Evening Star Newspaper, July 26, 1937, Page 9

THE EVENING STAR, WASHINGTON, D. C, MONDAY, JULY 26, 1937. A- W_M ¢1'Hl.’ opinions of the writers on this page are their own, not PresidentHeld Clinging to Court Plan Claim Tribunal Chang- ed Views After Feb. 5 Move Is Disputed. BY DAVID LAWRENCE. RESIDENT ROOSEVELT has learned very little from the recent controversy over the “packing” of the Supreme Court and still insists that the Execu- tive has an obligation to coerce or stampede the courts. Instead of & graceful yielding to the manifestations of public opinion to the effect that the judicial proc- esses should not be tampered with by politics, Mr. § Roosevelt has in- dicated that he is only waiting for a better op- portunity to re- vive the issue and, if possible, carry it into & political ¢ a m- paign. These impres- sions are derived from a study of the remarks of Mr. Roosevelt in his first conference with the press after is court “packing” plan was Te- jected by a new majority in the Sen- | ste—a coalition of independent Demo- erats and Republicans What did the President say? sre the principal points: First, he recalled that there was a ot of feeling about the time of Theo- dore Roosevelt for judicial reform and that it took form in 1912 in the campaign of the Progressive party for all kinds of things like the recall of Jjudges and the overriding of decisions by popular vote, and that this demnnd.} had a very great effect on the courts and that the courts listened Second, during the Coolidge and Hoover administrations. the courts slipped back to a supposedly legisla- | tive instead of ju position and that he, Franklin Roosevelt, revived the agitation and sub: d his mes- | David Lawrence. Here sage to Congress on February 5. Third, the President has received an interesting check on what happened t term of the S the 5th of February urt held the A. A. A constitutional, limiting power, and that aiter through the social security act de- | eision, the A. A. A. ruling was re- versed, that fore February 5 the Guffey act was held unconstitutional but after February 5 the Wagner act was held constitu He com- | pleted the list with a reference to the fact that before February 5 the court held the New York minimum wage law unconstitutional and then after that date reversed itself in the Wash- ington minimum wage case when he insists the New York minimum wage decision was overruled. Views on Objectives. Fourth, the President feels that the net result is that we have obtained | c in objectives talking in the large, | that the country still wants insurance | of the continuity of that objective and | the country wants more and better ju- dicial mechanism for getting the max- dmum justice in & minimum of time. Fifth, that the people have been more court conscious and they are more constitutionally minded since 1910 and 1912 and the country understands pretty thoroughly that the Constitu- | tion is not intended to block social | &nd economic reform through court | Jegislation for those reforms are nec- | essary to the Nation for the general welfare with changing times. Sixth, when asked if the President is satisfied with the progress thus far | made. he declared we were getting gomewhere and we have a long way to | €0, and he thinks the country pretty well understands what it is all about. | Careful examination of what the | President communicated to the press in his characteristically informal fash- don leads to a query as to why if the courts were listening last Spring, it was necessary for him to pursue his eourt-packing plan through June and July. The answer was given by the President himself when he indicated that the country still wants insurance of the continuity of the objective he | has expressed and that this is just | &s true after a majority of the Senate has rejected the court-packing plan | 8s it was before that event occurred. | If Mr. Roosevelt feels he has a long | Wway to g0 on the issue, and if he is | confident the country understands what it is all about, the only con- clusion that can be reached is that the President intends to keep the issue alive and using public agitation as a means of controlling the decisions of | the Supreme Court of the United | States and carrying out his “objective” | 8ls0 by filling of future vacancies on the highest bench with men who will | conform to his idea of what is “legislative” and What is “judicial.” “Stampeding” Disputed. Mr. Roosevelt's comment on whether the Supreme Court was stampeded f into deciding certain New Deal cases | in his favor, as he would now like the Nation to think, will be sharply dis- puted. Not only is it a reflection upon the disinterestedness of the court, but in at least one instance the claim has Do foundation in historical fact. Thus the Washington minimum Wage case was argued during the week of December 14 last and a vote of the court was taken the following Saturady showing a 4-to-4 division. Writing of the opinion and the final 5-to-4 vote was delayed till the return in March of Justice Stone, who had been ill. But since Mr. Stone had voted previ- ously to uphold the New York State minimum wage statute, it means that to all intents and purposes as a matter of historical fact the Washing- ton wage law was actually upheld by the Supreme Court last December and | not after February 5 as Mr. Roosevelt contends. Likewise, the President has been misinformed if he thinks the A. A. A. decision of January. 