Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1933-07-10

The New Deal is already In thu
courts, and probably on the way to tn
United States Supreme Court. What !!
apparently the first case to arise chal'
longing the constitutionality of Roose'
| Welt emergency legislation is now be-
fore the New Jersey Court OF Errors
and Appeals. on appeal from Juog'
ment of the State Supreme Court
The law under fire is the mortgage
foreclosure act passed IN March.
New Jersey piano corporation resist
ed foreclosure proceedings unoer lhe
act, but its plea was rejected, I1e
presiding judge. Justice Parker hoio-
ing that the legislation violated the
CONSTITUTION of New Jersey. 1t was
Justice Parker who attracted Nation
wide attention a couple Of years age
nv declaring the eighteenth amendment
unconstitutional because Of the meth
ODDS by which the States ratified II
Washington lawyers have just seen a
conv of the remarkable brief filed IN
the Court of Errors and Appeals by
Merritt Lane, famous Jersey lawyer
and one-time close political associate
of Woodrow Wilson. Mr.. Lane argues
that the foreclosure law also onellas
the fourteenth amendment TO the ION.
etitution of the United States. IN that
il denies the equal protection OF the
law" and also violates the due process
clause.
The brief. which seems likely to be
the forerunuer of a long continuing
chapter of litigation ever the Valloity
of late congressional enactments, DiH-
ties with frontal attacks on various
phases of the New Deal. ipcludmg pro-
hibition of gold boarding. Hitler anu
Germany, 1 notice." Mr.. Lane says al
one point, have just proscrlbeo an
minority parties. Why not follow tne
same rule in this country In TINS Gay
of emergency. Are we 10 ionoM !.
Germanys example and that OF RUSSIA
We are on dangerous grouno. La'el :.
resorting to subterfuge and disregard
of fundamental rights Of the Individual.
Mr. Lane holds that the foreclosure
act cannot be sustained as emergency
lerislat ion justifiable under the pollce
mower" One of his typical thrusts
reads: Our blood is turning into wafer.
We find ourselves now ADVISED IN
finance and in business by theorists
who could not make their own living IN
the respective fields in which they
nres,,me to advise or in any other nelds
If competitive human endeavor. we
nav follow their advice, but, II we DO,
II is a safe prediction that, at the close
of the Instrumentation spoken OF py
Mr. Justice Brandeis in New State Ice
Co. VS.. Lehman there will be no one
left to benefit by the results.
Word drifting down from the side
walks of New York indicates that tnoSe
in the neighborhood OF lower Broad
way and Wall Street, where blg pusl-
ness has its abode. have not In many
moons been jolted as they were last
week by Donald r. Richberg. general
counsel of the National Recovery Al
ministration, when he addressed the
Merchants Association in Manhattan
His definite threat that industry must
get into step with the control program
within go precious" days or face In
evitable political specialization apparent
" set the captains of commerce and
finance to thinking and blinking. The
New York Herald Tribune, Republican,
accuses Mr.. Richberg Of using the
iron hand" and complains that the
"velvet glove" which encaseS 1t Is worn
very thin in spots The same critic
suggested that certain omcials at wash
ington are not "as brilliant and skillful
handlers of men as the President" The
two listed Chicago lawyer, an uncom-
promising liberal and Tennessean by
birth, achieved national fame as the
special counsel of the railroad brother
hoods. He is co-author of the railway
labor act of 1926. He got his law de-
gree at the Harvard Law School in
1904, at the same time Franklin D.
Roosevelt took his A. B. at the uni
versity. In his undergraduate days at
the University of Chicago, Richberg
was track athlete and won laurels as
a mile walker under the famous coach,
Alonzo Stage. Richberg has written
several books with titles almost pro-
phetic Of the present era-"The Shadow
Men" I'm the Dark" "A Man Of Pur-
Pose" end ''Tents Of the Mighty" He