Evening Star Newspaper, January 6, 1937, Page 11

Ruling Makes Old Principle Clearer Prison-Made Goods Issue Similar to That of Intoxicants. BY DAVID LAWRENCE. HEN the Supreme Court of the United States by unan- imous opinion discusses the commerce clause of the Constitution in its relation to a spe- eific éase before it, there is always & tendency to seek in the phrases and sentences of the Court'’s written decision some possible bearing either on other statutes not yet passed upon or on proposed new legislation. . What the Su- preme Court has #aid in upholding the power of Congress to reg- ulate traffic in prison - made goods does not establish, how- ever, any new principle, but simply makes clearer an old one. Briefly, it has been for some time believed by some legislators that Oongress could interpret the inter- state commerce clause to mean almost anything it pleased, and yet, as each new circumstance ‘or contingency arises which prompts the Supreme Oourt of the United States to define what is commerce, there is more and more proof that commerce, like pro- duction or manufacture, is a definitely recognizable term of American con- stitutional law. With respect to prison-made goods, the several States have now passed 1aws forbidding its sale in competition with free labor. Congress came along with a law protecting those States against shipments of prison-made from cities outside the borders of the States which had prohibited the sale of prison-made articles. This right of Congress to supple- ment the police power of the States and to aid them in protecting them- selves against goods shipped into their areas is not of recent origin or prac- tice. The Supreme Court points out how the “original package” doctrine was evolved back in the latter part of the last century with respect to in- toxicating liquors shipped into dry States from wet States. The Court, moreover, declares that the Webb- Kenyon law of 1911 did in effect with respect to intoxicating liquor packages precisely what the prison-made goods law has done recently—it put the full power of Congress behind the powers of the States in enforcing State laws. State Policy Protection. There is one sentence in the Su- preme Court’s opinion this week which gives the entire story in & nutshell: “The patent point is that where the subject of commerce is one as to which the power of the State may constitu- tionally be exerted by restriction or prohibition in order to prevent harm- ful consequences. the Congress may, if it sees fit, put Torth its power to regulate interstate commerce so0 as to prevent that commerce from being used to Impede the carrying out of the Btate policy.” Now, what is & “constitutionally | exerted” power of a State? The Su- preme Court has said that there is, | for example, no power in the State Governments to fix wages and that this power is reserved to the people, which means that if they care to surrender it by a constitutional | amendment and grant it to the States or the Federal Government or both they can do so, but at present no such ' precedent for the use of Federal or State power exists in our constitutional | Iaw. | ‘What then about maximum hours? Many decisions upholding the right of a State to fix or rather regulate hours of employment have been ren- dered but uniformly such decisions have related to the police power of a State to regulate hours as & matter of health, What the Supreme Court might say with respect to the pas- sage by a State of a 30-hour law, for instance, applying to men and women alike, and involving no special con- sideration of health but merely of economics is something else again. Certainly the right of a State to prohibit the sale of goods made in one of its own institutions is constitu- tional in everv sense, since the State ean make rules with respect to its own agencies and keep them from eoming into competition with the David Lawrence enterprises of the people. But the right of a State to limit the produc- tion of goods made by private indi- viduals is an entirely different mat- ter. States have enacted laws pro- hibiting on health grounds the hiring of child labor. There wculd seem to be no reason why a State which has prohibited the sale of child-labor- made goods within its own boundaries might not petition Congress to regu- late the commerce that might go' on with respect to the shipmentof child- labor-made goods from those States which did not prohibit child labor. The argument for a child-labor amendment to the Federal Constitu- tion rests on the broad ground that while nearly all the States might pass ehild-labor statutes and Congress might aid them by a law similar to that with respect to prohibiting com- mMerce in prison-made goods, any one or more iegisiatures might separately repeal their statutes and resume the trafiic. What the latest decision by the Su- preme Court of: the United States does emphasize is that the powers of Con- gress are available to the States in helping them to shut out commerce in products which they themselves have @ constitutional right to ban from pro- duetion or sale. This is a long way from saying that all the States have to do to improve labor standards is to pass & law prohibiting the entry into their States of products which have been made in factories with standards less favorable to labor than those of the original State. No such control over production in another State rests in_any State or comes within the meaning of “commerce” as it has been defined in the precedents of the Supreme Court of the United States. (Copyright. 