1935, limited the spending power whereas the social security act did not. The truth is, as | ‘was pointed out in January, 1935, in these dispatches and in the writings of others at the time, the A. A, A. ruling paved the way for exactly the kind of ruling which later appeared in the social security act. The same lack of accuracy may be charged to the President wtih refer- ence to his contention that the Wag- ner act opinlon reversed the Guffey case opinion. The truth is the court held that Congress in the first Guffey act had set up a compulsory mecha- | lective bargaining. and definitely said What’s Back of It All Roosevelt Still Believes Something Must Be Done About Court—May Give “Fireside Chat” Soon. BY H. R. BAUKHAGE. THE President has turned his cheek—but not in the Biblical sense. ‘That's what some of his friends are saying. This apparent change of face is what might be de- scribed as an optical illusion, they erplain—such, for in- stance, as you get if you look first at one side and then the other of Daniel Chester French’s statute of Lincoln. If you have imagination, vou see on one side the determined and relentless politician. On the other the genial, philosophical and persuasive statesman. If you had seen President weLL? Roosevell on the day aiter the g v Taats wat » court defeat, quiet, calm and cool A as a julep, you would have had the feeling that the splinters of the big stick had been consigned to the Wwoodshed, thus serving to con- firm the unpublished decision that the dress order from now on is “charm.” * ok ok % ¥ The President at his first press 4 conference after the debacle did not speak for publication on the court bill. Members of the charm school of thought privately declare that he was gazing over the heads of his audience, and that his thoughts were directed toward “a high official of the administration” described as “the country.” That anonymous commentator declared that the President believed “the country wanted a guarantee” that there would be “a continuance of the cbjective” set forth in his original message on the court bill. The administration has announced no further campaign plans for court reform. The “high official” also remarked that the Presi- dent feels that “the Nation's future” is largely “up to Congress.” If this Congress leaves Supreme Court reorganization out of its plans for “the Nation's future,” the President will take up the task. He will bring his radio personality to bear. Under such conditions, you can count on a fireside chat in the very near future. * k¥ % One anti-court bill speech that was to have been a masterpiece will never be made. It was diligently prepared, parts of it rewritten three times, & vast amount of research made, including a careful inquiry into the personal political inconsistencies of some of the pro-courters. The speech is row moldering in Senator Burke's desk. It took three months to prepare. It would have taken, perhaps, six hours to deliver. 1t is one of love's lost labors, and one of the many which the Nebraska Senator performed and for which he will never get credit. He never had a chance to say much on the floor, but he was in the thick of the fight and his offices were among the busiest Congress has ever seen. * k¥ % The public works lobby built up by Capt. Jabez Gholston, director of the Interior Department’s inspection service, was a much bigger enter- prise than was officially revealed when Secretary Ickes discharged his No. 1 plainclothes man. It involved “a large number of field officers and employes” and in- cluded a canvass of “the whole field service, including State directors and district project directors and auditors.” Government stationery and Government time were used in the eflort “to induce State and municipal officers to send identical messages to influence members of Congress” to vote for the continu- ance of legislation aflecting P. W. A. Secretary Ickes, whose phrases are quoted above, has issued a letter to all officers and emploves of the P. W. A, telling the whole story and sounding the warning that such practices are illegal as well as insubor- dinate. * koK * When Capt. Gholston was called up at his residence by this writer shortly after he resigned, he de- clined to answer questions over the telephone: *This line is tapped,” he said. The President says he has not considered Mr. Justice Van De- vanter's successor. Some say he can't, and now even Senator Borah is becoming concerned over the matter. There has been an ominous ruf- fling of reference works at the Capitol of late. A number of Senators, largely inspired by the Idahoan. are considering raising the question of whether or not there really is a vacancy on the supreme bench. Justice Van Devanter