Evening Star Newspaper, July 20, 1937, Page 9

THE EVENING DueProcedure Wins Voice of Lehman Act of Congress Far From Equivalent of Amendment. BY DAVID LAWRENCE. N ISSUE greater than the ques- tion of whether the Supreme Court shall be enlarged to a particular situation cted by Pr 1t It is whether the Amer! be permitted here- rectly on amend ments to the Con- stitution. § Gov. Lehman, Democrat, head of the most pop- ulous State in the Union, amd inti- mate friend of ; the President, says in opposing the President’s court bill tha “the orderl processes of Gov B ernment she not be sacrificed merely to meet an immediate situa- tion.” The New nouncement the Senate leader to succeed ti son, the mony to the ju nt supported h David Lawrence. York coming Governor's Joe Robin- of pse who have | and who believe in | the New Deal as a whole, has set him welf s ly against the tide of | constitutional p It appears that the Governor of om his present cc acter of to the Now the fun ! hay the whole ¢ surface. It dicated by ter last week to wherein Mr. Roosevelt disparaged the time-honored method of amending the Constitution. He said that since 13 States now can block an amend- ment. the existing process is unde- sirable ‘What the do, however instance where exactly 13 ever blocked ratification ¢ tutional amendmer Wanted Laws Adopted Quickly. The hand, number of ident in i ator Barkley failed to to a single tates have a consti- | President h o point as shows, on the other when any substantial States want an amend- ment, it goes tt to ratification In the case o two amend- ments, the process took less than 18 months Mr. Roosevelt's new declaration can only mean that he believes an act of Congress, driven through by a Presi- | dent possessed of patronage and instruments of polit to be regarded as the equ constitutional amendment. Already record that he has said that he wants justices to sit on the Supreme Court who share his conception of what the Consti- Mr. Roose’ has often been ac- cused by his opponents of wishing to destroy the Constitution or at least to subordinate processes to his | own will or assertion of power, but not until now has he given proof in writ- ing that he wants to abandon the traditional method of making changes in the Constitution. The founders of the Republic were | not concerned with the power of 13| States to block an amendment. They were mu ing at the t They wanted to make sure that a| preponderant sentiment of the peo- ple favored a change when change was proposed, Thus, when the Con- | stitution was adopted just 150 years | ago, the three-fou rule meant | that four out of the 13 original States eould block an amendment. v idea. | ths Washington Voiced Warning. There waz, moreover, a keen appre- efation in the very first few years of the Republic that attempts might be made some day to change the Con- stitution by surpation of power, and George Washington specifically ‘warned against ti method, recom- mending that changes be made in the Constitution only by the method and formula set forth in the Constitution tself, Mr. Roosevelt has been dissatisfied for some time with the prese; of amending the Cons he has succeeded i eussion among various radical groups, including sections of the National League of Women Voters, whereby changes in the Federal Constitution would be made by an easier method, that is, easier from the standpoint of vested political interests The usual argument that constitu- | tional amendments take too long is not borne out by the facts. Customary {llustration given is that of the child labor amendment, but the records show that this was rejected by more than a majority of the State Legisla- tures within a relatively short time after the proposal was first submitted by Congress for ratification or rejec- tion. It was several years after this definite rejection that the effort to ratify the child labor amendment was revived, and, eyen if this second #tep were now considered by itself, there are nearly 20 States which have #aid “no.” Short of Two-Thirds Vote. ‘The real reason for the President’s reluctance to use the regular method of getting constitutional changes is that he does not have & two-thirds majority in both houses of Congress for his extreme proposals. If he were to suggest a constitutional amendment to bring about an enlargement of the Bupreme Court, for instance, or to remove some of the sitting members, he never could get ft through. Whatever the people may have been led to believe about the character of Congress as a consequence of an accumulation of cynical comment over & period of years, the Congress of the United States today contains a large proportion of independent-minded men whose votes cannot be influenced