The times-news. [volume] (Hendersonville, N.C.) 1927-current, 1934-12-21
NEWSPAPERS OPINION
LEGAL CHAOS IN A BUREAUCRACY

|
Unconditional Justices of the Supreme Court are
represented as being joted out of their accus-
toned judicial calm by the discovery that nowhere
| IN official Washington is there complete record
Of New Deal executive orders and rulings by al
phabetical agencies-all, in effect, new laws. y
protest to the Supreme Court that four Texas oil
nroducers were arrested, indicted and jailed Tor
consuming to violate New Deal law that did not
exist * a disturbing indication of disarray IN the
cubbvholes of government by executive order.
As long ago as last July report prepared 1or
the American Bar Association revealed the con1u-
sion. even to lawyers resulting from the maze o.
now laws. executive orders and pronouncements
since March. 1888 1t was estimated that MIA
alone had issued in one year 10000 pages of ediees
supposedly with the force of law. 1t was calcuia'-
ed that the announcements of all the New Deal
administrative agencies exceeded the volume of all
Federal statutes since 1889.
But since midsummer not only has there been
no effort at correating and recapitulating the de-
LUCE of new laws but the trend to executive or
ders as form of quick law-making continues. 1t
is now computed that President Roosevelt has Is
sued in the 81 month"; of his administration, about
900 executive orders, each one law unto ltSeH.
This is at rate of about so MONTH or two
dav not counting Sundays. In the same period
congress has enacted 1882 new measures and the
number of casual administrative rulings is legion
1t develops now that the state department is not
certain that all documents having the effect of law
have been filed with it. Officials have presumed
that each department or emergency agency kept
track of the legal rulings pertaining to its own
activities Thus if a citizen was uncertain wheth-
er his problem came within the jurisdiction of the
NRA, the AAA or the oil administration, he might
be able to find the statutes covering his case if he
made a tour of the alphabet offices and examined
all the records.
Chief Justice Hughes and Associate Justice
Brandeis are said to have showed undisguised dis
satisfaction with the governments System of
acknowledging. And we'll they might. 1t is diff
cult to imagine such a hodge-pOdge in a matter
of so great Importance as the nations laws. If
men can be sent to jail under non-eXistent law,
because of oversight or error of government Of
fcials. what may be the implied possibilities Of
such state of confusion?
The American Bar Association has complained
that tendency of the New Deal has been that
"the judicial branch of the Federal Government is
being rapidly and seriously undermined" that es
senital lines of government structure are being
obliterated and that there is being substituted "a
labyrinth in which the rights of individuals, while
preserved in form, can easily be nulfed in prac-
tice.' 1t would appear that when the New Deal
doesn't even know what laws it has made, the
individuals rights are in grave danger. Of what
valueAare codes if the laws that govern them are
not eSdifed?
Congress has voted away many of its own pre-
negatives, according them to the Executive.
Through the tremendous powers granted him, the
President has also, in effect, taken over some of
the duties of the Judiciary. Whether the PreSi-
dent too frequently has resorted to the legal short
cut of the Executive order need not be discussed
here Certainly, at least, there should be record
of the Executive pronouncements readily available
to all citizens
The supreme court, fortunately, has been an
agency in bringing to light the amazing conditions
of bureaucratic and legislative confusion in Wash
ington. It's influence, perhaps, may hasten the day
when the Administration, cropping in fog of new
laws, gets its legal bearngs-Philadelph In
quirer.