Evening star., 1935-02-10
n. r. A. TACTICS DECLARED
COERCINC TITTLE MAN"
u. S. Judges Bitter Attack on New Deal
Policy Seen as Barring Truth
Behind Dictatorial Methods.

dLIOTIlcy DCCduoC OI1C PC1 LIDS
never reached his walnut shell"
Judge Akerman declined to be fooled
or to let justice be frustrated.
"It fully appears" said Judge Aker-
man. that the beginning of an I'M
authorized criminal prosecution for
alleged violation of the code has been
put into the circumlocution mill at
Washington, and it Is fair inference
that it will sift down to the United
States attorney of this district with
instructions to institute a prosecution
against the TABLE Supply Storesl.
All this will be done without any
warning or notification to the TABLE
Supply Stores], and the next it will
hear of the matter will be a criminal
indictment"
And so Judge Akerman ordered that
the Federal prosecuting attorney be
enjoined from instituting any GRIM
inal prosecution against the [defend-
anti Table Supply Stores"
Thus the situation stands at the
moment this article is written. The
case is clearly an example of what
walter Lippmann speaks of as "puni-
tive and terroristic attacks on private
business" Terrorism seems an in
tegral part of the technique of the
New Deal. The New Dealers started
out to bring about revolution, such
as has occurred in some other coun-
tries. They did not want to use vio-
lence, which is one of the methods
used in some of the European revo-
lutions. So I suspect that instructive
ly they arrived at a method which Is
the spiritual equivalent of physical
force, the method of threat, intimi-
dation, terrorism.
Little Man" Is Victim.
Terrorism bears harder on the little
business man than on the big. The
little business man cannot, as a rule,
afford the expense of resistance to
prosecutions in court, against bat
teries of Government lawyers. The
little business man, as rule, would
be utterly ruined by the fines it is
possible to impose under the N. r. A.
statute, $500 day, and each day a
separate offenSe-a ruinouS total can
be piled up.
Apart from this case as an example
of the N. R. A. method of cracking
down" it suggests some important OBJ
servations.
The Table Supply Stores does busi-
ness only within Florida. Because its
transactions do not cross State lines,
the case brings up the question of
"intraState" as against interstate"
commerce. "IntraState' business Is
that done wholly within State. In
terstate" is that which crosses State
lines.
Now the power of Congress is
limited to interstate business, to
business that crosses State lines.
Every lawyer and student knows this,
but it will be useful to make it clear
to the average reader. The power
Congress has is contained in the
Federal Constitution. Section 8, Arti-
Gle 8: THE Congress shall have
power to regulate commerce
with foreign nations and among the
several States . ="
Intrastate Is State Matter.
Congress has no pewer to regulate
AAAIA doSaOC buoA14COoS buSl1lCGO uOklC
within State lines. Because of that.
it follows that N. r. A. has no power
to penalize such business, or to con-
troll it, or to do anything about it.
Yet N. R. A. attempts to control such
business and in many cases has been
getting away with it,
The aStute young lawyers who write
the New Deal statutes which Congress
passes, tried, when they wrote the
N. R. A. statute, to write it in such
way as to make it apply to intra-
state business as well as interstate
business. But no amount of legal
artfulness can do that. Until some
case involving this point comes before
the Supreme Court (Which will hap
pen in few weeks) N. r. A. has been
assuming it can discipline persons do
ing only an intrastate business. Many
small businesses, terrified by threats,
have submitted But no person in
Judge Akerman's district need have
any such fear. Judge Akerman knows
the Constitution and stands by it.
In the case of Table Supply Stores
he said:
Calls Act Void.
"I have on three separate occa-
sionS decided that if the national in
dustrial recovery act Is to be con-
Strued so as to give the executive
branch of the Government the right
to regulate or control purely intra-
state business as contradistinguished
from interstate commerce, then the
national industrial recovery act is
without constitutional authority of
Congress to enact such legislation
and is therefore null and void. This
is the settled law of the division of
this district over which I preside
until such decisions are reversed by
one of the proper appellate courts"
One final point: Can it be doubted
that N. r. A. bears down hardest on
small business? That. indeed, N. r. A.
tends to eXterminate small business?
OF all the groups that compose the
American community, the small busi-
ness man is, it seems to me, one
that most deserves to be saved, both
in justice, and for the sake of the
country's social and economic health.
AS Mr.. Justice Brandies said some
years ago: as The true pros
perity of our past came
through the courage, the energy
and the resourcefulness Of small
men ."
(Copyright, 1895. New York Tribune. Inc)
Suicida1 Stannedes