by presidential patronage either in the form of appointments for their friends or public works projects for their communities. An indestructible Union can be pre- served much better when it is stipu- lated that changes in the underlying charter must be made by more than 81 per cent of Congress and of the Btates than by ignoring this process altogether and permitting circumven- tion. World history shows that revo- lutions and civil wars spring from the disregard of the rights of a mi- nority. (Coprrisht, 1037.) r STAR. What’s Back of It All Garner Returns, Facing Task of Smoothing New Deal’s Legislative Path. BY H. R. BAUKHAGE. OME days ahead of his schedule, Vice President Garner returns to the Washington scene to knit the administration's raveled sleeve of care, as this column said he would. Mr. Garner would have come back under his own power within a fortnight even if the situation arising out of Senator Robinson's death had not developed. He had already begun to receive the barrage of letters from Washington, a part of the direct-by-mail campaign which was men- tioned along with the same advices that predicted his return, Long before he reached the banks of the Potomac, the Vice President learned the painful details of the situation on Pennsyivania avenue (both ends) first hand from the President's personal representatives, Postmaster General Farley, Undersecretary of the Interior West and the assistant to the Attorney General, Keenan, When he talked to this carefully selected trio at Little Rock, he was told two things: That it would be nice if Senator Barkley, closely associated with the White House in the court fight, were elected majority leader of the Senate, but that this desire was not to be pushed too hard because there wasn't enough choice between Barkley and his opponent, Sen- ator Pat Harrison, to make an administration defeat worth risking, Furthermore, Senator Harri- son might help heal the breach in Democratic ranks and bring back into the fold some of his wander- ing colleagues, since he is not tarred so heavily with the big stick wielded in the court fight he second thing that “Cactus Jack,” who is about to be asked to exude honey and molasses, eard was a demand for instant action, He was told that court bill must be agreed on that would pass even if a compromise of a compromise had to be torn to bits and remolded nearer to the anti-courtists’ desires. Otherwise, the opponents would be able to recommit the bill and prob- ably be able to bring about adjournment. This, besides ending the already sanguinary conflict with a defeat for the President, would also stop the important bills (wages and hours, farm program, reorganization) and thus bring about the result which “high authorities” have suggested is the pur- pose of the anti-courters. Whether this charge, violently denied, is true or not, the effect of adjournment would be the same on the New Deal program, P The next job the pacifiers of Congress have on their hands will take a lof of intestinal fortitude. Somebody has to go right out among the swinging shillalahs of the y -hunery Congressmen and look for one of the President’s prize clubs. It was one he was £oing to use to get his reorgan= ization bill through. It's reported missing While not a matter for the police as yet, a private hunt will start soon. This is what happened: For the first time in history the Army appropriations bill was bisected. The purely military activities were separated from the non-military. In other words, the expenditures for national defense and pork (flood control and rivers and harbors) were voted on separately. The President, thus, could veto (and he probably will. although economy will be given as the reason) the spending for the pork projects without cutting off the Army from its wherewithal. Word was quietly passed around that this is just what would happen unless Congress got the reorganization bill through, either intact as written by the Brownlow commitiee or in the form of compromise which Senator Robinson sponsored shortly before he died. Normally, that would be threat enough to send any Congressman running to cover. But vetoes, it is now whispered. like the old gray mare. ain't what they used to be. Until this session, President Roosevelt’s vetoes ©of only two important bills have been overridden—the independent offices bill of 1934 and the bonus bill of 1936 This session, the veterans' insurance conversion went through without the President’s signature and without any help from the ex- soldiers, Recently the House ac- corded the same treatment to the bill to end the low-interest rates for farmers, with every indication the Senate will do the same. If these straws show which ‘way the votes