Evening Star Newspaper, March 9, 1937, Page 9

History Now Being Made by Court Labor Relations Cases Being Decided Under Personal Attack. BY DAVID LAWRENCE. EHIND closed doors in the secrecy of the conference room of the Supreme Court, nobody but the nine justices knows what's going on, but it is a safe as- sumption that never in the history of the United States has there been & parallel situa- tion. Before the court is a series of seven law suits, all touching & on the right of Congress to enact a law taking cer- tain rights of citizens hitherto believed to have been free from congressional in- terference. All seven cases grew out of the pas- sage by Congress of a labor relations act which at- tempts to penalize employers for so-called “unfair labor practices” without at the same time requiring any corresponding abstention by em- ployes from committing the same acts. While the Supreme Court, which has heard arguments on all seven cases, is deliberating on what the final opinions shall be, a controversy has been precipitated by the Presi- dent involving the quality of previous decisions and the capacity of the fustices themselves to render decisions because of their advanced age. Seen as Unprecedented. Were the attack on the Supreme Court impersonal or abstract, it would be in accord with attacks on the court made by other Presidents of the United States. But never has there been any public attack on the Su- preme Court which could be construed as a threat to influence the decisions of the court in a pending case. Most persons here would not have been disturbed by the President’s attack on past decisions but lawyers say an attack on the court with respect to ® pending case is unprecedented. Thus Mr. Roosevelt in his radio speech last week spoke of the pending cases on the Wagner labor relations act as follows: “Furthermore, court injunctions have paralyzed the machinery which we created by the National labor re- lations act to settle great disputes raging in the industrial field and, indeed, to prevent them from ever erising. We hope that this act may yet escape final condemnation in the highest court. But so far the attitude and language of the courts in relation to many other laws have made the legality of this act also uncertain, and have encouraged corporations to defy rather than obey it.” Argument Routine Set. The customary way for the execu- tive branch of the Government to argue its case is in a direct appeal to the Supreme Court in a formal hear- ing granted for that purpose, the Attorney General and his staff being afforded ample time for the presenta- tion of oral and written arguments. When litigants have concluded their presentation, it is the practice for the cases to be left to the justices to decide. Arguing of the case in the newspapers or before public meetings in an effort to mobilize public opinion against the court is not considered | o be in conformity with the American | system of arguing the case and then | leaving it to the judges to decide. After decisions are rendered, com- ment and criticism is expected and | public discussion of the opinions is | natural. Even before cases have been fully argued there is often public com- ment, but the Government itself has for many years observed the proprie- ties in arguing its cases in the Su- preme Court chamber and not on the stump. ‘The court probably is not giving any consideration to these aspects any more than it is formally discussing in any way the controversy over whether it shall consist of 9 or 15 members hereafter. What is before the court is a question of the validity of the Wag- | ner labor relations act raised in seven | law suits. Many spetcators came into | the court room yesterday hoping to | hear the opinions of the court in these David Lawrence. labor cases, but the probabilities are that the Supreme Court will : ot render | its opinions for three weeks. Simultaneous Rulings Expected. ‘The general assumption here is that | when the court gets ready to decide | the issues, it will hand down opinions | covering all seven law suits on the | same day. This vill give the public the benefit of the Supreme Court’s views on all aspects of the law and will pre- vent a confusing situation from aris- ing such as might result if one Monday the application of the law in a certain | case is upheld and on a subsequent Monday another aspect is considered 1 invalid. | While there are seven law suits, many lawyers believe they can be cov- ered in five decisions, inasmuch as the issues are more or less alike in two or three instances. The Associated Press case may turn on the freedom of the press clause of the Constitution and the Wagner act may be held invalid as interfering | with constitutional guarantees. As for the Maryland coach casc, the fact that the emvnloyer is engaged in interstate commerce is conceded and even the constitutionality of thc act may be upheld, but its application may be considered wrong. The hc,.: of the Government is that in this case the right to regulate the labor relations of bus drivers will be put on & parity wit the right already exercised by Con- gress with respect to railway em- ployes. Production Angle Weighed. In three other cases, however, the Jones and Laughlin steel case, the Fruehauf Trailer Co. and the Fried- man-Harry