Evening star., 1934-09-16
FALL VOTE SEEN AS GUIDE
SHOWING TREND OF u. S.
Degree of Democratic Victory Declared
Significant in Determining
Effect on Government.

WISH yOu WOulu IdASC h11 yOu1 ACtdAA
prices to minimum Of six thirty and
agree to fill any orders received on
new price list at six thirty. If you do
not raise your prices to this minimum
I will have to send auditors in to
check all your costs and you will have
to be able to demonstrate, that your
total cost of production is under 5
cents. will also have to send inves-
tigators into your community to check
all phases of your code compliance.
Stop. This is not an N. r. A. code,
but under A. A. A. and Is being en-
forced. I dislike to embarraSS you, but
have no alternative. I must and will
enforce this code and am certain that
If We must demonstrate upon you the
effectiveness of this Federal law 1t Is
not only going to be costly and en-
barrassing for you, but will probably
ruin your business. I dislike to do 1t,
but unless you comply Immediately
our auditors and investigators will be
in Spencer early next week.
(Signed) --
Managing Agent Natl. Commercial
& Breeder Hatchery Code Au-
thority.'
In pursuance Of this threat, special
agents were sent to Spencer; four were
quartered in the Federal Building at
Spencer for four weeks. The Spencer
firm took the position that it would
not permit the A. A. A. agents to see
its books unless they produced Fed
eral court order. Thereupon A. A. A.
went into the United States District
Court for the Northern district OF
Iowa asking for a permanent injunc-
ton. The local United States district
attorney was supplied with special
counsel, and additional special counsel
came from Washington accompanied
by a secretary-a formidable battery
Of Government officials to prosecute
comparatively small concern. The
answer of the Spencer Chick Hatchery
challenges the constitutionality Of the
entire A. A. A. act. It challenges the
delegation Of power to the Secretary
of Agriculture to define crimes and to
establish and enforce penalties-all
without right to trial by jury.
Such Is A. A. A. Operation.
hope the telegram quoted above
business man employing an average OF
Is persons-wil be read carefully by
every American under whose eyes this
article falls. This is A. A. A. In oper-
alton. This is A. A. A. as an actuality.
This is A. A. A. as 1t touches the lives
of the people.
What are we to think? Have the
American people so changed that they
are no longer shocked by the spectacle
of a Government agent sending
brutally threatening telegram to a
citizen, who has committed no offense
except to sell young chicks at such
price as he chooses? This surely illus
trates what DR.. Nicholas Murray But
Ter calls government by compulsion."
Incidentally, this case and others
there are hundreds already in the
courts and literally thousands Of ac-
tions being prepared by the litigation
officials of the Observation-Disclosures
cases illustrate the very heart Of the
question raised by ex-President Hoo
yer in his article in the Saturday
Evening Post, in which Mr.. Hoover
speaks of the New Deal as "chal-
lenge to liberty" In reply to Mr..
Hoover-and also to Senator Borah's
statement that liberty is fast disap-
pearing-to these reply is made by
New Dealer Harold Ickes, Secretary
of the Interior in Mr.. Roosevelt's cab
met. In part, Mr.. Ickes says: "The
liberty he talks about, it seems to me.
is the liberty of the exploiter."
How About Exploitation?
Is the proprietor of this little
chicken hatchery an exploiter? Is
this little Jersey City tailor, Jacob
Maged, who went to Jail for charging
35 cents to press a suit when the
code dictated 40-is he an exploiter?
Is the head of the little farmers CO.
operative in the Village of Accord,
N. Y, who sold cement to members
of the cooperative at 70 cents q bag,
when the code fixed a higher price
is he an exploiter? Is the little tile
setter, who went to jail because he
tiled the floor of bath room at a
price and under conditions differing
from the code-is he an exploiter?
How about the farmers and others
to whom the Spencer Hatchery sells
at lower price-do they think this
hatchery is an exploiter?
We shall have to find some way to
take this whole controversy out of
the hands-and mouths-of the mere
epithet- -throwers, like Mr.. Ickes, and
bring about discussion of the New
Deal in terms of the fundamental
philosophy it involves. And we shall
have to get the controversy on to
a higher plane than President Roose-
welt is on when he says, in effect,
that the American Liberty League
is interested primarily in property
rights as against human rights.
1t is precisely human right that
Is involved, and hardly a property =
right at all. AS ex-President Hoover
has put it, in speaking of
The concept of liberty which
lies behind the bill of rights In the
Constitution. That whole concept
was to free the mind, the spirit and
the energies of men. The right of
individual property serves that pur-
pose in giving security Of mind and
body, and stimulus to effort, enter
prise and creativeness, and the prop
erty right must be considered (only)
in the light of these useful purposes"
1t is big question we have here.
The liberty that is involved has been
since man became reasoning animal,
the most important question he has
had to think about-and fight for.
That struggle, many times repeated
during the centuries, Is before us once
more.
(copyright. 1894. New York Tribune. Inc.)