Evening Star Newspaper, August 4, 1937, Page 11

THE EVENING STAR, WASHI Delay Is Seen To Balance Appointees. Postponement for Sec- ond Vacancy Is Given Credence. BY DAVID LAWRENCE. APITOL HILL is usually pretty good at guessing a President's motives, but nobody has yet furnished an authoritative reason why Mr. Roosevelt asked for an advisory opinion from his Attorney General as to whether a recess ap- pointment of a Supreme Court judge could be made after the Senate adjourned, even though the va- cancy occurred while the Senate was in session. Three separate and distinct ex- planations are advanced. They @ are: First, that Mr Roosevelt expects the retirement of 3 another Supreme Court justice to develop after Congress adjourns and that he would | prefer to fill two vacancies at one | time, thus affording an opportunity | to name a radical and a liberal con- | servative. David Lawrence What’s Back of It All Attack on Wage Bill’s Constitutionality Would Open ’ Door to New Court Drive. BY H. R. BAUKHAGE. ID friends of the administration shiver when they heard the consti- tutionality of the wages-hours bill questioned? They did not. “I challenge any man to say that he has studied section 8 (a) of the bill an7 believes it is constitutional,” charged Senator Byrnes of South Carolina during the heated debate before the measure passed NGTON THE 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 themsefves and directly opposed to The Star’s. Idea Full of Dynamite Wage-Hour Bill Would Create Mechanism for Tariff D. C, WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 4 Second, that Mr. Roosevelt has in mind the nomination of some one | whose name he knows will not be palatable to the Senate and will raise | & controversy, the repercussions of | which may die down by t time the | Benate reconvenes next January, when | the appointee will already have donned | the robes of offi.e. Third, that Mr. Roosevelt votes in Congress between now and | adjournment crucial measures, and that if he withholds an appointm he will not antagonize any of the Senators or Representatives who are known to have their favorite candi- dates for the vacancy on the court | which now e: Keeps Bait Dangling. last reason presupposes that Mr. Rooseve! s not think Congr will adjourn without a vote or two on some ques al to his administra- tion, and t he would prefer to keep active behalf those Senators | who are ticular appoint- | ments. Of all seems to be to fit in w derstood to Senator Robu friends of the Ark the latter never statement in so m Roosevelt of his him to the Mr. Roosev: tive appoi an indirec! necessary needs e one caused by the ret f ce Van Devanter, wou given the President two apjx to make on though ointment, but atch proposal N nanly enough ed him on to fu r eff ting action on the n as stances required. Other Vacancies Mayv Develop. Roosevelt a matter of th be s he has had some time to balance in mind for radical with en he might the predic- | of Represent= l by Chair- | e House Judiciary | a tion made to atives in a st man Sumners of t Committee to t flect that there would be further ncies in the eourt occurring in regular way | ence Congress got rid of the court bill. | Jt is true the Senate has recom- | mitted the court packing bill, but | some adm tration enthusiasts have &nnounc eir intention of reviving the issue in some form by tacking on an amendment requi vote of the court to invalidate an act of Congress. | Many persons on Capitol Hill are | guessing that if Mr. Roosevelt did not have some such plan of waiting for an additional vacancy before filling the existing vacancy, he would have acted long ago. All three prominent persons mentioned for the present vacancy—namely, Stanley Reed, solic- itor general; Samuel Bratton, Circuit | Court of Appeals judge and former | Senator from New Mexico, and Judge | Hutchinson, also of the Circuit Court | of Appeals in Texas—could be con- firmed by the Senate without pro- longed controversy. Might Confound Critics. Indeed, it is pointed out that Presi- dent Roosevelt has a chance to con- found his critics by naming men of the foregoing type. For it can then be asked on his behalf why there was 0 much furor about “court packing” when on the first opportunity to fill & vacancy a justice is appointed who is prompily accepted by conservatives, liberals and radicals alike in the United States Senate. Those who think Mr. Roosevelt has some other idea in mind—namely, to wait for a second vacancy—insist that | the President would by now have filled the post if he really intended to pick any of the three mentioned who could be so quickly confirmed. The mere asking for an opinion about a recess appointment, when the President knows there is at least two weeks more of the