Evening star., 1935-06-03

A second step will be proposed to
meet the labor situation in a SINH
larly makeshift way Its legal ap-
proach will be through q Federal
statute to protect any State from
goods produced in other States under
labor standards below its own. This
legal principle already has been ap-
proved by the Supreme Court In pro-
hibition cases. The same basic idea
is embodied In the HaweS-C Cooper
act covering convict-made goods.
This means that the States
mould be encouraged TO make Their
oWn ~ r. A. ld1s and that the
Government mould assume the
power OF enforcing them.
For instance. the New York State
Legislature would be asked TO flx
maximum working hours and mini
mum wages. Any goods would be
barred from that State unless pro-
duced under standards identical or
better than those of New York. The
effect would be to cause all States to
adopt Identical minimum wage-maxi-
mum hour provisions.
It would require weeks. II not
months, to obtain such State action.
Business to Follow Own VIII.
No New Dealer is very proud Of
these two ideas. They have been
accepted because there is nothing
else to do Immediately. 1t Is recog-
nized on the inside that the voluntary
associa tions will only pretend to be
effective. They will merely provide
some semblance Of order in the re-
organization Of business after the
collapse of the N. r. A. With no
centralized authority. each business
will naturally do as it sees fit. Also
the proposed State minimum wage
maximum hour set-up is a long way
from being adopted. In two or three
years, 1t might provide a feasible
substitute for the New Deal re-
form method, if energetically pushed
through Congress and through the
State legislatures.
Amendment Is Only Hope.
What all this heads up to is drive
by the New Deal to amend the in
terstate commerce clause of the Con-
stitution. This Is the only way in
which the New Deal can be saved.
The foremost men among the New
Dealers now confess it privately.
What has happened in the past
meek is that the President has dis
couered that the Supreme Court
has qiuen him an issue. 1t knocked
the legal props out from under his
uhole shon. He had built nearly
oil OF it on the ground that the
Federal Government has the potoer
to regulate anything affecting inter-
state commerce. The court said
that interstate commerce Teould-
ton 1pplies only to goods actually
in transit: that is. actual interstate
commerce, not theoretical inter
state commerce.
This bundled the whole question OF
a New Deal into one composite issue.
1t swept aside all the formidable
natural objections to some phases OF
the New Deal issue. 1t implied the
whole thing, the good parts and the
bad. was not constitutional. This Is
conceded to be strictly correct. The
Court merely gave the Constitution
a proper literal Interpretation. instead
of winking at the issue, as it did in
the gold case.
ADVANTAGE i'm Amendment.
A constitutional amendment giving
the Government authority to control
anything affecting interstate COM
merce would present the issue In the
best possible broad light from his
standpoint.
The strategic advantage Of that
course would make the picayunish
f1y-swatting administration of the
N. r. A. comparatively unimportant.
Neither would the questions whether
Tugwell knows his business, whether
subsistence homestesds are worth
while, whether stocks should be regu-
lated or any Of the other questions
have to be met on their merits alone