Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1935-09-06
Presidents Obedience 10
Supreme Court is Cited
To the Editor of The Star:

To the Editor of The Star:
Your issue of September 4, 1885. car
ried two editorials which seemed to me
to be out of line with your usual care in
commenting on public affairs, and on
which, therefore, desire to make few
observations. I refer to the editorials
headed Parable" and Credit and Con-
fdence," respectively.
In the one headed Parable you
raise the familiar and all too trite con
stitutionality" issue. An uniformed
person, reading it the way it is written.
might very well gain the impression that
to have a law declared unconstitutional
is something unheard of in this broad
land of ours and can be thought Of only
in connection with the monstroSity now
occupying the White House. who even
wants to change the Constitution.
The President entered upon his duties
at critical time and with the functions
of large part of the institutions of
the country severely upset and handi-
capped and every one clammoring that
something be done" This he promised
to do and stated frankly that he was
going to experiment with remedies. He
went before Congress and asked for
authority to do this and so and Congress
gave it to him. Nothing savoring of
dictatorship" in that, as see it. After
he had exercised this authority for some
time some citizens saw fit to ask the
Supreme Courts opinion of the consti-
nationality of certain acts of Congress,
and in due time the Supreme Court rem
dered its opinion.
This opinion declared that Congress
(not the President) had exceeded its
power in giving the President authority
to do this and so. Still all in strict
accordance with the provisions of the
Constitution. If the President had now
continued to exercise the disputed au-
thority, then and then only should we
have had unconstitutional Government.
But he did not do this.
The horse and buggy days are what
the President does not wish to go back
to, So to remain consistently illogical,
you end up with the remark that sin
those days it was supposed that little
worry never hurt anybody" The Presi-
dent at least is consistent in not
worrying.
The tone and attitude of the whole
article is political and partisan instead
of your usual Statesmanlike way of look
ing at things, and, to cap it all. right
in the next column there is an editorial
on Credit and Confidence" in which
you conclude that Government credit
remains mistaken, but business conf
dence still impaired. I think the shoe
is on the other foot. There are plenty
of business men with confidence, but
try to get any of the money that you
say the banks are so full of. I had
occasion recently to go to my bank for
a loan. I have no outstanding debts
and the bank knows it. I went there
with first-class collateral. The bank de-
manded ITS per cent coverage in market
value of the collateral and collected
interest at 6 per cent three months in
advance of its being due. I think it is
the bankers who lack confidence in the
business men. Altogether, the Credit"
editorial inspires CONFIDENCE IN the
Government which the Parable" edi-
torial seeks to break down. Such tn
consistency is unexpected in your edi-
torial columns. 8. j. WARBERG.