Evening Star Newspaper, March 12, 1937, Page 11

THE EVENING STAR, WASHINGTON, D. C., FRIDAY, MARCH 12, 1937. Court Unable to Defend Itself Fears to Detract From Its Attitude of In- dependence. BY DAVID LAWRENCE. AT do the members of the Supreme Court themselves think about the controversy that has arisen about the Increase in the number of justices? For a while it was thought they would appear before the Senate Judi- ciary Committee and furnish testi- mony in answer to questions. It turns out now that none of the Justices has asked for an opportu- News Behind the News Increasing Court Size Would Leave Matter of Split Decisions Unaffected. BY PAUL MALLON. HE thing which President Roosevelt and Attorney General Cum- mings have been trying to prove is that 5-to-4 Supreme Court decisions are undesirable. Mr. Roosevelt based much of his fireside radio case on that point. He thrashed the court for the 5-to-4 gold decislon (in his favor) and for the New York minimum-wage decision (neglecting to mention that he lost the N. R. A 9 to 0 and the A. A. A. 6 to0 3). The built-up climaz of Cummings’ speech to the Senate Judici- ary Committee was similarly an attack on split decisions, He said he Jelt so ot on the subject he did not trust himself to speak, but quoted from the late Albert J. Beveridge, whose words seemec. to be still warm enough to substitute. The unstressed fact of that matter seems to be that the Roosevelt court program does not propose to do anything about split decisions, except possibly to make them worse. If all the six new judges are appointed, the new split :till could be 8 to 7. But if only one, three or five new justices are named, the spilt may be exactly even—17-7, 6-6 or 5-5. The effect would be to let the lower court decision stand, and thus a single lower Federal judge would have decided the constitutional question. Note—It was a group of dis- passionate British economists who wrote that Mr. Roosevelt is the cT‘HE 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. Call a Halt on Ruin Neutrality Likely to Prove Myth if U. S. Continues Race in Armaments. BY DOROTHY THOMPSON. AST week Representative McRey- nolds, the chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the House, introduced a reso- lution that fell like a dud. It sug- gested that the President of the United States take the lead in calling a world disarmament conference. Per- haps the President intended it as a trial balloon. In any case, the bal- loon rose hardly high enough for would read Mr. ence. that the disarmament hoped to a settlement. have come off. War Spending on Big Scale. Wheeler Bennett's “Pipe Dream of Peace,” which is a day-to-day account of that confer- From it one sees, to be sure, for through that conference was a pipe dream. But one also sees how close, how tragically close, the nations came Just a little more elasticity here, just a little more com- mon sense there and the thing might This Changing»_World British and French Rearming Keeps Hitler and Mussolini Together. % BY CONSTANTINE BROWN, S LONG a3 Great Britain and France continue their enormous re- armament programs there is ot one chance in a million that the Hitler-Mussolini friendship will weaken. There are, without doubt, many bones of contention between the two dictators, but for the time being they appear trivial and neither Rome nor Berlin have the slighest intention to bring their differences to the surface. The question of who is going to be the boss in the Balkans— a question which is bound to bring eventually friction between the two authoritarian states—is left scverely alome. Mussolini was in favor of allowing Prince Otto to go back to Vienna and become King of the Austrians. Hitler did not want him back. A couple of years ago this would have caused bitterness between the two dictators. Now, Mussolini bowed to the German dictator's wishes and called the coronation party off. There are many other such examples of “good will” which are heing ex- changed almost weekly between Berlin and Rome. * ok k% The League of Nations—it still Headline Folk and What They Do Financier Giannini Ac- tive and Shrewd, Though Crowding 70. BY LEMUEL F. PARTON. ROM all this writer can learn, Glen Ridge, N. J., where pub- c officials draw no salary, is the best governed | city in these parts. Perhaps corpora- tions are getting the same idea. As | the Trans-America Corp. reports more than $25,000,000 net profit last year, {1t is also announced that Amadeo P. Giannini, chairman of the board, wouldn't take a cent for his services, not even carfare. He survived the San Francisco fire exists at Geneva—is counting its chickens. ‘When it speaks about collective security, it always emphasizes the fact Yhat 52 nations are pledged to uphold the decision of the League. A careful analysis of the situ- atlon shows, however, that of these 52 nations, nearly 20 from South America can be expected to say “yes,” but refuse to get entangled in any measures which might require force. Another 20 of the smaller European and Asiatic states are also willing to give only lip service to the peace cause o the League. ¢ 1f they were required to join in any action requiring a mobilization ; Lt or some measures which might hurt their welfare seriously, they would find @ number of excuses for not joining. only modern President who has raised all the right questions, but they doubted that he has given all the right answers. * ok K % ‘The Senate Judiciary Commit- tee handled Mr. Cummings as if it did not want to hurt his feelings. Chis was not entirely due to the - f’l.’