present session in which to get confirmation of any of the three men mentioned above, shows he has some other plan in the back of his mind. KHence the belief most plausible is that Mr. Roosevelt wants to make two ap- BURGLARS Can’t Get Into Our Vaults When You’re Away on Vacation Gl MERCHANTS ROVEITN TRANSFER o STORAGE (0 6900 920 E ST NW. the Senate, presenting a memorandum to back up his view. Section 8 (a) aims to protect interstate commerce from competition from intrastate business carried on This section, says the Senator's “memo,” would “regulate the labor rela- tions of the local manufacturers and only in one State, and it is clear that this is exactly what the Schechter case (under which N. R. A. was invalidated by the Supreme Court) held Congress tionally do.” When the Senator's words echoed up Pennsylvania avenue, there was (according to the old gray squirrel on the White House lawn) a noticeable reaction. But not anguish; quite the contra It sounded very much like laughte! Here is the O. G. 8.s com- ment in his own words: “The unconstitutionaler better.” cannot constitu=- the Seriously, the explanation is something like this: 1f labor's Magna Charta No. (preme Court rally * % When Senator Pat Harrison stepped off the reservation and hurled the weight of his well-known invective against the new labor standards issue, he knew just how far he was some time before. ' The White House expected his same. As mentioned in this column, about the time the Mississippi Senator went to the White House with Senator Barkley following the latter's one- vote victory as floor leader, the strategy was to offer Senator Harrison the assistant floor leadership if he would play ball But the offer was never made because it was learned ““on good author- as the saying is, that he wouldn't take it. Since then has come a parting of the ways. Senator Harrison seems to see more nearly eve to eye with the Valley Association, an organization of business men from Moline down to the gulf, than with the administration. is telling the country that “labor and in- dustry in the South and Middle West will be adversely affected and in some tnstances destroyed if the prowisions of the Black-Connery into law"—a sentiment reflected in the speeches of some of the Southern Democrats who opposed the bill in the ity," Mississippi This organization bill are enacted Senate. * % The murmuring of innumerable ) are unfolding 5. his supporters believe to secure a following, and the next step would be logical, . and require no seven-league boots, since from Capitol Hill to the White Hou Of course, Senator Dieterich, to be hurdled at the start, for to run when he com va jun 10 one belicvers in reformation of the judiciary declare 1t would give further impetus to the reform—in other words, it would upport for another court bill which, according to present ad- ministration plans, will be presented now or later anyway. under substandard labor conditions. local merchants who sell their goods HEYRE ATIT s AGAIN = 5 Sa) x Yk G T 2 were to be bowled over by the * % stepping. He had made his decision action—is prepared for more of the % bees (not Tennyson's, but the presi- dential variety) is rising to a hum amidst Washington's immemorial elms. Of course, the murmur is by no means official here, but down at the Department of the Interior they have had a buzz from Chicago which is reported as quite distinct Friends of Secretary Ickes re- port that other friends out Chicago way would like very much to show the world what a good vote-getter the Secretary is. is to urge him to run for the would demonstrate little over a mile. r Senator from Illinois, would have has heard him say he doesn't choose up for re-election next year. said Mr. Ickes in a recent interview, “have been a Repub- e and a Democrat. e principles of lit a liberal if you're a Republican, & Progressive merican Newspaper Alliance, Inc.) | But whatever name you call it, I | lism.” | you can take Mr. Ickes, no matter | or a Democrat pointments simultaneously. and this | will not be possible till after adjourns, when some one of preme Court justices sends in ment letter at a time suffi- 1 the present ses- it seem to have circumstances toric Supreme May Force Appointment Now. ure of p compel the P nomination no appointmer is expec some time befor tion raised by whether J P, may one t to send in | make a re- | the next va- that is The ques- Senator Borah as to ice Van Devanter re- | ces ca WE MADE THE FINEST CIGARETTES WE KNEW HOW-"SMOKERS RATED THEM EQUAL TO THE BEST REGARDLESS OF PRICE = AND IT ALL ADDED UP 0¢ A PACK S0 signed or just “recired” is a technical | one, but it relates primarily to the | matter of compensation and not serv- ice on the highest bench. The retirement law was drawn