New York law permitting the | 18 & minimum wage law for women fixing of a minimum price for milk. | i1 the District of Columbia unconsti- In decision after decision passing | tutional in 1923. upon minimum wage laws, maximum | _ 1t frowned upon “economic plan- work-week laws, licensing laws, regu--| 08" in its 1932 decision in the | latory laws, price-fixing laws, the | C3% Of “New State Ice Co. vs. Lieb- | court has attempted to mark the line | DARD" between the ‘“due process” clause, which would make the rights of prop- erty absolute, and the “police power” of State governments to legislate for the “safety, health, morals and general welfare.” Attempt to Establish Power. Many New Deal laws have attempted to establish a similar power of the Federal Government to legislate, espe- clally for the “general welfare.” But Julge Coleman, in his holding | company decision, declared there is no such thing as a “national public in- terest” which permits of Federal regu- lation unless that regulation is exer- cised under one of the powers expressly delegated to the Federal Government by the Constitution. On the other hand the Supreme Court in the New York milk case in 1934 said: “* * * This court (has) from the early days affirmed that the power to promote the general welfare 1s inherent in government.” The fate of many New Deal laws may turn upon that issue. Many landmark decisions have been et up by the Supreme Court on the “‘due process” clause, mainly along two es. First, there was the celebrated “Granger cases” of 1876—in the days of populism and greenbackism, when the States began passing laws regu- lating railroad rates. 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