\l:}t thgt l’t was lectured by Senator Dieterich of Illinois agai S‘l lengthy constitutional questioning. Dieterich’s lecture was not taken seriously, as members assumed he was emfoying a day of great elation. Mr. Rumt\:(-lf. and Cummings had just named the Dietetrich candidate for a vacant Iili- nois judgeship the day before, The difficulty of questioning the Attorney General was the same as with the whole court debate. All he said was true, but somewhat obscured the only point at issue, mamely, whether Mr. Roosevelt should seize control of the Supreme Court to make it rule the way he wants, so that he can force through a new N. R. A. livl(l farm price control act. In fact, most of the debaters on both sides here seem to prefer to of 1906 by setting up a desk in the embers, with a sign, “Bank of Italy,” over it. He came through the de- pression by some of the fastest foot- {work ever seen in the financial arena, " winning a hot Xy battle over ans-America gainst some as- Eastern ciers of top ing. And now branch: nity to testify and none has been in- vited by the Sen- ate Judiciary ¥ Committee. There is prece- dent for inviting Justices to fur- nish congres- sional committees with testimony on legislation directly | affecting court procedure. But it is now apparent that to invit the jus- | tices might prove embarrassing, inas- much as the whole debate has sh: from the original charge that the work | of the court was congested to the | open admission that the purpose of the President’s plan is to get justices in line with his views on constitu~ tional functions. ‘The wealth of the world, its cur- rent and future income, is being pushed at this moment into the maw of war machines at a rate without parallel in history. The armament going on now is incomparably more grandoise than that prior to 1914. England, after 12 years of govern- | ment frugality and retrenchment, has changed her whole policy at a stroke. The British know that posterity can- not, or will not, pay either for past | ity in- . wars or for previous preparations for ieative of thiy Peretn> Thompson. | wars. If a government pays for its country’s determination to keep out, Arms program by deficit financing, it not only of entangling alliances, but | s likely to create a disastrous infla- Thus, there are about 10 or 12 countries which might be willing out of any kind of political relations | tion, and, therefore, the arms bills | enforce the decisions of the League. Under these circumstances, t¥ with Europe. This column believes | must be paid, in large part, out Ori little left of the grand collective security scheme. that this is an ostrichlike attitude. | current income. * kK K We are entangled in Europe and else- f That proposal affects us immediate- any one to see it. In the present state of public opinion, any ges- ture of this Gov- ernment toward the rest of the world is regarded with suspicion, even hostility. ‘The passage of the so-called neu- David Lawrence. ‘} Reichsfuehrer Hitler is expected to visit Budapest in the next few We are entangled in it, unless| wecks. | The justices do not grant interviews [ to the press and so far as known they have not as a court taken cognizance of any aspect of the controversy that has arisen, including the question of testifying on matters of procedure. Urged to Join Debate. talk ebout such issues as split decisions, the ability of men past 10, proctors, crowded dockets, etc., which are only inconsequential strings hung loosely upon the main proposition. Note—The trend of the debate is illustrated perhaps best by Mr. Roosevelt's repeated assertions that he wants to revise the court because one-third of the nation is ill-clad, ill-nourished and ill-housed. " The fact seems to be that the Government has no statistics on clothing and nourish= ment, and merely some estimates on housing. At least economists here= The justices quite naturally are alert to what is going on in Congress | and there is every reason to believe | that as individuals they are following | the debate with the keenest interest. | Some of them have been urged by | friends to take a part in the public discussion on the ground that the Supreme Court as an institution has been attacked by the President of the United States and that the character | abouts have never before heard of such figures, and know of no such survey that has been made by the Government, * Kk x k A man about Washington town, dining out with his wife, found that she was to be the dinner partner of a Supreme Court justice. He warned her not to say anything about the court, or to ask embarrassing questions. She was so frightened she raised no questions whatever with her judicial dinner partner, but, to her astonishment, he opened up the question of the hour, and talked rather freely about it. Meeting another Justice later on, she remarked that not all jus- where up to the eyes, and unless we ‘ ly. intend to go in for the very things| we change our naval policy. nations, and which would upset our | Britain. social organization more than the S - President's Supreme Court proposals, Britain Sets U. S. Pace. namely, economic nationalism, we naval shall continue to be entangled. Our armaments competition, and unless we reverse our entire naval policy we shall continue to be entangled. But we go on further entangling ourselves, totally unwilling to take the drastic