did not resign. He retired under the provisions of the Sumners-McCarran act and still draws his full pay. Some of the constitutionalists are saving: “He can't do that under the Constitution. He's still a member of the bench subject to call.” These people point to the fact that no successor can therefore be namd until the situation is clarified. (Copyright, 1937.) necessarily The Star’s. The Star’s e; Such opinions are presented in 'ort to give all sides of questions of interest to its readers, although such opinions ma; themselves and directly opposed to T be contradictory among e Star’s. We, the People Gov. Lehman’s Desertion of Roosevelt Court Fight Seen Work of *“Professional Banker.” BY JAY FRANKLIN. HE “stab-in-the-back™ letter from Gov. Herbert H. Lehman of New York to Senator Wag- ner, urging the latter to oppose the President’s judiciary reform bill, is the work of a professional banker and an amateur politician. Incidentally, . it serves President Roosevelt exactly right for having put his trust in the sort of man who thinks that an honest, busineaslike adminis- tration of the State government is the same thing as advanced political lib- eralism. Last year, when Roosevelt and Far- ley were bringing pressure on Lehman to run for the governorship of New York onoe more, this column publicly warned the New Dealers against re- liance on the conservative investment banker. It seemed then that if Mr. Roosevelt couldn't carry New York State without Lehman'’s aid, the New Deal was a pretty weak sister. My advice was ignored, as usual, and Leh- man was sent back to Albany, against his will, as a seat-warmer for Big Jim Farley. Now, acting under pres- sure from the big banking groups which regard the Federal courts as their own government within a gov- ernment, he has tried to wreck the Roosevelt program. Opposition to Reform. ‘This need surprise no one who is familiar with the hundred-billion= dollar opposition which the corpora- tion lawyers have organized against reform. Once a banker, always a banker, and Gov. Lehman was a highly successful money lender for 20 years before he went into New York State politics as Lieutenant Governor under Roosevelt After graduating from Williams College in 1899, young Mr. Lehman went into the textile manufacturing business, where he rose rapidly to a position of financial responsibility. In 1908, he became partner in Lenman Bros., investment bankers, where he remained until Roosevelt drafted him in 1928, with time out for the World War, during which he served on the general staff, as assistant director of purchase, storage and traffic at Wash- ington, receiving the distinguished ser- vice medal in 1919, In New York City he later became known for his interest in charities, be- ing active in the Henry Street Settle- ment, the Hebrew Sheltering Guar- dian Society, the Bureau of Jewish Social Research, the New York Foun- dation, the Palestine Economic Corp., the New York City Welfare Council and the Child Welfare Commission. He was, in fact, a useful and hon- orable citizen, as well as one of lhnae“ “good” bankers who were so rare be- fore the crash of 1929 and so conspic- uous after it. Amateur In Politics. Unfortunately for F. D. R, Mr. Lehman was a rank amateur in pol- itics, if you accept Joe Weber's classic definition of an amateur as “an artist who wants to begin at the top.” Be- fore going into his family's banking house he had served an eight-year apprenticeship in industry, as a mat- ter of course. But he entered poi- itics as Lieutenant Governor and was automatically promoted to the gov- ernorship when Roasevelt went to ‘Washington. He gave the State a calm, businesstike, efficient adminis- tration, and does not seem to have considered that the roots of his polit- ical power imposed any obligation upon him. He would immediately have discharged any banking subor- dinate who sold Lehman Bros. short, but he had no hesitation in sellinz the President’s program short. It must be “conscience,” but there is another name for it. He has his reward. He is being praised by Representative Hamilton Pish. Senator Burke of Nebraska now thinks that Mr. Lehman is a great man, and all the pack of peo- ple who have opposed every liberal reform for decades will give him three hearty cheers. There never yet was a deserter who was not welcomed by the other side. After a littie he will doubtless get used to his new political bedfellows and persuade himself that after all he acted for the best. Like many assumed liberals, he believes in reform until it begins to bring about real changes, and then he can produce highly conscientious reasons for joining the standpatters. It is possible, though not easy, to laugh off a stab in the back. Even 50, such & stab is less deadly than & slap on the back from the wrong men. Roosevelt is loved by the peo- ple for the enemies he has made. Mr. Lehman can scarcely survive his new- found friends (Copyrisht, 1637.) 