Evening Star Newspaper, February 25, 1937, Page 13

Court Quarrel Blockades Laws Liberal Proposals Tied Up as Capitol Hill Talks Issue. BY DAVID LAWRENCE. UTSIDE of the National Capi- O tal, the controversy that has . arisen here over the Supreme Court may seem to be just another one of those Washington wars of words, but here it has become all- pervasive as an influence upon the whole legislative po— and political sit- - uation. E Virtually no . progress is being made toward the solution of the larger problems of the present day because in one A way or another & the Supreme Court issue touches every sin- S gle one of them. § 5 Thus the Pres- g g‘l::“ l:g‘f?f“g David Lawrence. toward a reorganization of the execu- tive agencies of the Federal Govern- ment has been dealt a body blow by the furor that has arisen over reor- ganizing the judiciary. Likewise no legislation to clarify the Wagner labor | Telations law so as to make it fair and | effective is being brought forward be- cause of a belief that when the Supreme Court decides the pending cases, the whole labor problem will become wrapped up in the controversy over the size of the court. Even the proposals fcr the recapture of the worth-while things in the N. R. A. such as the establishment of better hours and working conditions under 8 system of voluntary co-operation in exchange for certain governmental privileges for the code groups or trade associations seem to have been side- tracked. Slows Up Important Bills. But worst of all, the bitterness being engendered by the dispute is making inroads into everyday work of the legislative branch of the Government and the movement of important bills toward final enactment is being re- tarded to such an extent that a con- gressional session through some of the Summer months is regarded now as 1nevitable. It is too early to say what the po- litical consequences of the controversy | will be, but with a congressional cam- paign only 18 months away it is nat- ural that members of bota houses should be wondering what effect the votes they cast on the Supreme Cour. | bill may have on their political tu- ture. Politically there is ammunition for @ first-rate issue in the presert dis- | pute. The Republicans cauticusly | have been avoiding any apearance ! of aggressive fighting, believing it 1s better for the Democrats who disagres with the administration to appear in the front-line trenches. But it is not to be forgotten that once a num-} ber of members of Congress find them- | selves breaking from the White House | on one issue they are mot so tim:d | about it the second time, especially | if they see a favorable public opinion heading their way. - | Split With Party Possible. l THE EVENING STAR, WASHINGTO News Behind the News Offcials See Probable Step to Peace in Britain's Bigger Navy Program. BY PAUL MALLON. ILENT concern was expressed upon the official face here when Britain announced this vast new rearmament program, but the pose was really a wrestler's grimace. American officialdom was tipped two weeks in advance on the program and secretly considers that it may yet turn out to be » constructive move toward world peace. The attitude of apprehension was adopted for domestic purposes. For example, Assistant Navy Secretary Edison was called in to see the Presi- dent shortly after the public news came from London. The subject of the conference was the serious effect that the Walsh-Healey labor act has had upon naval construction here. But that is & touchy subject around the White House. So the President informed Mr. Edison upon his departure that, inasmuch as they had also mentioned the subject of British rearmament, he should mention only the rearmament matter to the awaiting press outside. At least, this is the story current on the bridge at the Navy De- partment. There no concern Wwhatever is felt over the British rearma- ment move. ; Note—Labor Secretary Per- kins is highly wrought up against any possible modification of the steel manufacturing restrictions of the Walsh-Healey act and must be handled cautiously. The President sees the Navy needs as well as the labor bene- fits involved. The subterfuge he employed to keep quiet the main purpose of the Edison conference 1s a common and legitimate White House practice. The American disarmament maestro, Norman Davis, has been gum- shoeing around Washington during recent weeks. He is working on some= thing, although no one seems to know just what. After the British move was announced, he came down from New York for one day, but gave no inkling of future plans. Davis lately has been telling his friends that any disarmament move this year is out of the question. He has convinced some of them that he is speaking the truth because, until recently, he always radiated hope at the slightest provocation. However, Davis rarely says all he thinks. If Hitler