Marx Clothi.g Co. case, the issue turns on whether the Fed- eral Government may regul te ' - nesses engaged in production or whether this is a right safeguarded to individuals or to the State govern- ments. If the Supreme Court opinions in the Guffey cases and a long line of deci- sions are followed by the court, the three cases might possibly be decided in favor of the companies and not the Labor Relations Board. One thing seems certain—the Supreme Court is occupying itself with the merits of the legal questions involved. If it is not and the decisions run contrary to all precedents, this will undoubtedly be the first time that presidential de- mands that the Supreme Court hew to political sentiment will have ever been made or successfully attained this ob- Jective. (Copyright, 1937) G News Behind the News Politicians Realize That Consumer Has No Protec- tion as Labor Prices Rise. BY PAUL MALLON. ACH man may not know his own weakness better than his enemies, but each politiclan does. He has to. It is therefore highly sig- nificant that the thinkers of the new order have agreed privately from the start that their real weakness is their inability to do anything for the consumer. The walking heir apparent, Agriculture Secretary Wallace, vir- tually confessed it publicly in his New York speech, beating himself and his associates as being “producer-minded, not consumer-minded.” What sent Mr. Wallace to the wailing wall apparently was the swiftness with which steel passed along to consumers its hours and wages tribute to the workers and John L. Lewis. It is almost unanimously agreed on the inside here that automobiles must do the same thing, that other industries will have to follow and that the country is thus being pushed by current policies into a constant bumpy upward swing of the pendulum of prices. ‘Whether anything more than breast-beating will be attempted in his behalf is not yet clear. The trouble is no one can think of anything prac- tical to do, except to argue that both capital and labor are con- sumers, but this does not seem to have been a very effective argu- ment with the white-collared mid- dle classes. * % X X A few stabs have been made at “doing something” for con- sumers now and then, but they generally have been pacifying 1 moves to keep down consumer objections while other purposes were being accomplished. For instance, during N. R. A., a consumers’ division was established, but it soon became such a bad joke that it dropped any pretense of being successful. For another instance, President Roosevelt anticipated such objec~ tions being raised during the last campaign and sent a consumers’ co- operative mission to Europe. That is the last ever heard of it officially. The commissioners slunk back into the country six months ago without being observed. They secretly made a divided report, but, a week or 8o ago, Mr. Roosevelt announced he had never seen it and did not know what had happened to it. The answer to that is the same as the old answer to the whole consumer problem. The farmer co-ops saw that Federal financing for consumer co-ops would cut prices, and they helped to smother the report. ‘The fundamental difficulty seems to Le that the consumers are 8 wholly unorganized political group, numerically the most powerful and politically the least respected. Note—do not make the common current mistake of believing the steel price increase affects only large corporations. The Government and the automobile companies are probably the biggest steel customers now. The Government will pay in taxes collected from all who earn or buy. Every auto purchaseg will eventually pay in the purchase price of his car. - x kKN Mr. Roosevelt's home State assembly is likely to reject his hvored' child labor amendment—for a very forceful reason. The amendment was sloppily drawn. Nearly everyone who was around here in 1924, when it was adopted, will now agree to that, privately if not publicly. In the first place, the framers forgot to put a time limit on ratifi- cation. As a result, the amendment has been rejected by 38 states (two more than three-fourths of all the States of the Union) and yet is still pending. The action of one State legislature is not binding upon its successor. Kansas, for instance, rejected ratification five *times before adopting it. In the second place, it proposes to do mot only what was in- tended, but probably would give the Federal Government power to adopt blanket rules for regulation of youths under 18. In fact, it is now no longer known here strictly as the “child labor” amendment, but as the “National Youth amendment.” After what has happened in Europe the last few years, religious groups naturally have become fearful. They have seen constitutions rub- berized and stretched to the limit of imaginations. ‘The amendment reads: “The Congress shall have power to limit, regulate and prohibit the labor of persons under 18 years of age. The power of the several States is unimpaired by this article except that the operation of State laws shall be suspended to the extent necessary to give effect to legislation enacted by Congress.” A Senator who voted to submit the amendment in 1924 says little serious thought was then given to the possibility of the amendment being used by the Federal Government to control