measures, economic and naval, which might make us more independent, | while we dclude ourselves that we are not involved at all. Somebody Should Act. | having a speed of 35 knots. present British Hood. For our which we have most criticized in other | naval policy is to build to parity with program is tled to We I Britain’s, and Britain's defense pro- are also entangled in a most terrifying | gram is tied up with that of the rest | of the world. The Italians have just built the two most powerful ships in existence—the Littorio and the Vittorio | Veneto. They are 35,000-ton battle- | ships carrying nine 15-inch guns and The only ship of comparable speed and fighting power is the old So Britair must build to this | model, and we must build to Britain! | Regent Admiral Horthy, the ruler of Hungary, visited Hitler at Berchtesgaden last August. He would like to have the dictator of Germany come to Budapest. Horthy intimated his desire to the German minister, Herr von Mackenzen, who in turn went to Vienna, where he saw Foreign Secretary von Neurath and arranged the details for Der Puehrer’s visit. Hitler will accept, it is believed, because he wants to make a show of the unanimity of interests between Hungary and Germany. * % % x Germany has been doing quite nicely commercially of Gen. Franco. In addition to important supplies of raw materials from British- owned mines now under Franco's jurisdiction, she has taken in payment for “merchandise” delivered to the Spanish nationalist leader a number of Spanish commercial ships. Between 30 and 60 Spar merck men have been recently trans- out of her support | Amadeo P. Giannini. Beach, after the !firf‘ and ran his widening enterprises | up to the largest holding company in the world—Trans-America having been so rated at the start of the depression. Of Sicilian parentage, he occasion- ally is given to the grand gesture, as | when he arrived in New York with the announcement that he was “going to buy a few bankers” But he doesn't is noth- ferred, Lloyds of London has been notified, from Spanish to German ownership. The Banker, a usually reliable Lon- don publication, estimates that the | Germans have spent $12,500,000,000 | in the last four years on arma- ments, or $3,000,000,000 a year—a sum equal to half of the annual United States budget. I publish these fig- ures with reservations; the informa- tion is secret in Germany. OH | KNOW HIM, HE IS A GARRULOUS FELLOW of the decisions has come under public | assault through his nation-wide radio | specches. But the justices do not feel that this would be proper. The members of the court without exception disagree with the President’s | plan and some of them are known to have been deeply hurt by Mr. Roosevelt’s radio talks, but it is in the nature of the Supreme Court to be defenseless as against attack from the outside and this is something | which the public will have to take into account in weighing the merits | of the controversy. Cannot Enforce Decrees. Here is an institution which cannot defend itself against political attack. | It cannot even enforce its own decree: if Congress chooses to withhold the intrumentalities of enforcement. The Supreme Court justices who are of advanced age have felt that they must discharge a duty in continuing | to work as long as they are capable | sideration. tices were hermits, because she had met one (not mentioning any names) who was not reticent. “Oh, I know who that was,” said the second justice. “Justice Blank (and he called the right name) is a garrulous fellow.” What the Judiciary Committee should do is to call the justices as witnesses and let them talk about each other. * kX X Mr. Roosevelt apparently believes men of 70 are antiquated only when they happen to be judges. At least he sent to the Senate the other day the nomination of Rear Admiral Henry A. Wiley to be a member of the Mari- time Committee for three years more. Wiley celebrated his 70th birthday January 31. The new trend of Washington thought on consistency has been fur- nished by Senator Ashurst, who says: ** * * The withering, embalming vice of consistency; whoever in public service is shackled by this vice will not be a man free to act as various ques- tions come before him, but he will be a statesman locked in a house, the keys to which are in the keeping of sayings and events that are dead.” (Coxyright, 1937.) I do not know what the response would be if the President should call an international disarmament con- ference. Probably he would not call | it unless he had sounded out the pos- | sibilities of a favorable response be- | forehand. But heaven knows Ihat‘ somebody should call one! Heaven | knows that if general and gradual| prance is about to float an internal | disarmament does not begin Very | joan of 10% billion francs for arms. | soon we, as well as the rest of the| Her financial situation is bad. She | world, are in for an accumulation of ' is looking for money outside. If the financial and economic problems | franc should collapse, it is ridiculous which may bring on results as un- |+ happy as war itself. There are just two choices before the world at this | | moment—to ruin itself by a spending | program for arms which will make | social expenditures look like the five- | and-ten without adding to the«pub- | lic welfare and which may end in | large-scale war, or to make a volte |face and return to the consideration |of differences by reason, collabora- = tion and compromise. Mr. Roosevelt