gets some economic help, Spain quicts down and Mussolini comes forward with a peace proposal, disarmament may yet cease to be the lost word of 1937. For the first time in history, anti-lynching legislation stands a good chance of adoption. A change in sentiment among the historic opponents may soon be evident. The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People quotes a newspaper poll (Institute of Public Opinion) indicating the South is 65 per cent for and only 35 per cent against. Southern Congressmen are having a hard time believing that the ma- jority in their districts is as strong as that, but their mental attitude is nevertheless softening. If the House Judiciary Committee does not grant hearings and report out a bill, you will probably see a petition circulated to force the bill to the House floor. This move would require 218 signatures. A similar petition was signed up before Congress adjourned last July, but adjournment came before the time to vote on it. The bill now seems certain to pass the House. The attitude of the Senate is yet unclear, but Senator Wagner is advocating it and Mr. R. will speak a word for it at the proper time. * ok X K No one has mentioned it yet, but the Supreme Court does not like President Roosevelt's executive reorganization plan any better than his proposed judicial reor- ganization. His executive reorganization would give him the power to blanket all Government employes into the civil service; that is, all employes except those who make policy. This means all Supreme Court em- ployes and even the employes of other Federal courts would fall into a civil service category. The judges would lose control of their own assistants. It may be said, upon the authority of a Congressman who knows, that the Supreme Court does not like it. 1If there was any public comment upon Mr. Hoover's speech against the court plan, it was not apparent in Washington. However, the Republican moaning and Democratic cheering were almost loud enough to be heard without a radio. It seems that Republican National Chairman John Hamilton, who has never previously been known to consider silence a virtue, has been studiously silent on this issue. There is also inside evidence available indicating he has advised Republicans in Congress to avoid mlkms‘ it a party issue if they can. Gov. Landon followed that course. Political tacticians all appreciate the wisdom of the mouse not fighting the cat, especially when others are doing it better. It should therefore be no strain upon your imagination to improvise the private comments of Republican legislators upon reading Mr. Hoover's forthright attack. [~ SUPREME COURT TABLE (Copyright, 1937.) Few observers here believe Mr. | Roosevelt will carry his fight against | the Supreme Court to the point of | breaking up his own party. Yet such | « result is easily possible if the Presi- dent does not move away from the | power for such brief periods before the | ty of liberal laws that can be written reaction comes they must necessarily make haste. within the Constitution, and laws that would be upheld by the present | Sound Policies Sidetracked. Supreme Court. The ingenuity of | the draftsmen has by no means been | fundamental question he has raised—| But there are plenty of sound poli- the power of the Executive to read- | Cies Which might have advanced the just the judicial branch of the Gov- | cause of liberalism at this session ernment. dence of a serious economic situa- | Controversy. Congress was getting tion. The “sit-down" : causing an increase in the interrup- | and more practical definition of in- tions of the recovery march. The terstate commerce, and while the situation cries out for some public O’Mahoney bill to license corporations policy that will meet the legitimate may be too far-reaching. there are de- demands of organized labor without Sirable objectives in it from the view- breaking down the productive proc- | point of proper Federal regulation of esses of the country. Because of | €nterprises which operate across State Mr. Roosevelt’s political pre-eminence | lines. It, too, is sidetracked. the local authorities everywhere seem What seems to have been overlooked to be looking to him for leadership. | is that even granting the premise The Wagner labor relations law was | that capitalism must be modified, the supposed to deal with problems of | existence of a system that has taken this kind. Yet no move is being root in centuries of time and habit | each field: | of Congress had it not been for the | Meanwhile there is growing evi- | interjection of the Supreme Court| strikes are | Teady to consider at least a broader | made to amend the law so as to bring industrial peace. It often has been said that liberals are precipitate and hasty when they get into power, and the latter usually makes it difficult to change by a