Evening star., 1935-09-16
CONFUSION IS SEEN
ON CONSTITUTION
Both New Dealers and 0p-
ponents Declared to Take
Wrong Attitude
by DAVID LAWRENCE.

BY DAVID LAWRENCE.
= Both New Dealers and their op-
ponents are confusing the so-called
constitutional issue as it is being de-
veloped for the 1886 campaign.
New Dealers claim their antagonists
are against any change in the Con-
stitution when actually the Constitu-
ton has been changed 81 times.
The other side insists it isn't op-
posed to change as such, but doesn't
want to see an amendment adopted
which would nullify all the other
amendments and change the form Of
government in America from sys-
TEN of 48 State sovereignties to a
single Federal bureaucracy.
Actually, however, neither one of
these positions is real. For while
President Roosevelt has limited at a
proposed change in the Constitution,
he has not committed himself to any
amendment whose wording has as yet
seen the light of publicity.
Paramount Issue.
The paramount issue is not the
fact that the Constitution might be
changed, but by what method it shall
be changed.
The Constitution itself provides the
method, namely by passage of a
resolution approved by two-thirds OF
the members of both houses of Con-
gress and adopted thereafter by three
fourths of the States of the Union
There's another method, but it is
neither constitutional nor lawful In
any sense. The method, in a word
Is usurpation.
To the extent that the President
and Congress have participated in 6
combination Of political power tc
transcend the Constitution, these two
agencies of government-executivt
ing the spirit and the letter Of thu
Constitution.
..The decision on whether the execu.
tive and legislative or either one ol
the branches of Government does vio-
late the Constitution rests with ths
Supreme Court of the United States
which, by the words Of the Constitu.
tion itself, is given the right to de-
clare the supreme law of the land
in all controversies arising out Of
the laws of the United States"
Questions for Debate.
Is the indictment justified? Have
the President and Congress violated
the Constitution? These are the
questions which the next campaign
will probably debate. But these
points are in no way related to the
right of the people to change the
Constitution in the proper way or the
desirability Of approving a specific
amendment that may be proposed in
volving a complete reform, If neces.
sary, In the whole social and economic
life of the people.
The Constitution was made, oi
course, to serve the people and they
can mold it to fit their needs, but
when minority consisting Of a few
hundred legislators abdicate their
functions and delegate to an Execu-
tive the law-making prerogative ant
the Supreme Court says this is abdi.
cation or delegation run riot" ther
the method used Is not in conformity
with the Constitution and In order Il
be valid must be embodied in con-
stitutional amendment ratifying such
abdication of function.
George Washington in his farewell
address made this very point when
he said:
= ''If in the opinion of the people the
distribution or modification of the
constitutional powers be in any par
ticular wrong, let it be corrected by
an amendment in the way which the
Constitution designates.
But let there be no change by
usurpation. for though this in one
instance may be the instrument OF
good. 1t Is the customary weapon by
which free governments are de-
stroyed."
Principles Declared Sacred.
1t Is true this statement was ut
tered in the "horse-and-buggy" days
but President Roosevelt himself re-
Gently said that principles are sa-
cred" The principle proclaimed by
President Washington was old even
when he was in Office. Thus he said:
"The necessity of reciprocal checks
{ in the exercise Of political power, by
dividing and distributing it into diff
ferent repositories, and constituting
each the guardian Of the public veal
against invasions of the others, has
been evinced by experiments, ancient
and modern; some of them in our
own country and under our own
eyes :.
ut is important that the habits of
thinking in a free country should
~inspire caution in those intrusted with
its administration to conf1ne them
selves within their respective con-
e-stitutional spheres. avoiding in the
exercise Of the powers Of one depart
inent to encroach upon another.
: 1.-The spirit Of encroachment tends
ito consolidate the powers of all the
5 departments in one, and thus to
create, whatever the form of govern
ment, real despotism."
= There will be, of course, critics who
VIII say this was all very well in the
days when there were no automobiles
=. or industrial machines and that con-
ssolidation of the executive and legis-
lative into single political instru-
mentality is necessary for modern life
But these same critics do not note
!. the emphasis which the President
'.,himself recently placed upon the i'm
-portance of principle" The 10
commandments, for example, are still
live principles, even though they were
CivnY eyrreSeioro fnr tho fret tiy,oa ",