The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1935-06-01
TOUGH GUY
WITH GRIN IS
BACKAT HELM
RooseveIt'S Voice Has Buoy
ant Note as He LaSheS
Court Verdict.
BY HERBERT LITTLE
Times Special Writer


crisis is here like that of the hun
dred days" in 1888, when Franklin
D. Roosevelt led the country out of
the banking collapse. Now, as then,
tough guy" with a grin is seek
ing to lead the country out of this
one.
Lights burn late in the White
House. Telephones at the Presi-
dents desk in daytime, and at his
bedside early and late, hum with
calls to leaders in business and gov
eminent all over the country.
The stream of visitors is constant.
Some come privately by the back
door to the executive offices. Others
by the front door to the mansion
itself. They smile at reporters who
catch them in flight. But they di-
vulge nothing. This is the Presi-
dents job.
Buoyant Note in Voice.
Mr.. Roosevelts voice has a buoy
ant note as he explains the after
math and the implications of the
Supreme Courts NRA decision. But
he postpones disclosure of his plans
until next week, to give time for the
great underlying question to sink in:
Are we to have a centralized gov
eminent to deal with social and
economic problems?
Previous presidents in crises called
off their meetings with the press
Roosevelt holds them and lengthens
them. His two conferences this
week have been the most dramatic
of any since the banking crisis.
About 200 reporters swarm into
his oval office to hear his unpre-
cedented 80-minute talk about the
Supreme Court.
Majority Leader Joe Robinson of
the Senate, portly and grave, turns
up as the conference starts, and is
shown to a chair behind the Presi-
dent.
First Lady at Window
Mrs. Roosevelt, who attends press
conferences only when important
matters are afoot, sits at window,
listening. Presently she takes her
knitting from a bag and sends her
needles shutting through the sleeve
of a VANISHED blue sweater. With
her sits Mrs. Felix Frankfurter, wife
of one of the New Deals idea
sources.
Behind the crowd of reporters
stands lanky, long-nosed Charley
West, former member of Congress
and now the Presidents congress
sional liaison man.
In midsummer heat the sweating
newspaper men scribble to keep up
with the even delivery of the man
at the desk. He throws back his
head to emphasize a point, pauses to
light cigaret.
Dig Up Old Envelopes
Unprepared for the avalanche Of
news reporters wear out pencil
points and use up their pads. They
dig old envelopes, unmailed letters
and even postage stamps out of
their pockets, and make notes on
them.
Finally the President remarks that
it is past l p. m, daylight time, in
most newspaper offices. After a
correspondent asks and is given per-
mission to quote the President di-
rectly on the phrase horse and
buggy era" the rush for the wires
begins. This plain phrase represents
the Presidents opinion Of where the
Supreme Court decision would re-
turn the country.
The President has a cheerful jibe
for enemies of his philosophy, but
a deep intensity in eXpounding his
belief that the biggest domestic is
sue since the Civil War is presented
by the Supreme Court. And this
fight. like that bloody arbitrament,
is over state rights and over the
rights Of human beings to be pro-
tected.
Party Split Likely
Some observers believe Mr.. Roose-
welt may have driven the wedge to
split his party, if old-line south
erners stand on their state rights
tradition. 1t might, they think, be a
schiSm as serious as that created by
Woodrow Wilson's battle for the
League.
But the histories show that in
seeking 10 undo the Supreme Court,
Mr.. Roosevelt is standing with both
a Democrat and a Republican, with
jefferson and Lincoln.
jefferson attacked the court for
domination OF Congress and the
President Lincoln said Of the
courts decision in the bred Scott
slavery case which some historians
say made the Civil War inevitable:
we think the bred Scott deci-
sion is erroneous. we know the
court that made it has often over
ruled its own decisions, and we
shall do what We can to have it
override this. We offer no resis-
lance to it."
Chief Justices Hughes, author Of
the NRA decision, once wrote that,
following the bred Scott case. 1T
was many years before the court,
even Under new JUDGES. was able
to retrieve its reputation"