sud- den surgical operation on the very arteries of its body. Nor is the answer to be found in a large number of amendments to the exhausted by a single attempt in also the New Deal has a better knowledge of the points in its own program than it had four years ago. | All government is & process of grad- ual adjustment of viewpoints, but the break-up through the court fight of | an era of good feeling such as began with the last election has impeded the processes of adjustment. In that respect the Supreme Court controversy has done much harm, though, to be | sure, in awakening an interest in the ! meaning of the Constitution and the} method of its interpretation tangible | benefits to the cause of constitutional government may be foreseen, irrespec- tive of the outcome of the present effort to increase the size of the Su- preme Court. | the sense of practicing quiet decency. (Copyright. 1937.) D. C., THURSDAY, FEBRUARY q-ax opinions of the writers on this page are their own, not necessarily The Star’s. Such opinions are presenied 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. Clarifying the Issue Plan for Voluntary Retirement of Justices Bears No Link to Roosevelt Proposal. Mark Sulli BY MARK SULLIVAN, HE Senate is discussing this week & bill having to do with retirement of Supreme Court Jjustices. 'Because the bill has to do with this subject, it is going to be misinterpreted. It is going to be misinterpreted as having a relation to the President’s " plan for appoint- % 2 ing six new jus- tices of the Su- preme Court. For the sake of clarity, it is most : necessary that the public should | understand that there is no rela- tion whatever be- tween the bill ¥ now under dis- cussion by the 'y Senate and the j President’s plan. The two are as | different as voluntary is different from compulsory. Between the two there is no faintest relation whatever, except coincidence in time. Nevertheless, later on this coinci- | dence in time is going to have a mate- | rial eflect on the course of events. After the bill now in the Senate has | been enacted, as it probably will be, | the President’s proposal will have a | different status and will look different to the country. A good way to achieve clarity is to tell briefly the history of the bill now in the Senate. For many years, ever since 1869, | there has been a law providing that | if a Supreme Court justice is over 70, | and has served 10 years, he can resign and receive full pay for life. Under this law the late Justice Oliver Wen- dell Holmes resigned in 1932, and for | a time received full pay, which was | $20,000 a year. In 1933, however, | Congress passed the emergency “econ- omy act” which provided that no | pension should be over $10,000 a year. | Justice Holmes' pension was there- | upon reduced to that amount so long as the economy act was in effect. Bill Carefully Written. It was felt that this should not be, that a justice who resigns expecting full pay should not later find his pen- sion reduced to half. It was felt that justices (over 70, and having served | 10 years) who leave the bench should be guaranteed full pay for life, with- out risk of having the amount reduced by some future Congress. To achieve this, a bill was very carefully written. | It is the same bill that is now in the | Senate. It was first introduced about | two years ago. It was introduced merely because it was believed to be a good measure. When the bill was before Congress two years ago it was defeated (on March 6, 1935). It was defeated, to | some extent, by a sense of delicacy— possibly unnecessary delicacy=—on the part of members of Congress. It was defeated because many members felt that the passage of such an act might be construed as a kind of hint to cer- tain elderly justices that they should retire. This argument against the bill did not appear in the debates; but it was spoken of quietly among members and it was strong enough to defeat the measure. The argument, as Representative Michener says, “whispered"—the word whisper being used not in an odious sense, but in Congressmen felt that passing the bill would seem like saying to the elderly McDevitt's 16th ANNIVERSARY SALE CUSTOM-TAILORED Slip Covers French Seamed and Pleated 2-Piece Set ____$29.95 3-Piece Set ____$36.95 Choice of 85c Chevron, Figured Dust- Tight and Printed Crash. DRAPERY 3rd Pl 1317 F american Bids. | free from suspicion of deviousness. Justices: “Must you go? Here's your hat; don't forget your cane.” (Observe, by the way, that Congress two years ago was unwilling to do quietly, by hint, what President Roose- velt today publicly demands shall be done by coercion. From this, can there be any doubt that Congress, if left to itself, if not under pressure from the President, would never pass the President’s proposal?) Although the bill giving justices the privilege of voluntarily