1937.) “Too i tes ® FERGUSON 3831 Ga. Ave.. COLSOSST THE EVENING STAR, WASHINGTON, D. C, WEDNESDAY Néws Behind the News New Deal Economics Ready to Start Comin’ Down the Mountain. BY PAUL MALLON. President’s annual message is said to have been prepared with some difficulty this year. Underneath it is .a change in the con- trolling influence of economic conditions. The New Deal is at the climax of a transition period. What has been done so far can accurately be charted by a line ascending like one side of a mountain.. The big idea has been to turn on the gas, and climb. The fuel used was an unbalanced budget, big Treasury borrowings, large spending, big public works, earnings and wealth distribu- tion by taxation, low interest rates, etc. Future Government economic policies can be charted by a descending line representing the other side of the mountain. The budget must be balanced as soon as possible. Treasury borrow- ings must decline as private borrowings increase. Public spending must be eased down as private spending builds up. The new trend must be toward higher interest rates, less artificial money distribution. Otherwise your economic vehicle ,would take off from the peak and keep booming right on up until its momentum failed and it fell in another taflspin. This economic change would be quite simple for President Roose- velt to handle if it were not in- volved in a campaign for business and labor reforms. Also it is & thin vegetarian program to offer a Congress which has feasted for four years on raw spending meat, * x X x 2 The auto strike seems to be just the first step in a private se: planned by John L. Lewis to capture national attention for his steel organi- zation program. Around headquarters his confidants sometimes call it & “campaign for the headlines.” e The second step probably will be a national conference under the auspices of the steel workers’ Organizing Committee in a few weeks. The third will be the meeting of Lewis and the coal operators in New York February 17. It would not be surprising if the 8. W. O. C. seeks a confer- ence with the steel operators to be held simultaneously with the coal conference. Thus, all three steps will eventually head up into the same objective, It seems to be true that Lewis did mot want to let the auto strike start so soon, but the auto union leaders insisted because delay would injure their position. The peak of “the production season now is on. They argued, furthermore, that, if they can get a good settlement, it may help Lewis in steel. The danger of a steel-mine strike around April 1 is obvious, but many authorities doubt that it will come to pass. A good guess would be that the coal agreement will be continued as it stands for a short period after expiration date, thereby delaying a showdown. . * k% ‘The President’s message represents the ideas of possibly 100 men and the phraseology of perhaps 20. The method used in its preparation has been perfected by Mr. Roosevelt since the New Deal got into so many ramifications that it was impossible for any one man to keep up with them all. Weeks ago he began receiving suggestions prepared by important Government bureaus as to their legislative needs. He made notations on these. Also ne scribbled his views on sheets of paper from time to time and piled the whole up in one drawer. Three days ago (Mr. Roosevelt always waits until the last possible moment to draft the final form of his speeches) he took out these nota- tions and dictated the draft of the speech. Then he let Government officials look over the sections re- lating to their subject and accepted their suggestions for improvements or deletions. The final draft came out late, as usual. If any cabinet resignations have arrived at the White House they must have been dropped down the chimney. The guard at the door has seen none. In fact that drawn look appears to have disappeared from the faces of nearly all the cabineteers. At long last definite word has passed dow: the inside line that the matter has all been straightened out, that Mr. Roosevelt will not request resignations, that there will be “very few, if any” changes in the cabinet. The truth seems to be that Mr. Roosevell likes to be aflable and easy-going. The law does not require the cabinet members to resign and, while decency might, the point may not be raised. However, this may not mean as much as they suppose. If they will look at their commissions, signed by the President. they will find that, after the initial compliments. to * their integrity, prudence, etc., it says that they are to “serve at the pleasure of the President, for the time being. (Copyright, 1937.) ANTI-SALOON LEAGUE SNUBS STAYTON PLEA Repeal Leader Asking Aid Against Bootleggers Told to Kill His Own “Skunks.” By the Assoclated Press. NEW YORK, January 6.