espe- cially to prevent reduction of com- pensation after retirement. In so far as the Supreme Court itself is con- cerned, there is a vacancy, due to Justice Van Devanter's withdrawal, whether Justice Van Devanter's salary can be cut in a future economy wave, as happened to the late Justice Holmes after he retired, Is something | for Treasury attorneys and Justice | Van Devanter to worry about some day; and, of course, the contingency may never arise (Copsright, 1937.) WHY CHARGE Once, good cigarettes cost 25 cents—then 15 cents. Today, a dime buys “tops”. The fine quality Turkish and Domestic Tobacco—mellowed, heat- treated to suit your throat—wrapped in expensive French Champagne paper—that’s Domino. Saves you $18 to $36 a year. It pays to try them. DOMIN Z%e Double Mild (4 CELLCPHAN 'WRAPPED i Between States. BY DOROTHY THOMPSON. T IS entirely probable that the wages antl hours bill will have passed the House before this col- umn appears, but nevertheless, it may still be of interest to point out exactly what we shall have done in passing it. We shall have created a mechanism for imposing a tarift between States in this country. By its very nature, that tariff will operate to protect those areas of the country which are richest, longest organized indus- trially and have the greater ad- vantages in cli- mate, raflroad rates and trained populations of workers. The La- bor Standards Board is empowered to fix wages and hours in all industries up to a certain level and ban from inter- state commerce goods whose produc- tion standards do not conform. We shall have taken no careful steps to see that this commission, given such ex- traordinary powers, shall be protected from political pressure and from the kind of lobbying which has been the curse of our foreign tariff policy. As Mr. Lippmann pointed out yes- terday, it is highly significant that Henry Cabot Lodge., Republican, from Massachusetts voted for the proposal. He saw that the idea behind it is pre- cisely Mr. Hoover's idea for the regu- jation of our foreign staff—the equal- ization of costs of production. That was not Mr. Hull's idea, and never this column’s. Idea Full of Dynamite. But if it was a bad idea for the reg- ulation of foreign trade, it is an idea full of dynamite when applied to do- mestic trade between the States. Mr. Dorothy Thompson | Lodge comes from a State where tex- | tile, | moved to the South and he wants pro- | tection | understand Mr. Lodge shoe and other industries have for industries. I can But I cannot understand the Southern Senators wio voted for this bill One of the major those curses of try. Twenty manufacture: counties, which enjoy already the ad- vantages of establisnment, of favorable freight rates and of a trained working class population. For generations the < per cent of our total | South has been treated as a Colonial area by these manufacturing agricultural and Eastern Northern centers This area has been the victim of for-| eign tariffs for the past 60 vears. It is now faced with the situation that its greatest agricultural product, cotton, is undergoing sharp contractions as a result partly of our tariff policy in the past growing and the competition of syn- thetics. If now it attempts to turn to industry, it may find that the oniy natural advantages it has—a lower cost of living and therefore a lower wage standard, which does not neces- sarily mean a lower standard of living —can be arbitrarily eliminated by a tariff against its goods. inside America South Has Disadvantages. The South has the disadvantages of quality of population. It is the most illiterate part of the United States its climate makes the average worker less productive than the worker this | | country is the centralization of indus- are concentrated in six| partly because of foreign cotton | in | afternoon | duce more and | in Los Aneeles or San Francisco be- | more temperate or colder zones. Its industrial training is backward and it is relatively remote from the great consuming centers of the United Btates. It is going to take years to rehabili- tate the South, and it certainly cannot be done by flat. True, the Labor Standards Board is hedged about by all kinds of qualifications. It is in- structed to take account of varying standards, to protect production and employment and so forth. But the Labor Standards Board is composed of human beings; we have no well- established tradition of disinterested civil service; everything is in polffics Suppose a Republican administration comes in again one of these days, dom- inated by the interests of the North and the East. They have in the past forced the agricultural South to buy in a market protected against cheap foreign goods. They could now force down any competition in the domestic