The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1935-10-14
Washington
Merry-Go-
Round
BY DREW PEARSON and
ROBERT 5. ALLEN


NTASHINGTON. Oct. l4.-When
w a Negro in Clarkesburg, Miss,
stole three bales of bottom out of a
Federal warehouse, one year ago, no
one dreamed that it might develop
into one of the most trying prob
lens recently presented to the SUI
preme Court.
Although given no publicity. the
CaSe-United States VS.. Hastings
is due to be argued this week and is
calculated by New Deal lawyers to
tie the Nine Old Men up in knots.
If they find against the United
States they cause chaos to the cot
ton marketing system of the South.
If they support the United States,
they must virtually reverse their
own findings in the Schechter sick
chicken case which knocked the
props from under the NRA.
Nub of the question is: What is
interstate commerce?
1t arose when Fred Hastings, a
white man. allegedly induced a
Negro to steal three bales of cotton
from the Federal warehouse. Action
was brought in the Federal courts
for violation of the Federal Ware
housing Act.
The Negro was sentenced to eight
months. Hastings then filed a de-
murrer on grounds of unconstitu-
tionality. and the District Court
sustained i'm.
HASTINGS argument is that
IL Il cotton in a warehouse is not
in interstate commerce. In the
famous Schechter case it was ar
gued that chickens sent to New
York markets also were not in in
terState commerce. In the Schech-
ter case the chickens had arrived.
In the Hastings case the cotton had
not begun to move.
However, lawyers generally agree
that WarehOusing is intimately tied
up with the stream of interstate
commerce. Under the Federal Ware
housing Act, receipts totaling APP
proXimately one billion dollars are
handled. Most of these are nego-
table and are given the same care
as Federal currency.
Banks lend on them and brokers
trade on them. Should the Supreme
Court toss the law out, it would
seriously disrupt the trade of the
South, making it difficult to borrow
on cotton and other staple crops,
except at high interest rates.
The Federal WarehouSing Act was
enacted during the days of Wood
row Wilson, has been operating 10
years and has been sustained by the
courts in five previous cases.
If the Supreme Court knocks it
out now, New Dealers claim that
the entire South will support the
President in his e-and-buggy'
criticism of the court.
XXTPA officials have decided to
w add a dictionary to their Of
flee equipment. 1t happened this
way:
In a list Of work relief projects
received from Louisiana was an item
calling for a banquet" Indignant
at the idea of calling for public
money to be spent on dinner, they
blue-penciled the proposal
But a sharp-eyed engineer, who
had worked in the bayou state,
checked them. He sent out for a
dictionary 1t said: Banquet, a
bank running along the inside of a
parapet, the footway of bridge
when raised above the carriage-way,
a sidewalk"
Further inquiries of the Louisiana
WPA director disclosed that he
wanted money for a sidewalk, not a
meal.
A N inconSpicuous item in the last
L n War Department appropria-
ton probably will result in one of
the most fascinating stories of adj
venture and romance ever to come
out Of a prosaic act of Congress.
~ app OOl 4dICO pIO5OOO W Dt pau
to Vilhjalmur Stefansson, famous
arctic explorer, in compensation
for book to be written by him Of
his experiences in the arctic, par
ticularly in the Northwest Passage.
Stefansson is the only man who has
gone through this hazardous strait,
and detailed account of that area
is expected to be of great benefit
to the Army in charting future air
routes.
Military and air strategists con-
slider this vast arctic waste the COM
ing short cut to Europe. But to
date, it is about the least known
area in the world
President Roosevelt recently wrote
to Stefansson, asking him to pro-
coed with the book.
Copyright. 1885. BY United Feature
Syndicate, 1nc.)
= Rv George Clark