announced | simply declared to be without sanc- We are stil under the disillu- of doing the work of the court. | on the air this week that he frankly | tion by the Constitution and it often | sioning influence of the last disarma- Some of the members of the court | accepted the implication that he | stays on the statute books unrepealed | ment conference, which failed miser- are, of course, financially independent | would “pack the court” with men of | in fact, though in practice inoperative. | ably when Germany walked out on and would prefer the leisure and ease | certain principles proclaimed by him. (Copyright, 1937.) it. But I wish that more people * ok X ox edttovaet In these days of economic nationalism the question of raw materials Pt maraing is being exploited for all it's worth. Nations heretofore ignored, despite the existence of large supplies of raw materials, are now endeavoring to obtain important advantages from these heretofore neglected resources. Prince Mohammed Hashim Khan, the premier of Afghanistan, is in London now trying to obtain from the British government ac- cess to the sea for the mountain kingdom. Afghanistan, the gateway to India, is demanding a seaport for the purpose of transporting its merchandise to other parts of the world North of Karachi, in the Bombay presidency, there are spots which might b2come an ideal outlet for the Afghans. At the present moment Afghanistan is compelled to use the old caravan routes through rugged countryside infested by bandits. The wily premier of Afghani called in Berlin before he reached London. It was merely a courtesy call, he explained. But the fact that he had a talk with the German foreign office, which is looking everywhere for raw materials, gave the British foreign office the Jitters, especially since the Berlin press indicated the German government had acquired a con- | automobile drivers took part cession to develop certain industries in Afghanistan. | year's national British safe-driv The betting is that Prince Mohammed will obtain his seaport. | test. him up at 2 o'cloc his brother At garden truck roduce mark n by and shaded off this time a doctor, but and the brothers ariot together for switched to bankin, say we would not be affected. We are entangled with France and Eng- land in the tripratite currency agree- ment, and we accepted the entangle- ment because after the world debacle of 1930 that there is nc possible escape. If PFrance radically devalues | and England follows her, does any | one think that it will not affect us? | We didn't know how to clear our- selves in 1930 and we don’t know now. | Therefore, if any move is made to halt this ruinous business, let us be careful before we roundly denounce it. Even a faint hope is better than a horrible certainty. (Copyright, 1937.) now with United Art has a bit more of the Roman hi 100,000 Drivers in Contest. | One hundred tho of travel and freedom from the bur- dens of the court. Two of them are known to have determined to retire | at the end of the Supreme Court | term this June. But when the Presi- | dent launched his attack on the court last month, retirement became out | of the question for these justices, who | are said to feel retirement under the | present circumstances would be mis- | understood by the public as tanta- | mount to acceptance of what has seemed virtually a demand by the Executive for their removal from office. Men do not like to leave their | life work under such humiliating cir- | cumstances. Discussion of Appointments. Meanwhile, there is discussion of expected appointments in the event | that Mr. Roosevelt does get his legis- | lation through Congress. Two men | are being talked of for the Supreme | Court vacancies. One is James M. | Landis, chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission, who has ennounced his acceptance recently of | an offer to become dean of Harvard | Law School next Fall, and Robert H. | Jackson, Assistant Attorney General. | Both these men now have made public addresses announcing their | adherence to Mr. Roosevelt's concept of constitutional Government and therefore they are kncwn to be ac- ceptable types for the President’s con- He stated the requirements thus: “I will appoint justices who will not undertake to override the judgment of the Congress on legislative policy.” Meaning of Commitments. | What these commitments really mean is that justices who accept nomi- | nations from President Roosevelt \'ir-l tually agree to give Congress a free hand and never “to override the judg- | ment of the Congress on legislative | policy.” What is “legislative policy”? Not | a justice now on the bencl has ever | rendered an opinion conceding that the Supreme Court was in any way passing on legislatvie policy. But those who have disagreed witl: the majority opinions of the Court always set up their claim about overriding “legisla- tive policy” just the same. Obviously when the Supreme Court, in a given law suit, seeks to find out whether the citizen in a law suit is | being deprived of his rights by Con- gress, it is necessary to examine the facts and details of every piece of legislation most exhaustively. And when a decision is rendered adverse to the legislation, the reason given is that nothing in the Constitution or in constitutional precedents set hereto- | fore by the Supreme Court warrants | an acceptance by the citizen of such a law as valid. 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