Carolina watchman. [volume] (Salisbury, N.C.) 1871-1937, 1935-03-15

Three Other Cases
Washington Surmises
Talk of Radical Bloc
Looking Ahead

Looking Ahead
The Supreme Court of the Unit
ed States is once O the center of
interest here, because of the highly
important cases which are either
now before it or on their swift
way to it. Upon the Supreme
COURTS decisions will depend the
tate of MIRA and of so many of its
provisions, as well as some of the
other things which the Administra-
ton has undertaken, that there is j
decided tendency both in Congress
and in the Executive branch of the
Federal. Government to mark time
until the Court has acted. A large
part of Mr.. Roosevelt's New Deal
is, in effect, on trial.
The case which the Supreme
Court now has under consideration
is that of a southern lumber COM
Pany which refused to recognize
MIA or any part of it, and set up
as its defense that the National In
dustrial Recovery Act was neon
stitutional. The Federal District
Court held that the lumber COM
Pany was right, and the Govern
ment appealed.
A decision in this case is expected
in the course of a few weeks. 1t
may or it may not settle all of the
questions which are raised in the
three other important cases which
have been decided against the Gov
eminent in the past couple Of weeks,
by lower Federal courts.
One of those is the Kentucky
coal-mine case, in which the mine
owners denied the right of the Fed
eral Government to regulate the
wage scale or the hours of labor.
The District court ruled in favor
of the mine-owners.
Another is the decision in the
Weirton Steel Company case that
the Government has no power to
regulate manufacturing, under the
interstate commerce clause Of the
Constitution. The Administrations
contention is hat anything which
is manufactured comes under Fed
erls juri,diction if it is to be sold
across state lines. The district
court ruled that commerce" does
not include manufacturing; it also
ruled that the famous "7a" section
of NRA, the collective bargaining
clause, had not been violated by the
establishment of a company union
in the Weirton steel plant.
The third case which is being ap-
pealed by the Government is of
even broader scope. 1t is the ruling
of Judge Grub in the Federal Dis
trict Court of Alabama that the
Tennessee Valley Authority, nor
any other arm of the Federal Gov
ernment, has no right to compete
with private business. The IVA
has been busy making contracts to
sell power from the Government
dams on the Tennessee River, in
several states. Judge Grub ruled
that it had no right to build dams
except to improve navigation, and
could generate power only as an in
cident to hat right. This ruling,
if upheld by the Supreme Court,
would put an end to President
Roosevelt's "yardstick" plan, Of
making the cost Of power generated
by the IVA a measure by which to
control electric rates everywhere.
Lawyers here who usually guess
pretty closely how the Supreme
Court will decide think that its de-
cisions in these cases will put a
pretty tight curb on NRA and
iva. There is a decidedly jittery
feeling apparent in Administration
circles especially among the ardent
young reformers who have had a
hand in shaping these projects and
selling" them to the nation.
Some of the young men are COM
planning bitterly that the President
has let them down, by not putting
all of his influence behind their en-
tire program.
The fact seems to be that Mr..
Roosevelt is trying to consolidate
his position for the Presidential
election of 1886, and to regain some
of the ground he lost by reason of
giving the social reformers and
radicals too much leeway. He is
much more concerned with econo-
mic recovery than with social re-
form, just now; for it is becoming
49, 1 - =, +o tho