The Kennewick courier-reporter. [volume] (Kennewick, Wash.) 1914-1938, 1934-10-11

| Will continue to serve as a drain
upon the treasures, both national
and local, for a good many years
to come. Some of the authorities
are growing fearfl, too, of what
may happen should the parasitis
element be separated from its meal
ticket. With winter coming on rad
icals can make fine case out of a
refusal by relief managers to feed
this or that starving family"
have even heard suggestions that
the coming winter may see some
riots of a character more severe
than anything we have yet known.
But if they do come it seems to be
agreed they will not be due entire
ly to lack of food, but to agitation
on the part of some of those who
have desires only to wreck our
present structure of government.
New Deal Up to High Court
With the return of the winter
session of the Supreme Court of
the United States, New Dealers as
well as old dealers may have some
ground for belief that questions re-
specting their acts in the last year
soon will be answered. In this
country, we have always looked to
the high courts as the last resort
to tell us when our legislative
bodies as well as executive officers
of our government, state or ma
tional, have gone beyond bounds.
All through the summer there has
been the mounting demand for ju-
dicial construction of New Deal
acts. 1T appears we are about to
get them in numbers from the
highest court in the land. There
are sufficient petition before the
Supreme court to provide rather
accurate illumination of the New
Deal scope in its constitutional as
poets.
Expert legal opinion here seems
to lean toward substantiation of
most of the New Deal activities by
the high court. But at the same
time some of the best legal minds
in the country are maintaining that
while part of the New Deal props
look good, they are outside of what
has hitherto been regarded as con-
stitutional acts on the part of gov
eminent and so the consensus is
that there will be many five-to-
four decisions Forthcoming from
the Supreme court before it lays
aside its robes this spring.
| AS the Supreme court now is
constituted, I think it is generally
regarded as leaning to the conser-
vative side. While the court is not
supposed to be influenced by eco
nomic phases, the economy of the
New Deal is so entwined with law
that many astute observers tell me
there can be no segregation of
those two elements when it comes
to ruling on constitutional phases
of the New Deal.
The best available figures show
that the government has instituted
about 140 cases charging violation
of MIRA codes. 1t has won about 81
of these, and has lost about Is of
those coming to a decision. Private
litigants have brought action
against the MIRA in 80 cases and
the government has won 20 of
these.
Similarly, there have been some
thing like 20 cases in the courts
involvong Agricultural Adjustment
administration rules and regula-
tions. Of those that have gone
thru to a decision the government
has won seven and lost three.
A situation somewhat unique in
American politics is developing in
Wisconsin, where the LaFollette
brothers are undertaking to con-
tinue the family dynasty by march
ing under the banner of new or
ganization, the Progressive party.
1t is all being done very quietly,
but the facts seep through the ma
tional political headquarters here
in Washington.
The regular Republican organi-
cation sees an opportunity TO
"knock off" the LaFollettes by
throwing their support to John M.
Callahan, the Democratic candidate
for the senate. Apparently they
have little or no hope Of electing
their senatorial candidate, the Wis
consin publisher, John B. Chapelle,
who ended the political career of
former Senator John j. Blaine in
the primaries of 1892.
If Mr.. Callahan does poll size
able Republican vote the question
is whether this will offset the de-
fections in the Democratic party.
He was one of the leading support
ers of Alfred E. Smith at the 1882
convention and neither the Presi-
dent nor his lieutenants have for.
gotten that it was the present
Democratic senatorial candidate in
Wisconsin who gave publicity to
charges that Mr.. Roosevelt's early
campaign in the Couth for Presi-
danf;oJ Yopoi IN a4;op uac II, mort Fl