are blowing, the club is gone and the pork barrel is open, * k% x Under the head of why members of Congress want to go home, we suggest the following, picked at random from senatorial mail: A letter to a Senator, who stands very near No. 1, from a constituent: “Dear Sir: Why is it that our State has not a single statesman to rep- resent us in Congress today? Yours despairingly * * *” A copy of a notarized deposition to the effect that one Hans Omenitsch “who deposes and savs he is able and does decode various codes, such as the anti-Christ codes—Nero codes—protocol codoes and the Weisshaupt illuminati,” and that codes printed as simple messages in the news reveal “many subversive hidden messages intended for the entire red net * * * to overthrow the Government of the United States,” and that he is ready and willing to meet with an unbiased group of the House and Senate members. * x % % Even if Gov. Carl Bailey of Arkansas should come to Washington to take Senator Robinson's place, the State will still have a Gov. Bailey—the Lieutenant Governor's name is “Bob” Bailey.” (Copyright, 1937, by the North American Newspaper Alliance. Inc) | court measure or | since Mr. WASHINGTON, D. C., TUESDAY, :I'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. Party Control at Stake Entire Roosevelt Program Held Under Sprutiny,' Raising New Candidate Discussion. BY MARK SULLIVAN. VENTS in the Senate this week may be momentous but not necessarily conclusive. It is not certain at the time this is written that there will be any vote on the court measure this week. If there is a vote, it is likely to be on recom- mitting the measure to the Judiciary Committee. Neither outcome of such & vote would necessarily be conclusive. If the administration Senators should win, the debate on the court measure would go on as be- fore. 1f the op- ponents of the court measure should win and send the .neasure back to commit- tee, that would not necassarily be the end of the court measure. Certainly it would not be the end of the broad struggle between those who sup- port Mr. Roose- velt's measures and those who oppose them. In the | latter stages of the court measure | fight, the court measure itself has come to be symbolic of a group of pending measures and announced in- tentions which have come from Mr. Roosevelt. By the debate on the court measure the general tendency of Mr. Roosevelt's program as a whole has come to be seriously tnder suspicion on the part of those who believe that | the measures tend toward a changed form of government and soclety. ‘This has crystallized into a struggle to decide the future trend and lead- ership of the Democratic party. It is a conflict to determine whether Mr, | Roosevelt shall control the next Dem- | ocratic National Convention and name | the next candidate for President. Ad- | ministration Senators advocating the | court measure have said publicly that this issue is involved. On that broad question the struggle will continue for some time, regardless of anvthing that may be done in the near future about the court measure Issues Do Not Coincide. Mark Sullivan, As respects the vote on the choice | of a new leader by the Democrats in | the Senate this week, that certainly | will not be conclusive on either the | the larger question | of Mr. Rooseveit's control of the party. It will be a vote of the Democrats only, not of the whole Senate. And among the Democrats the line-up on | choice®f & new leader does not coin- cide with the line-up on the court measure or on the President's pro- gram generally. The whole situation is not materially changed by the death of the late Sen- ator Robinson as an event standing alone. But the course leading up to | Senator Robinson's death, and made | dramatic by that event, tends strongly to suggest that the proportion of the Senate which opposes Mr. Roosevelt's court measure has been growing in strength. ‘When President Roosevely sent his original court measure 1o Congress February 5 last, Senator Robinson was as disturbed as were many other Democratic Senators. Adhering, how- | ever, 1o the course he has followed | Roosevelt became Presi- | dent, he bent his shoulders loyally to putting the original court measure through. Presently he was obliged to report that he doubted whether he {of the measure must | it was dividing WHETHER you t INSURANCE CORPQRATION . MEMBER FEDERAL 0€POSIT * MORRIS PLAN The Uiank for the Sndiviiducal! 