—Appeal THE CHIEF. l ears among prohibitionists, reports | yesterday indicated. “Kill your own skunks, we're in- | terested in bigger game,” Fred A. Vies tor, superintendent of the Anti-Sa- loon League of New York, retorted to Stayton's appeal. Rev. Dr. Samuel McCrae Covert, general secretary of the Federal Coun- cile of Churches of Christ in America, | said he did not think the council would co-operate with Stayton's or- of Capt. W. H. Stayton, leader of Re- | ganization, which was active in agi- peal Associates, for co-operation in |tation for repeal of the eighteenth stamping out bootlegging fell on deaf | amendment. No wonder mother was angry! Runs cost money — BUT THEN... | holding the usual hearings, and the | | Activities CT"HE opinions of-the writers on this page are their own, not - mnecessarily The Star’s. Such optnions 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 themaselves and directly opposed to The Star’s. We, the People Passage of Magnificent New Act Extending and Modernizing Food and Drug Law Expected. BY JAY FRANKLIN. NE of the New Deal reforms expected to go through the Seventy-fifth Congress like an ambulance through traf- fic will be & new food and drugs act, extending and modernizing the an- tiquated statute new in force. This is one of the best bets on the legisla- tive horizon, for reasons which are as plain as the wife of a practical politician. In the first place, business as & whole is sufficiently anxious to make peace with the Great White Father to be willing to throw a few babies to the wolves—and the food, drugs and | cosmetics business is a pretty ob- vious infant for the pursuing pack to devour. In the second place, whatever the administration has done for us as producers, its most conspicuous and glaring failure has been in the mat- ter. of protecting the consumer. In neither N. R. A. nor A. A. A. did consumer protection get beyond the stage of sticking its neck out when the ax fell. The higher cost of living is going to make a fair-sized hunk of the political history of the next four years, and the consumer of pat- ent medicines, dangerous drugs and cosmetics, adulterated food and of misleading advertisements of these’ commodities is the easiest target the administration can select for conso- | lation. Again, the particular business field | involved in this reform is Ahnrplyi divided against itself. The dishonest | minority has been coasting on tne | coat tails of reputable concerns too | long and too far. The honest ma- jority is now developing a se'fish in- | terest in stamping out unfair and dan- gerous competition in the food and drug business. Obstructions Out of Way. | Finally, Rex Tugwell—whose spon- | sorship of the original reform meas- ure, the “Tugwell bill,” did so much to prevent its passage—is out of the Government. The necessary legisia- tion can no longer be blocked by appeals to prejudice against the “red | professor.” In fact, after the cam- | paign Mr. Roosevelt is under a par- ticular obligation to see that Rex's | pet reform goes through without & hitch, In the meantime, the “Tugwell bill” is in what political doctors would call a delicate condition. Sen- ator Copeland of New York has been i officials of the Department of Ag- riculture have left the field clear | to him. Copeland came close to taking | a walk with Al Smith during the late unpleasantness and will need to pla- cate the White House if he is to be re-elected on the éxpiration of his present term. Senator Clark of Mis- souri, the bill's other anesthetist, now hears the gentle buzzing of the presi- dential bee in his political bonnet and will not be anxious to offend F. D. R., who can name his own successor in 1940, The real snag which remairis to be cleared from the channel is the con- trol of advertising: A construction of car cards, billboards, sponsored radio talks, etc, which will regard these modern devices as an essential part of the “label” of products designed for human consumption. It was this proposal which aroused so much hos- tility to the first “Tugwell bill” and postponed its passage for three and a half years, o Advertising Control. ‘The politicians have now decided that the bill must include control of advertising, but & curious situation has arisen inside the administration itself. The President is understood to feel strongly that the advertising control should be vested in the Food and Drugs Administration, and Sam Rayburn, House majority leader, un- dertook to inform Democratic Repre- sentatives during the last session that such was the case. Shortly afterward, however, these same Representatives were informed by other deeply interested administra- tion sources that the President was quite willing to have this control vested in the Federal Trade Commis- sion. And, as & matter of fact, Roose~ velt would not veto an otherwise de- sirable food and drugs law which pro- vided for F. T. C. control of the ad- vertising end of enforcement. There is more than mere inter-de- partmental jealousy involved in P. T. C. lobbying against the Food and Drugs Administration. The Federal Trade Commission has been in ex- istence long enough to be thoroughly house - broken to the sensitivity of any business to any reform which in- terferes with any profit. Its personnel is mainly of politicians who have found it a mighty snug harbor in the stormy weather of post-panic politics. It carries weight on Capitol Hill if not at the other end of Pennsylvania avenue. So it is that the more cynical New Dealers expect Congress to pass a magnificent new food and drugs act— along Tugwellian lines—and then to caponize its effectiveness by turning over the vital element of advertising control to the well-weathered F. T. C. connoisseurs of the pleasantest blend of business and politics. (Copyright, 1937.) GOV. CONE’S HANDS OFF GAMBLING AT MIAMI to Attract Tourists Purely Local, Says New Florida Executive. By the Ascociated Press. TALLAHASSEE, Fla, January 8.