retiring at full pay was defeated two years ago, it was reintroduced early in the present Congress. It was reintroduced in complete good faith, in the conviction that it was a good thing to do. It was reintroduced wholly without re- gard to the President’s proposal, and weeks before the President made his proposal. It was reintroduced by the chairman of the Judiciary Committee, Sumners of Texas, a member utterly The bill was sent to the House Com- mittee on Judiciary. It was in that committee, following the normal rou- tine, when, on February 5, the Presi- dent made his sensational proposal for what amounted to compulsory retire- ment of justices over 70. Suspicions Unfounded. Because of the coincidence, the vol- untary retirement bill fell under sus- picion. The suspicion was unfounded. Of the voluntary retirement bill, it is true to say, in the words of Representa- tive Celler of New York, that it is “simply an optional retirement bill; there is no coercion; there is no com- pulsion about it; there is no attempt to bludgeon o blackjack the judges into retirement; they can take it or leave it; there is no hidden trick in this bill; we have employed no hidden strategy; it is a clear-cut measure; there is no deliberate attempt to ‘put over’ anything.” The voluntary retirement bill was passed by the House February 10, is | now before the Senate, and presum- ably will pass and become law. I have emphasized that this bill for voluntary retirement has no faintest relation to the President’s proposal for what amounts to compulsory retire~ ment. It has no relation except mere- ly that of coincidence in time. To Affect Arguments. Yet, just because of this coincidence | in time, the passage of the bill now pending will have a marked effect— upon the President’s proposal and in all respects. The President's proposal will take on a new status, not now foreseen. And the arguments for and | against the President's proposal will | be modified in & way not now foreseen. | Among other effects, friends of the President’s proposal will say that be- cause some justices can voluntarily | retire with full pay, therefore they ought to retire. It will be said that | if they don't retire voluntarily, there- | fore the President’s measure for what amounts to compulsion should be passed. These arguments will be spe- | cious, but they will be made. (Copyright. 1937.) 23, We, the People Foes of Roosevelt’s Judicial Plan Seem to Have Out- smarted Themselves by Attitude Toward Child Labor. BY JAY FRANKLIN, ‘The foes of Mr. Roosevelt’s judicial jiu-jitsu plan seem to have out- smarted themselves by their attitude toward the child labor amendment. This amendment was drafted by such radicals as George Wharton Pepper of Pennsylvania, Thomas J. Walsh of Montana and Sam Shortridge of California. The draft was approved by such “reds” as Sam Gompers, Newton Baker, Roscoe Pound and Pather Ryan. It was recommended to the States by a Republican Congress under a Republican President, 13 years ago, and was recently and very courageously indorsed by ex-President Herbert, Hoover. No man or woman of sense or standing has ever expressed himself as favoring commercialized child labor in an America where millions of able- bodied men and women are unable to find work at a living wage. The smart thing for the “economic royalists” to do at this point in our political history would be to let the child labor amendment go through with a rush and point to it as “the American way” of changing the Comstitution. .. Instead, we find them persuading the South Dakota Legislature to reject the amendment on the ground that it would give Congress the power to prevent farm children from helping with the chores! We find them "l‘m. & battle royal against the amendment in the Lower House of both’the New York and Kansas State Legisiatures. We find that, after 13 years, they have held ratifications down to 27 States and that % is quite doubtful that the remaining nine States needed to bring it into force will adopt it this year. * % % x Who are “they”? Who are the people who have blocked this simple reform? Proud leader in the fight for child labor is an organization called “The Sentinels of the Republic,” organized in 1922 by the late Louis A. Coolidge, a Massachusetts manufacturer. The “Sentinels” are now chiefly financed in Philadelphia, through a certain Mr. Raymond Pitcairn. The organization distinguished itself in the fight to repeal the Sheppard-Towner maternity act, the battle against the “pink-slip” income tax requirement, the struggle against the creation of a Juvenile Court for the District of Columbia and has opposed the child labor amendment from the start. Its income leaped from $6.000 a year to $95,000 in 1935, while for the first lhret_ and a half months of 1936 it got $73,500 in contributions. Testimony before Senator Black's lobby investigation