7 MISS DETZER TO SPEAK AT CONVENTION ABROAD Plea for Mandatory Neutrality to Be Made by Secretary of U. S. Peace League. A plea for mandatory neutrality will be made by Miss Dorothy Detzer of Washington. national executive sec- retary of the United States section of | the Women's International League for Peace and PFreedom, at the ninth in- ternational congress of the organiza- tion, to be held in Czechoslovakia be- ginning tomorrow. In announcing the subject of Miss Detzer's talk the organization stated “considerable opposition” was ex- pected to her plea from “European delegates who regard American neu- | trality as isolationism and believe that | a policy which would give the Presi- dent discretion to apply economic pressure to aggressor nations would & more constructive policy for this Sation to adopt.” Miss Bertha McNeill of this city also will be among the delegation of 11 women attending the congress from the United States. nism for the regulation of wages and | hours in & production industry, where- | as in the Wagner case it said Con- | gress had the right to compel only negotiations and not agreements be- | tween employer and employe for col- the decision in the coal case did not | apply. Wagner Act Distinction. Since the Wagner act opinion was handed down by the Supreme. Court last Spring, a ‘United States Circuit Court of Appeals in a decision has pointed out that it fully understood the distinction between the Guffey case and the Wagner act opinion and held that they were rulings on two absolutely different points. | Mr. Roosevelt could know these things if he cared to give weight to the views of lawyers other than the “yes men” at his side. But Mr. Roosevelt's whole approach to everything he does or says is polit- ical, and that's why, notwithstand- ing the temper of the country which caused more than half of the members of his own party in the Senate to vote against him, the President insists on his own ‘objective,” namely to in- fluence the courts. Perhaps he thinks history will repeat itself, and the Democratic party will have to be split (Copyright, 1937 ) Alaska—Australia Or Any Other Spot on the Globe WE SHIP EVERYWHERE NATIONAL PR TRANSFER 5 STORAGE (1 920 E ST NWw. HOT WEATHER STOPS « the HARRINGTON DOORS Air Conditioned Rooms Sleep in Cool Comfort— Your Nerves Need It! o0 e 30 o oV Y 110%¢ rella o {73 8, Spens HARRINGTON Tith and E Streets N.W Augustus Gumpert, Manage: NorPra@ [ e & This Changing Wotld Mussolini Finds He Cannot Create Stir in United States Merely by Saying War Debts Won’t Be Paid. BY CONSTANTINE BROWN. Mussol.ml is not as good a journalist a5 his countrymen gave him credit. He thought he would set the United States in an uproar when he wrote in his cflicial newspaper that the debior nations will not pay their war debts to the United States. That is no news to anybody in this country any longer. He would certainly have created a sensation had he said that the former allies—who are now bitter enemies— WHY CalT T would pay their debts. That would PR Yer ceiemaL”/ have been news indeed. The Austrian government is not as easy going in regard to Germany as it is generally suspected. Chan- cellor Schuschnigg requires a good deal of “persuasion” to comply with the demands of the Berlin govern- ment. The principal reason why he is s0 recalcitrant must be found in the fact that he is a militant Cagholic and personally hates Hit- ler, & former Catholic himself, for the treatment of the church. Despite the “improvement” of relations between the Reich and the Austrian Republic, Hitler's “Mein Kampf” was still banned from Austria; certain Reich newspapers were forbidden to be sold on Austrian territory, many Austrian Nazis were lingering in jail and there were in force in the Danubian republic some stringent anti- Nazi laws. Von Papen, the German representative in Austria, was not able to bring about an understanding. Schuschnigg was stringing him along with vague promises. The Austrians are reputed masters in the art of procrastination. Finally Berlin lost patience and informed Schuschnigg indireetly that unless all these restrictions were repealed at once, there might be gome real trouble in Vienna and elsewhere. Somewhat reluctantly, the Austrian chancellor yielded and the danger of a minor explosion in Central Europe was thus averted, * ok ¥ ¥ Some young French students pulled a clever stunt a few years ago. ‘They sent around to a number of famous French politicians and other men in the limelight circulars asking them to help render justice to the memory of that great Frenchman, Hegesippe Simon, whose great work for France was allowed to be forgotten. They asked these famous men to support the plan of restoring to the Hall of Fame that very distinguished Frenchman. All the people thus circularized sent back to the “committee” enthusiastic answers erpressing great interest in the effort, saying that they personally felt that this ought to have been done long ago. Neither the “committee” nor the men it approached were definite in what field Mr. Simon had distinguished himself. Finally it came out that there never had been in France a man of that name and the whole thing Wwas a huge hoax. . * % k¥ This story was told some time ago in