Evening star., 1935-04-02
Dodging the Issue.

The virtual admission by the ad-
ministration, through the Department
Of Justice, of the unconsttutionality
of the N r. A. and the lumber code,
when it prevailed upon the Supreme
Court yesterday to dismiss the Belcher
case, is scarcely calculated to en-
courage Congress in the passage Of
new N. r. A. law. Nor is it calculated
to inspire those business concerns
which have sought to live up to the
codes of fair competition to continue
to do so. To the man on the street
the failure of the Government to go
through with this Belcher case, in
volving the constitutionality of the
N. r. A., means that the Government
was quite sure it would lose, that the
law would be declared unconstitu-
tional. Presumably, the man on the
street is correct in his version of the
affair. In the Belcher case was raised
a long list of charges against the
N. r. A. and its constitutionality. all
of which were specified in the Govern
ment's appeal of the case to the Su-
preme Court.
The course of the Government in
this case cannot be a subject for
qualification If it was intended to
hold in allegiance test in the Supreme
Court of the constitutionality of the
national industrial recovery act, it
can be applauded by neither the up
holders of the NJ R. A. nor by its op-
ponents. It is, at best, tricky. The
Government should be the first to
bring suits to speedy trial and deci-
sion. The Department of Justice, in
its drive against criminals in this
country. has attacked court delays,
some of them due to technicalitieS
raised by lawyers, as partially response
BILE for the spread of crime. Yet here
is the Department of Justice itself
seeking delays in court in an effort,
apparently, to keep alive a law which
may be unconstitutional.
Business has been divided in its
attitude toward the N. R. A. There
are those who believe that the codes
of fair competition give hope for more
honesty n business and strike at the
"chiseler" and the sweatshop. These
friends of the N. r. A. can scarcely
avoid feeling that the Government
has let them down. The Lumber
Code Authority, Inc, which has been
entirely friendly to the N. r. A, went
into the Supreme Court yesterday
with petition that the Belcher case
be not dismissed. On technical
grounds the code authority was de-
MED by the court the privilege of
intervening. In its petition to the
court, the code authority recited the
fact that the Attorney General had
announced that the lumber code was
unenforceable in the courts, and that
this announcement, coupled with the
dismissal of the Belcher case, had
completed the w1ecking of the code.
And. the netition significantly added:
THE present uncertainty surround
ing this code. which was created by
lower court decisions, renders any
new legislation equally uncertain and
unenforceable."
The unwillingness of the admins
tration to permit a test before the Su-
preme Court in the Belcher case will
make many members of Congress balk
against the writing of a new law to
extend the N. r. A. for two years.
They do not like the idea that the
administration is willing to go ahead
with the writing and enforcement of
law which it fears may be unconsti-
tutional; that it is willing to use its
executive power in practical disregard
Of court decisions.
The new N. r. A. bill, written by
the administration and now intro
duced in the Senate, is declared by
Senator Borah and others to be
further away from the Constitution
than the present law. Instead of
being a modification of the existing
law 1t clothes the executive with still
greater powers over industry. Surely
it looks as though the time were ripe
for a showdown on this New Deal
scheme, to determine whether the
executive branch of the Government is
above the law.