last Spring dis- closed that “Sentinels of the Republic” had tried to get big-time support from the Liberty League group and from Mr. William Randolph Hearst and was responsible for circulating an animated cartoon film, “The Amateur Fire Brigade.” caricaturing President Roosevelt and the New Deal. When last sighted by the Black Committee the *Semtinels” seemed to be headed for the well-heeled campaign to elect Gov. Lan= don to the presidemncy of the United States. * k% & Who are these “Sentinels of the Republic?”” There are not quite three thousand of them scattered throughout the country, but they have received the neces- sary contingent of iron men from the following gentlemen. accord- ing to Mr. David Prederick Sibley of Boston, assistant secretary of the organization, testifying under oath with the books of the outfit before him: Mr. Alfred P. Sloan, jr., of General Motors. Mr. Raymond Pitcairn, deeply interested in Pittsburgh Plate Glass. Mr. J. Howard Pew of the Sun Oil Co. Mr. Edward T. Stotesbury,, partner in J. P. Morgan & Co. Mr. Nicholas J. Robsevelt Mr. George Wharton Pepper, who as Senator helped draft the child labor amendment Mr. Irenee A. du Pont, etc., etc. It is conceded that these gentlemen have a constitutional right to agitate and organize for or against any piece of legislation they please The point here is that these men represent the sam old gang which has been fighting the popular movement now led by President Roosevelt for years, and that they are fighting his present court proposals. However, 1t would seem that the method they have adopted is foolish strategy, for by making the passage of this one amendment so slow and difficult they have given the President his most effective argument when jittery politicians urge that a general New Deal amendment to the Federal Constitution be submitted to the States, The success of the “Sentinels of the Republic” and of the self- appointed “Nationa! Committee for the Protection of Child, Family, School and Church” in blocking one simple reform for 13 years leads the New Dealers to conclude that the only effective way to assure the people of an early legal sanction for their program is to “pack,” “unpack” or “repack” the Supreme Court of the United States. (Copyrisht, 1937.) 1937. An American You Should Know Morris Cooke Carries Electric Aladdin Lamp Into Farm Lands. BY DELIA PYNCHON. HOUSANDS of good citizens live on farms. Thousands still let the sun beat on the old tin wash tubs so that Saturday baths shall be bearable. ‘Thousands use kerosene lamps. What's the answer to this picture? Elec- , tricity. The man who has electrified % the farms is Morris Cooke, ad- ministrator, since 1935, of the Ru- ~ ral Electrification A d m inistration. He ignited the spark. Now oth- ers may follow a blazed trail. Cooke knows farms. As a boy he spent much time on his grandfathers near Carlisle, Pa., where he was | born, one of eight children. A grad- |uate of Lehigh University, his first job was apprentice to a machinist, | which netted him $2 a week. Time marched on to make him a famous engineer. It brought many honor- able posts, which briefly include di- | rector of public works, Philadelphia; director of Pennsylvania power survey and trustee, Power Authority, New York, by appointment Gov. Roosevelt. Cooke always has been a friend of the President’s. In Washington he lives across Lafayette Park from the Whire House. He often crosses the park. Now on vacation, a new Federal post is rumored for Cooke. A Humerous Diplomat. Agelessness surrounds him. You know he is a diplomat. You surmise he is a politician in its best meaning, as he knows when and where to say things without losing his own integ- rity. He is obviously optimistic, and once wrote an article entitled the “High Cost of Blues.” Humor and un= derstanding exude from him. He be- lieves 5o thoroughly in electrification | that he suggests an appropriate for his tombstone should be “He believed in the rural bath room.” Rural electrification purposes funda- mentally to bring light and power to | lighten farm labor. The Government loans money to qualified groups or 1o | public utilities to build and operate lines. There must be 150 customers with 50 miles of proposed line before & loan is approved. Non-profit co- | operatives are favored. The plan is ‘dennnr‘]y contagious. Modern Aladdin’s Lamp. Without doubt, electricity is the Aladdin’s lamp of rural life. It grinds corn. pumps water. milks cows. It brings refrigerators. bath rooms, wash- ing machines, radios and oodles of | labor-saving gadgets. | An Oklahoma farmer reports that | he has been fooling the hens by light- ing the poultry house before the sun comes up mornings. The hens oblig- ingly have laid enough extra eggs to | pay the farmer’s electric bill many ! times over. 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