private by Prime Minister Cham- berlain when he was approached by the Committee of the Union of the League of Nations with headquarters in London to Join that organization. No self-respecting English politician dares flaunt that organization publicly, but they all realize its complte uselessness, and the parallel made by Cham- berlain was correct. The British premier did not become the honorary president of that hoax. * o % ok It is an almost hopeless task to understand the whys and the where- fores of Russia’s policies. A few months ago Radek, the famous bolshevist journalist, barely escaped the finng squad. (This, as a matier of fact, is a misnomer. Those Wwho are sentenced to be shot are not placed before a squad They are taken for a walk in one of the large halls of the Kremlin. As they walk siowly a man steps out from behind a pillar and fires a shot into the back of the head of the sentenced man.) Radek is today in jail. Yet his articles signed under a pen name are published in many Moscow newspapers and recently he was allowed to leave his cell, under escort, to attend a meeting of the Russian Communist party, where he made an excelient speech. The investigation of officers who have betrayed the secrets of the Sov iet army has not been ended with the execution of the eight general officers a few weeks ago. More Migh-ranking officers are being suspected. To preven} the appli- cation of the “sponge” by the Russian military investigators on their colleagues. several intelligence officers of the Prench army are now in Rus- sia. Their job is to see that those who have communicated military secrets to the German and Japanese staffs are really punished. OPEN ALL DAY SATURDAYS IN Headline Folk and What They Do. Tibbett Leads A. F. of L. Drive to Organize Broadcasters. BY LEMUEL F. PARTON. PERA singers of Genoa had a union early in the eighteenth century and Sundry heads were broken in its furtherance, but Lewrence Tibbett is, according to all available records, the first baritone, tenor or bass, to make up that line of work in modern times. Mr. Tibbett, as head of the American Guild of Musical Art- ists, joins the drive to form a union of radio broadcasters in the American Federation of Labor. It is in- dicated that they are beating the C. 1. O. to this objective. Large- scale organizas tion work is to get under way this week. Mr. Tibbett was upped to fame on the night of January 2, 1925. Before that. he had sung meagre roles under his $60-a-week Metropolitan contract. On this occasion, singing in Verdi's “Falstaff,” he stole the show from Scotti, with a thundering ovation rarely given any singer at the Met. He was the son of a sheriff in the “Badlands” country around Bakers- field, Calif. His father was killed bv a bandit and young Tibbett grew up in Los Angeles. He knew he had a voice, but he didn't want to sing. He wanted to be a Shakespearian actor. Hoping to study for the stage, he earned money singing at churches and movie palaces, becoming soloist for the California Theater. In 1922, he arrived in New York on | horrowed monev. He worked up a | concert and sold a lot of tickets, but he wasn't there. He had the mumps. !All that came out of the concert was |an extra “T" dropped in his name | by the program printer. He let it ride and that's how he became Tib- | bett instead of Tibbet. Numerologists | would say, of course, that that was what changed his luck. At any rate, the change came soon after. Gatti- Casazza gave him a hearing and he | was soon on the uptake in the Mete ropolitan. He is tall and good looking and | lacking in those stellar eccentricities | which make newspaper copy. Thers | is, though, one littie oddity worth | nothing. Apt to have headaches, he cures them by walking around on his | hands. He says that sluices the blood | down to his head and stops the pain. (Copyright, 1937.) Lawrence Tibbett, Seme ooy LR A Cape of Good Hope postmark of | 1806 was sold at auction in London recently for $105. JULY AND AUGUST Lt v Getting What You Pay for... T'S an old saying, “You get only what you pay for,” and it is just as true today as ever! When you are in need of some article of merchandise and see something of its kind advertised at a ridicu lously low price, then is the time to say to yourself, “YOU GET ONLY WHAT YOU PAY FOR.” People aré not in business for their health. Business operates for profit. Without profit, business and progress are at a standstill. So, be on guard when you read of something at a price much lower than such an article of good quality should cost. The chances are you will get ONLY WHAT YOU PAY FOR if you buy it. This store sells Lifetime Furniture. We try, always, to give a dollar’s worth for a dol- lar. That we have succeeded in doing this and satisfying the Washington exemplified in the fact that so our patrons are lifelong custome many keep coming back, bring friends and relatives, and by public is many of rS .« 80 ing their word of mouth admonish so many of their acquaint- ances that “MAYER & CO. IS THE PLACE TO BUY GOOD FURNITURE.” MAYER & CO. Seventh Street Between D and E