Evening star., 1924-07-21
Scores Rent Decision.
Lanier Declares Congress Speci.
fed Emergency Still Exists.

Ihere is saying in the legal pro-
1esSlon that "a strong bar makes a
strong bench" What is meant bv
this IS that the judges have neither
the time nor the inclination to make
independent Investigations in the
cases they decide. but of necessity
must rely greatly upon the argu-
rnents OF the lawyers who present
them, and that the worth and ability
of the judges decision is usually on
par with the arguments of counsel
While Chief Justice Marshall was
one of the worlds greatest judges.
IL is fact, we'll known to the pro-
fesston, that soma of his most ceIe-
of the great lawyers who appeared in
those cases. II is not infrequently
the case that the reputation of many
judges for learning and ability is
thus made by the lawyers who argue
before them.
There'sre rea sons for the decline In
the quality of judicial decisions and
for the many weak and often errone
Gus decisions rendered by the courts
namely. decadence in the learning
and ability of the legal profession.
and the fact that. with rare eNcep-
used 10 enter the legal profession no
longer do so. but have gone into
business and become our captains Of
industry; the enormous increase in
litigation and the subject-matter OF
controversy, and the expansion of
legal principles applicable thereto.
and the lack of time for the proper
study. and research on the part even
of the ablest lawyers of the cases
they argue.
II seems manifest from some of the
decisions recently rendered by the
courts here, including the Supreme
Court, that the questions involved
were not as ably or fully presented
to the courts as they should have
been. and also that the courts within
the past few years have been show
ing tendency 10 usurp more and
more legislative functions instead of
confinins themselves to the judicial
questions involved. which accounts
for the dissatisfaction and critical
attitude of the public toward the
courts,-and not without justification.
This would seem to be the case in
some of the decisions recently rem
dered by the courts involving the
action of the Rent Commission and
the rent act. In the Block case the
court very properly held that it was
within the constitutional authority
of the Congress, in the exercise of its
police powers over the District of
Columbia, to regulate the renting of
houses and apartments to meet an
emergency existing in the housing
conditions within the District. But in
the Chastleton case recently before
the Supreme Court the case was re-
manded to the lower court upon the
bay a,-iI IN,
ord did not show to the satisfaction
of the court whether or not the emer-
gency still existed, thereby intimating
that If the emergenc had ceased to
was no longer in force. When Con-
gress extended the rent law to May
-. 1925. by an act approved May Il.
1924 ii provided. with other things. as
follows:
That it is hereby declared that the
emergency described in Title II
II the District rent'act still
exists and continues in the District
/ OF Columbia and that the present
housing and rental conditions therein
require the further extension of the
provisions of such title
| Congress. had it seen fit, could have
derolved upon the courts the ascer-
! tanment and determination of the
existence Of the emergency at any
given time, but it did not do so. on
/ the contrary it reserved to itself this
question, which was, is and remains
| exclusively a legislative and not a
| judicial question; and yet the courts
| have undertaken to usurp the func-
| tions of the Congress and pass upon
and determine the existence or nom
existence Of the emergency. 1t would
seem manifest under this law that
| the only proper function of the
courts is to ascertain and determine
| in a given case before them on ap-
| peal from the Rent Commission
| whether or not the rental fixed by tn e
| commission was confiscatory, or
yields a fair and reasonable return to
the building.
| Under this view of the law. tenants
are fully protected, and no injustice is
or can be done the landlord, for law
! or no law. he should not exact more
| than a fair and reasonable return
on his investment; and Congress is
thus left free to exercise its legisla-
tive authority in the premises by re-
pealing the law upon showing that
! the necessity for it no longer exists.
! This question of rcgulat ting rentals
| in the District is analogous in prin-
! ciple to the regulation of the rail
roads and the fixing of their rates.
! though the power of Congress in re-
| spect to the railroads is derived from
| ton, namely, the interstate commerce
clause. Congress devolves upon the
Interstate Commerce Commission the
authority to fix the rates, etc, to be
lcharged by the carriers, and the