Evening star., 1933-05-31

The Supreme Court adjourned last
Monday for the Summer, not to convene
again until October 2. The docket Of
the court is clear. The justices are scat
tering to their various Summer hab-
itats. They will need all the rest and
recreation they can get to store up
energy for the mountain of labor for
them which Is ahead-the construction
and Interpretation Of the vast legisla-
tive potpourri of the present Congress.
No one of these emergency enactmentS
but what presents great constitutional
questions and objections; no one OF
which will escape attack and review by
the Supreme Court. The constitutional
right Of the Government to require pos
SCISSORS of gold to surrender their gold
Is disputed. The attempt OF the Execu-
tive and Congress to annul the gold
clause IN Government and private bonds
Is challenged. The agricultural recovery
bill is claimed by many legal lights to
be chock- full Of legal and constitutional
pitfalls. The pending control Of indus
try bill is attacked on constitutional
grounds. The same holds true OF prac-
tically every one Of the administr atoms
legislative proposals.
II \ 4
If the justices OF the Supreme Court
have reason to be perturbed by the
grave questions Of governmental policy
upon which they must pass, no such
perturbation plaques the President. No
constitutional doubts assail him. One
of the high lights of Mr.. Roosevelt's
inaugural address was his statement
that "our Constitution Is so simple and
practical that 1t is possible always to
meet extraordinary needs by changes
in emphasis and arrangement without
loss of essential form. That Is why our
constitutional system has proved itself
the most superbly enduring popular
mechanism the modern world has pro-
duced" The President adverted to the
constitutional aspects Of his legislative
program in his radio talk to the Ma
ton on Sunday evening, May 7. He
said then: Congress Is to decide what
has to be done and to select the appro-
pirate agency to carry out its will. This
policy it has strictly adhered to. The
only thing that has been happening has
been to designate the President as the
agency to carry out certain purposes of
the Congress. This was constitutional
and is in keeping with past American
tradition"
r
According to cables from Hawaii, the
little paradise in mid-Pacific Is IN an
uproar over Mr. RooSevelts request of
Congress that all limitations on his ap-
pointment Of Territorial Governor be
removed. Under the present law the
President must name as Governor a
resident of the island, and Honolulu
Is all cluttered up with candidates for
the post. Mr.. Roosevelt has said that
he desired to be free to name some one
from the Observation-Disclosures u S. A.
He has given no intimation Of whom,
If any one, he had in mind for the
post, but the friends of Judge Ben A.
Lindsay of Denver, world-famous So
ciologist, insist that if the President is
made free to do so he will appoint
Judge Lindsay. Presumably Hawaii
would offer an interesting sociological
laboratory for practical experimentation
with Judge Lindsay's social ideas. In
behalf of the administration it is said
that 1t Is neither the law nor the Gus
tom to pick q Governor or Puerto Rico
or Governor of the Philippines from
these territories, and that there is no
reason why there should be such a re-
quirement with respect to Hawaii.
The composite average age Of the
Senate went up another notch or two
last week when Judge William H.
Thompson Of Nebraska presented his
credentials as Senator to fill the vacancy
caused by the death Of Senator Howell.
Judge Thompson Is in his eightieth
year He has been a lifelong friend of
Gov. Bryan. the Brother Charlie" of
the late William Jennings Bryan. Gov.
Rrvan has Vbeen reDuted to have
senatorial aspirations on his own ac-
count, but, If so, he is holding them in
abeyance. The appointment Of Judge
Thompson by Gov. Bryan IL obviously
. stop-gap arrangement designed to