1408 H STREET, N. W. CHECKING SAVINGS * TRAVEL CHEQUES hrill to the strike of a mountain trout, or loll in the summer sun, a vacation is the best antidote for doctor bills. If additional funds will assist in making your vacation a complete success, we will be pleased to tell you of our various plans—some re- quiring only your signature —and all with provision for repayment in convenient monthly amounts. * could command enough votes in the Senate to pass the measure in its original form. When this doubt was conveyed to President Roosevelt he had a manner of thinking it could not be true. After some months Senator Rob- inson said that while he could not put through the measure in its orig- inal form, he might be able to put through a compromise. He was told to see what he could do. = Task Made Lighter, At this point Senator Robinson was more happy. It was not so much that he liked the compromise measure of itself. There is not the faintest like- lihood that he ever would have thought of such a measure on his | own account. He would not, of his own initiative, have introduced either the original measure or the compro- mise one. But with the compromise measure he now seemed to have a chance of success, thus demonstrating the strength of his leadership and Nis loyalty to the President's program. In the determination to drive the compromise through, Senator Robin- son invoked an old Senate rule to the effect that no Senator ould speak | on the same question more than twice in one day hen the term “day"” was interpreted to mean & legislative day. The result would be that no Senator could speak more than twice in the whole debate on the measure. This irked the of the measure and they matter of amendments. Senator be permitted to on each amendment? 4 ponents of the m ire I bring forward amendments from time 1o time in order to be able to speak as frequently as they liked On this point Teader Robinson and the administration Senators yielded: the decision was that any Senator could speak twice on each amend- ment. This was a marked setback to the administration hope of driving the court measure through. The rea- son for Senator Robinson yielding on this point was his doubt whether he had enoug 1o do otherwise. It was an iss10m of weak- ness on the part he nistra- tion Senators supporting court measure. The time this happened was on the afternoon of the day Sena- tor Robinson’s death already in doubt abou drive the court measur Senate, his concern about have bee creased by something that in the House the same a In the House the chairm Judiciary Committee, Represents Hatton W. Sumners of Texa opponents strength 7 ad of m the pre It and said that he did not believe the | court measure ought to be passed that the pressure to drive it through the Senate was dividing that bodv in two, that sentiment for and against the country in two, | and that if attempt were made to push it through the House. that body JULY 20, 1937. We, the People Robinson’s Death Likely to Weaken Fight for Court Bill, but Might Bring “Tribute” Passage. BY JAY FRANKLIN, HE death of Senator Joseph T. Robinson of Arkansas robs the President of one of his ablest and most pugnacious lieutenants. Joe Robinson was the man on whom F. D. R. relied for any necessary strong-arm stuff in the Senate, where he served as ma- Jority leader and piloted many New Deal measure through the legislative rapids. An able parliamentarian, an astute politician, an effective speaker, it was no secret that he did not personally like many of the reforms he publicly sponsored. For he was a Southern eonservative of the old school, a political lawyer whose firm enjoyed many corporate accounts, an intrenched representative of the hot, steaming \ ,Ka%’a"; delta-lands where the night-riders HIM D and floggers keep the croppers in their place. On this account, he Was in serious danger of defeat in 1934, when Huey Long threatened to raise a share-the-weaith bellion against him and Pat Harri- son. To meet this threat, Joe needed Roosevelt’s support, and got it—mainly through the re- #R sertlement administration, - x xox Despite the timely assassination of the “Kingfish,” Robinson kept his bargain and went along with the administration’s attempts to remedy the evils of farm tenancy, with a loyalty that redeemed his single bellion against the recent relief sppropriation. And he plunged into t fight for the judicial reform bill with a vigor which must have con- tributed to his death from heart-failure in the man-killing heat of a Washington Summer. His death came just as he seemed about to realize his lifetime ambition for an appontment to the Supreme Court. Despits liberal misgivings, it was an open secret that Mr. Roosevelt felt bound to follow the Senate's suggestion that he appoint Robinson to the vacancy created by Van Devanter’s resignation, as soon as Joe had put the court bill through the Senate. His seat in, that body is expected to be filled by Mr. Brooks Hay N Democratic national committeeman from Arkansas, a friend