market. What is going to happen to manu- facturers who have made contracts for future deliveries at a fixed price, if the Labor Standards Board sud- denly decrees changes in wages and hours which make that future delivery at that price impossible? Any in- dustry can be ruined by it. States May Retaliate. And if the principle of domestic tariffs is established, as I think it is under this bill, what is to prevent individual States from retaliating by putting up tariffs of their own? To be sure, that is forbidden under the Constitution, but there are many ways in which it can be done in effect. As a matter of fact, it is done in effect already by some States—some dairy States, for instance, have taxes | on oleomargarine. If Mississippi can- not keep wage and hour conditions | which enable her to export to other States, she may put an excise tax on | products coming into the State, in order to protect the home market thereby attempting to insure employ- ment to her own workers by protect- ing that market. Of course, the whole thing boils down to the point this calumn has repeatedly made. You cannot legis- late prosperity. The only way to| increase the national wealth and thereby the national wages is to pro- to keep open the channels by which it may reach in- ternal and external markets, (Copyright, 1 SLEEPER AIR SERVICE TO COAST ANNOUNCED Planes Leaving at 5:35 and 11:15 | P.M. Will Make Connections at Chicago and Cleveland. Twice-daily sleeper airplane service | between Washington and California | was announced today by D. Walter Swan, district traffic manager for United Air Lines. Passengers leaving here at 5:35 pm on the connecting service of Pennsyl- | vania-Central Airlines will board a United plane at Cleveland and at Chi- cago will board the sleeper, arriving | fore breakfast OX} the second schedule, passengers will fave here at 11:15 p.m.. boarding a sleeper at Cleveland and arriving at Pacific Coast cities the following Soviet Will Punish Those Irregu- | Crimean and other types of wheat. those singled out for punishment wi serve as & warning to other workers in because methods, collections of July 25, never- theless, the amount gathered by that date in 119 193 This Changing World Series of Incidents to Lower Soviet Prestige or Pro- voke Fighting Seen in Orient. BY CONSTANTINE BROWN. HE Japanese invasion of China is proceeding according to a well- established plan. Not only are the Japanese troops moving with lightning rapidity to their objectives—the occupation of the five provinces—but the inevitable “incidents” with the Soviet are also developing. The Japanese have a masterly hand in creating such incidents and ¢iTering satisfaction which is more insulting than if they simply refused to listen to the complaints of the Moscow leaders. The looting and destruction of the Soviet Consulate at Tientsin was evidently a put up job by the high military command. The Moscow foreign office could not help itself and protested against this flagrant breach of international ‘courtesy. The satisfaction offered by the Japanese military commanders “to return some of the loot—if it can be found” was a worse slap in the face than if it had told the Russians to go where it is hot. The incident in itself is really of little importance. It is inevit- able that whenever there is a fight between armed forces in a town like Tientsin, accidents of this na- ture are sometimes unavoidable. But, the Russians say, and they are undoubtedly right, the Jap- anese intelligence had arranged with the White Russian exiles in that town—mercenaries of any power which is able to offer them support in their fight against the red government—to insult the Hammer and Sickle, This is, without doubt, only the first of a long row of incidents which the Japangse are determined to provoke in order either to lower the prestige of the Russians with the Chinese or to pick up a fight with the Siberian forces. : * K K The task of the Japanese Army in Northern China is less formidable than it appears from a distance. It is true that Chiang Kai-shek has brought about a revival of the national sentiment in that section of the country where his authority is unchallenged. But in Northern China, where war lords have been reigning supreme, that sentiment has not developed yet Hence the masses are thinking in terms of food and personal security rather than in terms of hatred against the invaders. The Japanese general staff seems confident that with the mili- tary forces the government is prepared to pour into the Asiatic mainland, it is equal to the task of tackling the Chinese and the Russians at the same time. * ok o X The Greeks are celebrating today the first anniversary of their auto- cratic dictatorship under Gen. Metaxa. They have taken to