education of youth. Congress was thinking solely of children working in textile mills, chiefly in the South. Education then was a matter of local concern. The extent to which purposes have changed since 1924; not only in Europe, but in this country, is attested by the fact that we now have a Federal CCC, a Federal Youth Administration financing peor students, and there is a bill (by Senator Harrison) pending in the Senate proposing that the Federal Government allot $300,000,000 a year to the states for schools, just as for roads. GET THAT (Copyright, 1037.) Low /937 prices send Studebaker sales u EQUALS (0):8 BETTERS £EONOMY OF ACTUAL PHOTOGRAPH AKE a look at the sensa- STAR, WASHINGTO D. C, TUESDAY, MARCH 9, 1037 q'az 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 sucth opinions may be contradictory among themselves and directly opposed to The Star’s. Inéquafity Before the Law Putting Judges on Basis of Bias Seen as Loss in Centuries-Old Struggle, : BY MARK SULLIVAN. EMOCRATIC SENATOR BURKE of Nebraska, in his radio speech, called the Pres- ident's court proposal “the greatest disservice ever done to the cause of democracy.” The statement is strong, but justified. Perhaps if differently phrased, the truth in it might be more readily grasped.I imag- ine that much of the public thinks of such statements as mere argumen- tative rhetoric. The public does not realize that America has come to & phase in which the very essen- tials of civiliza- tion must be re- taught — for the } thought to them. Once in 50 oft- en a citizen finds himself sum- moned into court in a litigation in which the Gov- ernment is the other party. At & ngs eyv" y Mark Sollivan. citizen is subject to it. When it hap- pens the citizen knows that before the court he stands equal with the Gov- ernment. The court feels no obliga=- tion to decide in favor of the Govern- ment. There have been complaints against all courts, but none ever said that a court had a fixed bias in favor of the Government. There have been severe judges so-called “convicting judges,” but no one ever charged that their severity was due to any sense of obligation to do what the Govern- ment demands. This independence of the judiciary, this safeguard against oppression by government, is the most precious pos- session of man. Because we have long had it we have come to take it for granted. No American is able to conceive & court as being anything different. He cannot conceive a court as being what courts are in Russia, Germany and Italy—mere agencies of the government carrying out the will of government, never dreaming of do- ing anything the government does not desire. Thousands Died for It. So long have we in America felt secure in this possession of an inde- pendent judiciary that todsy we think | it is like the air we breathe, some- thing conferred upon us without effort on our part. ‘Without effort by this generation, true enough. But we have forgotten that to achieve it took effort upon the part of scores of generations. It took over six centuries. It took wars and bloodshed and many martyrdoms. Vic- tory was first achieved in England. It had been won there before America | wrote its Constitution. But it had been so recently won that the writers of our Constitution knew how impor- tant it was. They wanted America to be a country in which the question should never arise. So they wrote the Constitution in such & way as to as- sure the independence of the courts and the protection of the citizens’ rights by the courts. These assurances are specified in several parts of the Constitution and implicit in all of it. Among other ways, it was provided that Federal judges should hold office for life, and be not removable except for cause and by process of impeach= ment. Now let us turn to Mr. Roosevelt’s present action. Why is he irritated against the Supreme Court? His grievance is this: That in several cases the Supreme Court has decided against the Government. The Presi- dent wanted to dismiss, and did dis- miss, a member of the Federal Trade Commission—and the Supreme Court, by a unanimous decision, declared the President’s act illegal. The Presi- dent, with his associates, wrote and promulgated N. R. A.—and the court, by a unanimous decision, said it was unconstitutional. In some other mat- ters the court, by a varying majority— 6103, 5 to 4, 8 to 1—decided against the Government. Because the court decided against the President, what does the Presi- dent propose? He proposes an action designed to make the court one which will decide in favor of the Govern- ment. He proposes to so change the personnel of the court that it will give the decisions he desires. If this proposal succeeds, if the Su- preme bench is turned into a court which under these circumstances will find in favor of the Government, then there will have been wrought a de- struction of the independence of the Judiciary. The destruction will be so far-reaching that every one will know that before the courts the citizen is no longer equal with the Government. It is sald that the change would not be permanent. It is said that the new justices appointed by the Presie dent would decide in favor of the Gov- ernment with respect only to the specific measures which the Presi- dent has said he wants, N. R. A, Triple-A, and the others. It