of former Gov Futrell's, and one of those Southern liberals whose rise has encouraged Roosevelt to break with many of the oid Southern leaders of cratic party. Hays has been working with the resettlement ad ion on the farm tenancy program and is a loyal supporter of the President A shy. soft-spoken man, he is one of those men who have stuck by their convictions and by the administration, and will serve the country The office of Senate maiority leader will be given to Alben W. Barkley of Kentucky. if administration wishes have any weight on Capitol Hill. Barkley, tuice keynoter for Roosevelt co ventions—at Chicago i 32 and Philadelphia in *36—is a handsome genial man of nearly 60. He is one of the ablest parliamentarians in the Senate, an accomplished orator and a smooth-working politician The administration plan was to urge Barkley for Robinson's inh when the iatter went to the Supreme Court, rather than to accept the Bourbon candidate, Senator Byrnes of South Carolina, * ¥ % x So Robinson’s death will intensify the sectional struggle which is n ravaging the Senate, between the elder statesmen of the solid Soulh the New Dealers from the North and West. In the similar gle ove the majority leadership in the House last December, the South won, put- ting Sam Rayburn of Texas in the post coveted by John J. O Connor of ‘Tammany. So it may be easier to give the Senate leadership to a man like Barkley, who comes from & border State and is as much Northern and Western as he is Southern What all Roosevelt's effort Federal judiciary is anybody's guess. The tragedy should ealm some of the more extreme ranters in the filibuster and restore a sense of proportion to the Congress. On the whole, I should imagine that the effect will be to weaken the aaministration plan, both by depriving it of its leader in the Se and by &rousing resentment against a course of action which has resuited in the untimely death of an ablespolitical figure. Yet it should not forgotten that the so-called “Hatch-Logan amendment” to the cia reform bill was Robinson’s personal plan to amend the Supreme Cou and that 1t might well be passed in tribute to his memory, (Copyright, 18:37.) re- enator will mean to to reform the also would be split in two. Mr. Sumners said this, practically the | was strong omen of re House stood and cheered him. | measure. This demonstration of House relic-| Altogether. eonditions tance o pass the measure, and the Senator Robinson's dea fact that so important a member as|promize favorably Mr. Sumners said publicly and firmlv | measure, h he measure ought not to come | failure of the did the no (Copvright, 1937) An American You Should Know Harry B. Mitchell Knows Both Cattle and Civil Service. BY DELIA PYNCHON, HE president of the Ci ivil Serve ice Commission, Harry B, Mitchel] came to his present, eminence by presidential ap- | pointment in 1933." He is one of the 0 Democrats on the commission on | the present ratio of two Democrats to one Rep He came from Montana, w among its assets cattle, ver, ich lists copper, sil- X sapphires, apples and alfal- fa rom diversified % | was | a Democ When | up m the House—this double event | ernmer ions, 1 | 780.000 before | of wi t court | 000 now Mitchell ultie mate selected Admitted- is in the position own- e biggest ranch o Looking back= ward s streten, America in 1880 Te he was born in schools at Fergus NGeETy HewsEaTe: est of Montana's ng eamps Until 1918 reat Falls Daily e Great Montana poli- with emphasis man, Mitek of Great Fa Mitchell and, w ed bus posit Ng a strong party ee times May atic car at o ers about build« extending the ored the e various departments to ade s of employes. Bn the Labor incorporated these departments are e edges of set-ups ce law was has flowed al bridges to put vice on the meriy Roosevelt now States now have “all positions ng should be law.” One of the recoma v the commission= second and third be placed wunder form, the most important Public in to the possibi definitely aroused f permanent Gov- feeling for the The past year itive examinations, are 7.000 differens Mitchell says that over 500 .. have positions in the execi- e Government, There are still 325000 poiitical Appotntmente meri 00k compe: tvpes On the ‘ 9+ Hole What's a “beer putter” you say? Why, it’s the “Canco” Beverage Opener and it looks like thh/. Use it to sink a hole in a cool ean of beer or ale next time you're at the club. Get the full benefit of “dark storage™ until the very mo- ment of pouring. Amerlean Can Company, 230 Park Avenue, New York City. @@ EGLINED TRADE MARK AM. CAN CO. THE BEST BRANDS ARE IN CANS old Wt‘n:hsll-wa!\la)zr Ben Bernie on N. B:,\C. Blue Network tonight at S’P.M., Station WMAL, Milton Berle is guest stor.