— Florida's newly inaugurated Governor, | Fred P. Cone, indicated yesterday he would adopt a hands-off policy toward what he considers purely local activi- | ties to attract tourists. | “If Miami wants racing and gam- bling, that's their business,” the Gov- ernor said at his first press confer- ence. “I'm not going to tell them what they should do for tourists.” The Governor declared war on bookmakers, who, he said, took $1.500 s day from Florida's treasury during the racing season. U. S. AND ARGENTINE TRADE INCREASE SEEN| Minister of Finance of South American Republic Visions Advancement in 1837, BY the Associated Press. NEW YORK, January 6.—Increased | trade between the United States and Argentina is predicted for 1937 in a statement made yesterday by Dr. Ro- | berto Ortiz, Argentine minister of | finance, a Buenos Aires cable to the Argentine Information Bureau re- vealed. Dr. Ortiz said the visit of President | Roosevelt to Argentina assures that official efforts will be made to increase | the flow of commerce between the two | nations and the President’s promise that he will urge the ratification of | the United States-Argentine sanitary SORRY HONEY- / whs MAD A7 THIS MASTY RUN AND SO PEGGY LUX SAID TO THE GIRL="WHY DON'T YOU TRY MY wav 3 GGRAVATING when stockings pop into runs. This too often happens when stockings lose their elasticity. New stockings give under strain— the silk is elastic. Lux saves elasticity A A —silk doesn’t break into runs so easily. Lux has no harmful alkali, a8 many ordinary soaps have. With Lux you avoid cake-soap rubbing. Luxed stock- ings last Jonger and look loveliez. JANUARY- 6, 1937. This Changing World European Masters of Diplomatic Delay Work Over- time on Spanish Intervention. BY CONSTANTINE BROWN. T I8 now beyond doubt that Hitler will accept the French proposal to refrain from sending further troops and war material to Gen. Franco. His definite answer will be given the European powers as soon as the last contingent of German “volunteers” has reached Spain and the quota of 45,000 men demanded by the rebel generalissimo has been filled. During these 18 days which have elapsed since the French government presented a strong note to the German Ambassador at Paris, Hitler has been rushing reinforcements to Pranco. It is said, in usually well- informed quarters, that no less than 2,500 men have been leaving the ports of the Reich for Spain every day. The necessary equip- ment was shipped with them. Within the next few days der Fuehrer will accept “in principle” the French demand, asking, how- ever, that full guarantees shall be given by the Soviets that they will refrain from sending the Spanish loyalists men, war material and money. Of course, it will take some time before the Moscow govern=- ment is contacted, and more time before a definite answer is received. Then, the high contracting powers will have to devise some means whereby an efficient control can be established. When all this is done, Hitler will sign on the dotted line, and the Span- iards will have received all the reinforcements they meed from all Quarters. This method was adopted by Mussolini last Summer when Premier Blum of France proposed a non-intervention pact. This was agreed upon 4 weeks later, when the Italians, the Germans, the Russians and the French completed the sending of war materials to their respective proteges. * % k% ‘The real value of the Italian-British agreement, which was hailed in certain quarters as an epoch-making peace instrument, is shown in the fact that since the agreement was signed no less than 10,000 Italian “volunteers” have reached Spain—on army transports—according to London dispatches, 7 3 The importance of that much-advertised understanding lay in the fact that the non-Fascist powers believed that the British had managed to detach Mussolini from Germany, as far as Spain is concerned. ' There were quite a number of diplomats who shouted “victory,” saying that British gold had purchased Mussolini. Hitler is now isolated, it was said, and won't dare be as aggressive as in the past when he was counting on 11 Duce’s support. They are now disappointed. Hitler thowed himself more pug- nacious than in the past. As far as Mussolini throwing his political friend overboard, it's all poppycock. Although there are a good many divergences between the two dictators, there is no doubt that they are together in their political philosophy of anti-communism, It is true that Italy for the time being does not covet any parts of Spanish territory, But if France wins, and, while keeping the Balearic Islands and a portion of Northern Morocco under the Spanish flag. he offers the use of these important strategic points to his friends, Mussolini will never say no. There is a great dif- ference between taking by force a man’s house and obtaining the use of it in case of need. And in the agreement with the British, Mus- solini has merely promised not to take by force any of the Spanish territory. * ko The new British homes have no solariums, breakfast nooks or rec- redtion rooms. The available space is devoted to something much more important—the gasproof chamber. It has the capacity, as & rule, to accommodate 10 