is said that thereafter the new justices would feel and share the tradition of in- dependence that the Supreme Court has had for nearly 150 years. But to this there are several answers. Has Edge on Future. In the first place, the President must appoint his new justices not merely with a view to their deciding in favor of the Government with re- spect to N. R. A, Triple-A and the | other measures the President has mentioned. The President must ap- | point his new justices with a view to future measures. We can safely surmise that it is the future measures | that the President, consciously or un=- consciously, has most in mind. The past measures that the Supreme Court has invalidated, N. R. A, Triple-A and the others, do not by their abe sence, seriously inconvenience Mr. Rosevelt. The administration and the country are doing very well without them. Moreover, even if the new jusncui were disposed, after a period of defer | ence to the President, to become again | indpendent, it would be difficult for them to do so. The country would’ not quickly reacquire confidence in the independence of the court. The new judges would be spoken of as the “President’s judges.” And, finally, the formy of society | which the New Deal contemplates can- not exist alongside an independent judiciary. For the functioning of | 'WORLD'S FIRST CARS WITH DUAL ECONOMY OF FRAM OIL CLEANIR AND AUTOMATIC OVERDRIVE * tional record that Stude- baker is making in sales gains! Check the great and growing numbers of Studebaker owners this year who were buyers of lowest priced cars in former years! One fact stands out as clear asdaylight . :s the big 1937 Studebaker must have impres- sive price appeal as well as eye-appeal to be selling so remarkably. And a car for car comparisonwill convince you that you'll do better to invest in a Studebaker than in any other car you can name! 1138 Conn. Ave. N.W. HINSON MOTOR Cottage City, M BOYD-CARLIN MOTOR CO. Alexandria, Va. JOHN T. PARRAN Indian Head, Md. DELLINGER BROS, Winchester, Va. CO. 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LOWIRED FLOORS—CHAIR-HEIGHT SEATS—HEAD ROOM AND LIG ROOM TO SPARE * WORLD'S SAFIST, STRONGISY, QUIETEST ALL STEEL BODIES REINFORCED BY STEEL * WORLD'S LARGEST LUGGAGE CAPACITY * 'WORLD'S RASIEST CLOSING DOORS WITH EXCLUSIVE NON-RATTLE ROTARY DOOR LOCKS * DUAL RANGE STEIRING GIAR FOR BASY PARKING Phone District 0110 E. H. CASHELL. INC. Rockville, Md. SHENANDOAH MOTOR SALES CO. Staunton. Va. ALBEMARLE MOTOR CO., ING, Charlottesville, "l!.' GORDON’S GARA( Timberville, Va. We, the People Public Awaits Roogevelt’s Revelation of Sort of Justices to Be Named. BY JAY FRANKLIN, HE debate over President Roosevelt’s proposal to reorganize the national system of courts seems to have ignored the fact that there are two entirely separate questions—both calculated to arouse the beast in the best of lawyers—involved in his program. The first—the one which has opened mouths and raised blood- pressures from Manhattan to San Francisco—is the plan to enlarge the Supreme Court and to eflect certain changes in the lower Federal courts and in their procedure. While there is no doudt that this pro- posal lies entirely within the Constitution, the conservatives object to it on the assumption that he will simply select a bunch of yes-men, of judicial stooges, to give the New Deal measures a jew green lights. If Mr. Roosevelt were to announce his intention to appoint, say, John W. Davis, Newton D. Baker, Reed Smoot, Hiram Johnson or Pat Harrison, much of the yammer raised by the corporate interests and by their political front office men would fall flat. For the past 60 years it has been the Republican custom to appoint none but “safe” men to the Supreme Court, and if Mr. Roosevelt were to follow this practice, who ecan doubt that the American Bar Asso- ciation would form the letters “F.D. R.” on the political gridiron, while the six 70-plus justices withdrew from the arena with whiskers flying? LR ‘The test of his program is, therefore, the sort of men and/or m“mxmtv:: Predden"'.. selects {u ” or “wet-nurses” for those on the bench, Many on the New Deal side of the fence would with- draw their support from the proposal if they believed that Mr. Roosevelt contemplated appointing political old-timers like Attorney General Cummings to the upper brackets, or merely deserving Democrats to the lower orders of the judiciary. We tried that once when Woodrow Wilson appointed his Attorney General, the present Justice McReynolds, to the Supreme Court. Mr. McReynolds had won & reputation as a trust-busting liberal Democrat before he settled in the seats of the mighty nine. Today he stands as the one unflinching foe of every New Deal measure to come before the court. One of my correspondents claims, on the basis of a pari-mutuel analysis of Justice McReynolds’ votes on New Deal laws, that the odds are greater than 2,796-to-1 against this particular jurist render- ing an impartial decision. On the other hand, New Deal liberals have very definite ideas as to the sort of persons they feel the President ought to appoint to the Federal bench. I propose to present their ideas on this subject in a number of later columns. In general, their views fall under two heads: They believe that Mr. Roosevelt should staff the lower courts with