dictatorship like ducks say that they do not care about political freedom long as they have employment and enough food together. Since August 4,'1936, the wheat production has been increased. The saving accounts show an increase of 450,000,000 drachmes (about $4,500,- 000), the industrial production has augmented by 88 per cent What particular dictat method Metaxa is using to put some new life into his subjects is not quite clear. It is not reported whether it is castor oil or the con- centration camp. In any case Greece seems t¢ be on the upward grade. Strikes are taboo and so are rowdy political meetings—one of the main attractions for the e tourists staying at the Hotel Grande Bretagne, who looked from their windows at the picturesque Evzones (Cretan troops) charging the Athenian mobs. Like all dictators, Metaxa, who is a former graduate of a German mili- tary academy, is paving a good deal of attention to the army. New blood has been brought in the higher ranks and the population is subscribing more or less freely to the milita n fund. MORE TO BE TRIED 11 QUIT N. F. F. E. LOCAL TO ENTER C. I. 0. UNION Four Members of Board Among Group Joining United Federal ‘Workers of America. to water. The masses and “all that junk” as to keep soul and body ATQRSHIP = lar in Wheat Collections. | MOSCOW, August 4 () —Alzhnuzh: the grain harvest is reaching record | proportions, an unnamed number of | workers will be tried and severely pun- ished for irregular wheat collections, Pravda, official Communist party or- | gan. reported yesterday. Charged with mixing Ukrainean, | Eleven members of Library of Con gress branch of Local 2, National Fed- eration of Federal Employes, including the four members of the Board of Representatives of the local, have re- signed and cast their lot with the United Federal Workers of America. The N. F. F. E. has 140 members at the Library. The 11, with former A. F. G. E members in the Library of Congress, form the nucleus of the new C. I O lodge being organized at a meeting there at 4:35 p.m. toda: the collection service, the paper stated. | In the face of a delayed harvest| of old-fashioned reaping | totaled 4,000.00 tons, double Headline Folk and What They Do Bratton or Hutcheson May Be Appointed to Supreme Bench. MART, young, red-headed Bam G. Bratton of New Mexico wanted to be a United States Senator. Sixty per cent of the voters spoke Spanish. He knew they liked jokes. His campaign material was the only anthology of drummers’ yarns ever translated into Spanish. The voters were delighted. They called Mr. Brat- ton “El Colorado m” and sent im to the Senate in 1925—A “baby Senator” at the age of 36, And now he may become a Jjustice of the United States Supreme Court. There is persist- ent word from Washington that the President is considering the appointment of either Mr. Bratton—now Judge Bratton—or Joseph C. Hutcheson, jr., of Houston, Texas. In 1933 Tesident Roosevelt | named Mr. Bratton judge of the Tenth United States Circuit Court of Ap- peals, in New Mexico. It is the judicial circuit of the retiring Supreme Court Justice Van Devanter. Judge Bratton was ahead of the New Deal in aiming at New Deal objectives. He vbted for the Costigan-La Follette relief bill, the Democratic tariff bill and, after the inauguration of Franklin D. Roosevelt, he was for the suspen- | sion of the gold clause, a bold plunge into Federal relief. the 30-hour week and the abolition of tax exemption on Government bonds. He opposed sales His de has been liberal, wessianic reared in Texas, he taught ¥ school, did all sorts of odd jobbing and read law nights. He was & lawyer in Clovis. N. Mex., at 21; an as- sociate fudge of the State District Court at 30, a member of the State Supreme Court at 34 and a Senator at 36. Only the President knows whether he will be a Supreme Court justice Bratton possible appointment of Judge Hutcheson has been discussed in its bearing on the new ascendancy of the Texas dynasty under the rule of the | politics Vice President | Garner. ¢ 57 years [ old, is a f Houston and | judge of the Southerr. United States | District of Texas since 1918. His lib- | eral slant has been toward humanism ather than legalistic change. He has been a vigorous advocate of enlight- ened and humane penology. DOG AIDS ARREST ]‘Jailer' Dalmatian Confirms Name in Action. LOUISVILLE, Ky.. Auguct 4 (A — Jailer, 3-year-old Dalmatian owned by | Jailer Martin J. Connors, lived up to | his name two colored youths accused of stealing | butter from a truck. | “After them, Jailer,” cried Guard | Joseph E. Stickler, 65. when he spotted | the suspects going through an alley near the jail with boxes under arm The dog shot into action and the boys separated. 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