persons. If the household does not contain so many persons, less fortunate neighbors can share this important room. It can be entered at either end by means of air-locked en- trances. Inside it containg an air-intake apparatus with a Aiter plant, a pedal machine to actuate the inflow should the electric current fail, and orygen containers to manufacture air if the out- side vents were blocked by falling masonry, There is & wireless receiving set to obtain official news of what is going on, and roof coils to absorb the body heat which otherwise would heighten the temperature. This new contraption for the civilized home of 1937 is nowhere nearly as pleasant as the basement recreation room. It depresses the individual who enters it. The utter quietude, only disturbed by the purring of the motor. dampens the spirit. The thought of sharing it with nine other mortals for an indefinite length of time is more alarming to the mind of the ordinary individual than the first dive in & submarine. In factories where such air chambers are compulsory, there have already been cases of mass hysteria among the women workers when one of them reported that the air was bad. convention gives hope for & better Fire on Top of Store. basis for expanding trade. BUFFALO, N. Y., January 6 (F).— “The reciprocal trade treaty between | Fire on top of a seven-story depart- the United States and Argentina,” ment store illuminated tall buildings added Dr. Ortiz, “is still in its pre- | in downtown Buffalo early yesterday. liminary stage, but studies are being Fire Commissioner William R. Casti- made to decide what articles may be Imom estimated the damage at included.” $100,000. Headline Folk and What They Do Britither Gets $500 for Shots With §5 Camera. BY LEMUEL F. PARTON. 8 15-year-old $5 camera, Cecil Beaton has been get- ting 8500 a shot. A con- noisseur of feminine beauty, more finicky about it than even the late Florenz Ziegfeld, the British protographer-artist includes in his ex- hibit here a number of his painted portraits of Mrs. Wallis Simpson—also his water color of King Bdward. He doesn't think Mrs. Simpson is beauti- ful, but assigns her many other nice adjectives in the dictionary. Heshas made about 60 camera and brush studies of Mrs. Simpson, He is cautious about calling anybody beautiful. When he was here in 1929, he sliced one small golden apple among six Hollywood queens, but just couldn't find any really beautiful women in America. He said in England you could flush a “ripping, ravishing Venus” any day. He defined his R. R. V. as “a woman with a long, thin neck, an abbreviated nose, three cher- ries for a mouth, big pansy eyes, a general birdlike appearance and heaps and heaps of paint, especially around the eyes.” He was 23 then, lean, lounging and lackadaisical. He had stirred London's West End salons to something like a revival of the Richard Burne-Jones palpitations—with his 85 camera, doubling in jesso or tempera and gouache. He liked to work in a leopard-skin robe with military brass buttons and blue pajamas. In his catalogue, he was defined as “the stern nemesis who transmutes his various sitters into so many flowers, simple or orchidaceous.” Whether this was an “act” or not, his fame blazed over England and the continent. Stern or not. he gained a truly orchidaceous following and became a sort of court photographer for London's Mayfair. The technical phase of photography bored him and, since his last visit here in 1933. he has been concentrating on painting. He also does stage designing and has many other interests and aptitudes in the fleld of the esthetics. He savs what he really wants to do 1s to write, None of his photographs is included in his present exhibition. Greenwood in Comeback. Will the good fairy kindly grant this department three wishes—to hear Fay Templeton sing “My Evening Star” to go to €an Francisco and push the Powell street turn-table around at 3 o'clock in the morning and to see Charlotte Greenwood wave her arms and legs? Maybe we're dreaming, bhut the news is that Miss Greenwood is at it again, in Chicago, “standing them in the aisles” with another of | the Letty series, called “Leaning on Letty.” They used to say about her that her | hips started at her neck and her hands reached to her ankles. It was just her loose-geared clowning that made her look that way. She was a pretty blond girl with a gift for the comic, ace cidentally discovered. In Philadelphia, she was in the back row of the chorus at the age of 14, tall for her age. She and another girl sewed themselves some voile dresses | and went on the road with a piano act. | Once she fumbled something and got a laugh. She did it deliberately the next day and got a bigger one. It was then she became a comedienne. They ran their act from $25 to $250 a week | apiece. You Can Have That 0ld Chair Re-Upholstered in for only 9.95 Plus small ecarrying charge. }Y purchased on the Home ‘mprovement Plan. One of the most ex- pensive of all uphol- stering fabrics . . » yet look at this price. Remember, too, this offer in- cludes: New fillings; new springs, if necessary, spring retwined and new webbing. All work done by experts assuring you absolute satisfaction. Take your choice from full bolts of this handsome 50-inch fabric ... in gorgeous shades of blue, gold, green, red, brown or wine. 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