young, liberal New Deal attorneys—the Frankfurter legal “hot dogs” of congressional oratory—the men who carried the ball for Roosevelt in drafting the laws, preparing the briefs and arguing the cases of the last four years. And they feel that laymen as well as professionals should be appointed to the Supreme Court, in order that the public interest may find perma- nent representation on the tri- bunal which rules on our major, social and economic problems. * % ok x This is a subject loaded with dynamite. For the President to start naming names for judicial appointment st this stage of the battle, would be as risky as for & candidate to announce his cabinet before election dsy. Many s man who favors reform, in the dim hope that, perhaps, one of those vacancies will come his way, might lose interest or become hostile, if he saw that his name had been passed over and that Mr. Roosevelt had picked somebody else with less obvious qualifications. Nevertheless, when the President goes on the air to discuss “the state of the Nation” in his fireside chat this evening, many of his supporters would like him to give some indication of his own ideas and plans on these subjects. What we need is not only a new kind of Supreme Court, but & new kind of Supreme Court justice. A single “packing” of the judiciary won't last long, unless the President uses the right sort of social excelsior to keep the loose pieces from becoming cracked in transit during the next two If Mr. Roosevelt will only tell us “who,” we can figure out the ince we already know the “why” of his reforms, (Copyright, 1937.) such & society it is necessary nw.! dependent decisions, to hold the bal- the courts be institutions which flndf ance even between the citizen anc the in favor of the Government and aid | Government, if the cases on appeal the Government to carry out its will. | were to be always decided in favor of If it were the Supréme Court alone | the Government. The tradition of an that loses its independence, that | independent judiciary, the whole mo- would be dreadful enough. But the Fale of all courts, would in time dis. independence of the lower Federal | ppear. America would become a courts, and of the State courts, de- | country in which the citizen would pends upon the independence of the | 80 into court knowing that the de- Supreme Court. It would be of little | Cision was predetermined against him. use for the lower courts to make in- | (Copyright, 1937.) An American You Should Know Dr. Fitzpatrick Is Library Authority on George Washington. BY DELIA PYNCHON. HE early history of our country has had a sudden renaissance. What George Washington, Thomas Jefferson and the early fathers said of democracy and the Constitution is the framework upon which many an argument resus its case today. Complete memorabilia on Washing- ton is concentrated in the Manuscript Division, Library of Congress. Dr. i@ v John Clement Fitzpatrick, his- torian and ar- chivist, is in charge. It is a charge that cov- ¢ ers guardianship of 400 enormous volumes, contain- ing most of Washington's original letters, personal and pri- vate, and their answers. States- Dr. Fitzpatrick. !,:egh_::c p:;::: correspondence in those days. Having cost the Government in the 1830s $45,000 to purchase these priceless papers of George Corbin Washington (grand-nephew of George) Dr. Fitz- | patrick says a few now would bring $50,000 if sold to collectors. One of those “rare birds,” who was born and has lived all his life within a few blocks of the Capitol dome, Dr. Fitzpatrick describes himself. He is sanguine complexioned, alert, respon= sive and a walking text book of in= formation on George Washington. Constant deciphering of old letters has not dimmed his merry brown eyes, nor bent his erect carriage. The contact has produced a humorous dis- position, and many interesting com- parisons to present-day conditions. His education was in Washington schools, and later he entered newspaper work under J. E. Jenks of the old Army and Navy Register. He was at the Library of Congress when it was opened to the public in 1898. The Library, he said, | was my “university.” His work, writ- ings and research soon attracted an L. H. D. from George Washington University, and a Litt. D. from Washe | ington and Lee University. His pres- ent concern is the editing and com- pilation of the new Government issue of Washington's writings in 25 vol- umes. Fourteen are finished. This covers only the Revolutionary War. George Washington's “high and | delicate sense of honor, and uncom- mon sense” impress Dr. Pitzpatrick constantly, he says. “A few quotations from Washing- ton's letters will demonstrate this" he says. “In 1786, Washington wrote | of the unrest then prevalent, ‘Some of |the States, having been misled, ran | riot for awhile, but they are recover- ing a proper tone again, and I have { no doubt but that our Federal Consti- tution will obtain consistency and firmness every day.' Speaking of post- war tumults and the suggestion that | he exert his influence to suppress | them, Washington wrote, ‘Influence is | no government. Let us have one by | which our lives, liberties, and prop- | erties will be secured, or let us know | the worst at once.”” “Abingdon—slow up and filch a package of Wilkins Coffee as we pass that truckl”