Evening star., 1935-01-17
ThePOlitical Mill
By G.. Could Lincoln.

President Roosevelt's social security
program goes to Congress today. Deal
ing with matters Of tremendous i'm
portance to the entire country. It
ordinarily would eclipse an other
topics of discussion. It's question,
however, whether the Chief Executive,
even with this program. can take the
lmelight away from the Supreme
Court of the United States today.
The interest in the courts handling
Of the gold contract case has every
one by the ears, liberals and con-
servatives, infiationists and sound
money men. Men and women are
gambling on the probable decision of
the court in this case, which involves
billions Of dollars in values. Markets
here and abroad have been disturbed
over the possibilities of an opinion by
the court restoring the gold contract
and upsetting the administrator
money policy. Foreign exchange has
been in a more or less chaotic state.
The grave and revered Supreme
Court has caught the eye and the
fancy of some of those gay young
stenographers, who in the boom days
not so long ago, were betting their pin
money and everything they could lay
their hands on in the stock market. A
ring on the telephone and a voice,
superlatively feminine, says: please
all . l,1 H.
decision of the Supreme Court in the
gold case will be-" Here's the great
gamble, apparently, of the day. The
owners of stocks and bonds, of all
kinds of commodities, of money itself,
are worried. If they could be sure
how the decision was going they could
make their bets with some sense of
security. Gambling on what the Su-
preme Court is going to do in a given
case, involving the law and the Con-
stitution, in which both sides present
strong arguments, is something new on
a national scale, although in the past
men who hoped they knew what the
court would do in important cases
have taken chances.
The Supreme Court startled the New
Dealers and aroused the country a
snort time ago by an opinion in the
OIL cases holding unconstitutional a
provision IN the national industrial
recovery act. It was an 8-to-1 de-
clslon. The attention of the country
was called TO the fact that there was
force in the Government that could
challenge the executive and the legis-
latlve branches of the Government and
get away with it. In the last couple
OF years the executive has dominated
SO completely in this country-with
the legislative branch in the shape of
oocile Congress trailing along-that
the judicial branch, as represented by
the Supreme Court, has almost been
forgotten When there has been COM
ment, 1t has generally been to the
effect that the court would, like Con-
greSs, go along with the executive.
The Supreme Court, however, Is an
independent tribunal. 1t has the
respect of the American people, deep
rooted. 1t has before it, in the cases
involving the New Deal laws, cues
tlcns Of transcendent interest to the
American people. And the fact it is
entirely willing to deal with them
has aroused public interest in the
court to a degree that has rarely be-
fore in the history of the Nation been
evidenced. Many Of the New Deal
laws have been declared by their crit
les to be unconstitutional The New
Dealers have insisted that all these
laws have been written and enforced
within the limits of constitutional au-
thority At last the people are to
hear from the court which has the
final verdict which is right.
The infationistS, who believe In
more and cheaper money, along with
the rest Of the people, are tremen-
dously interested in what the Supreme
Court is likely to do in the gold case.
The administration brought about a
measure of imitation by its handling
Of the money, by abrogating the gold
contract and by reducing the gold
content of the dollar. 1t has refrained
from issuing funny money" which
some of the inflationistS have de-
manded and continue to demand. If
the Supreme Court sends things back
to the status quo, back to the days
when debts had to be paid in gold or
the equivalent thereof, the demands
for currency imitation will be even
more strenuous
x -
i All kinds of inflationary measures
! are being advanced by those who
, make up the so-called inflationist bloc
in and out of Congress. It does not
look, however, as though either the
Congress or the President Is likely
to be stampeded into passing eny OF
them, except, perhaps the soldiers
bonus bill. And If the Congress should
put through the American Legion
bonus bill. sponsored in the House
by Representative VinSon' of Ken.
lucky, there would be no real cur
rency imitation, but merely greater
distribution of money temporarily by
the Government. The Patman bill
on the other hand. which calls fol
the payment of the $2,200,O0O O0C
bonus through the issuance of non-
interest bearing Treasury notes
would be different matter. It woulc
increase the currency. It would be
inf1ationary. And so the Patman bill
has the backing of the friends of in
flation in Congress, as we'll as the
friends of the soldiers bonus.
\ \ X X
The conflict between the supporters
of the Patman bill and the supporters
of the Vinson bill, conceivably, might
become Of real Importance. The COM
mander of the American Legion, how
ever, has hastened to say that the Le-
gion is going to abide by the decision
of the Congress in the matter of form
the bonus legislation is to take. In
other words, what the veterans want
is the payment of the bonus, and they
do not wish to jeopardize that pay
ment by a devastating wrangle over
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