The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1935-06-15
PUBLIC EYE IS
ONCE MORE ON
NRA TRAINERS
Supreme Court Blast Turns
LimeIight on Writers of
New Deal.
BY THOMAS L. STOKES
Times Special Writer

Supreme Court blast which swept
away NRA and threatened other
New Deal reforms has turned the
light on the little group OF men.
some of them obscure, who drafted
the numerous social and economic
statutes Of the Roosevelt regime.
1t is an odd mixture-young men
who dream dreams and old men
who see visions, aStute lawyers, some
hard-boiled realistS - all imbued
with a conviction that the social
order needs overhauling If it is to
meet the needs of the people in this
age of machines.
Altogether, they are a shirt sleeve,
night-owl lot.
The crash of one reform structure
which they erected - NRA - again
has stirred these men into the furi-
Gus activity of the early days of the
Roosevelt revolution" - searching
out legal precedents to see what can
be done about it, analyzing other
New Deal measures, such as AAA,
to revise them against the courts
dictumS.
Lights Burn Again
Gov eminent buildings. which in
casual Republican days loomed dark
and forbidding at night, their slum-
Der disturbed only by charwomen.
again as in early 1888 - blink
brightly these nights. The young
Sters and the old men are at their
tasks, seeking to put the broken
pieces together.
From their persistent crying in
what seemed so long a wilderness, a
handful of veteran champions OF
reform in Congress who finally have
come into their own are known to
the public-Senators Robert F.
Wagner 3D., N. ", who helped
formulate NRA, the social security
bill and the labor disputes bill;
George w. Norris (R, Neb), who
worked, in and out of season, for
the great public power project now
known as IVA, and Rep. Sam Ray
burn Cd, Tex, who helped to frame
the stock market and securities acts
and the utilities holding company
bill.
The people now know we'll the
names of Rexford G.. Tugwell and
Raymond Moley, who contributed
the philosophy of many New Deal
measures and actively assisted in
formulating others, including NRA
and AAA.
Johnson, Richberg and Douglas
Gen. Hugh S. Johnson, Donald
r. Richberg, Lewis Douglas, former
director of the budget, who now Is
at odds with some phases of the
New Deal, but who sat with repre-
sentatives of business and labor to
weave the pattern Of NRA, and
Mariner S. Eccles, governor OF the
Federal Reserve Board, who breath
ed the breath of life into the new
banking bill with the wise counsel
of the veteran DR.. E. A. Golden
weiser, for many years chief Of the
Reserve Board S research division.
But they hear very little Of many
background figures who have draft
ed important legislation. You can
not find their names on bills or
commonly associated with them.
Such is a trio of young men
whose enthusiasm and energy con-
tinually amaze those who know
what they have accomplished
James M. Lands, Tom Corcoran and
Ben Cohen. They framed the Sc
curities and stock market bills.
Knew High Court from Inside
Mr.. Lands and Mr.. Cohen both
came under the influence OF Felix
Frankfurter of Harvard Law School,
inspiration for much of the New
Deal. Both Mr. Lands and Mr..
Corcoran knew the Supreme Court
from the inside, the former as Sec
rotary to Justice Louis D. Brandeis,
the latter as secretary to the late
Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes.
The tall, low talking, quick
thinking Mr.. Cohen and the round
faced, gay-pirited Corcoran have
been familiar figure about the Cap
itol of late in the fight over the
holding company bill, which they
helped to write.
Mr.. Landi is busy at his downtown
office, a member of the Securities
and Exchange Commission, which
administers the law he aided in
sponsoring.
Another "Youngster" Makes Mark
Another youngster who has left
his mark is Tommy" Eliot, 28-year-
old grandson of the late president
of Harvard, who prepared the early
drafts of the social security bill.
In the background assisting Sec
rotary of Agriculture Henry Wallace
and DR.. Tugwe1 with the AAA bills
was the agricultural brain trust
Mordecai Ezekiel, Chester Davis.
now top man in AAA; Prof. M, L.
Wilson, sponsor of the earlier do
nestle allotment plan, and Jerome
Frank, who was ouSted in the AAA
purge" of radicals" and now is a
lawyer for the RFC.