Evening star., 1935-07-10
PRESIDENTS NOTE
SEEN AS b[UNDER
Effort to Push Through
Doubtful Gufey Bill Irri-
tates Senators.
BY DAVID LAWRENCE.


Talk of President Roosevelt's amaz-
ing letter to Representative Hill OF
the House Ways and Means Commit
tee has reached the point where mem
bers of Congress are beginning to COM
pare it with the fatal blunder made
by President Wilson in his letter ap-
pealing for Democratic Congress
in 1918.
But, as pointed out by various Sem
ators who were discussing it, the diff
ference is that Mr.. Wilson merely
made a political or tactical error in
Judgment, whereas Mr.. Roosevelt has
enunciated principle of government
entirely at variance with the historic
conception of presidential or congress
sional duty toward the Constitution.
Here Is the sentence that probably
will be quoted again and again, and
for which as yet no defense has ap-
peared from any administration
spokesmen in Congress:
Il hope your committee will not
permit doubts as to constitutionality,
however reasonable, 10 block the sug-
gested legislation
Creates Power Wedge.
This is tantamount to saying that
1t doesn't matter whether a bill is
plainly constitutional, il should be
passed anyhow. If this philosophy
were followed there would be an end
to the Constitution altogether. For
If Congress were to ignore Supreme
Court decisions and pass laws in con-
flict with the Constitution, it might
conceivably feel it also had the power
to suspend certain articles of the Con-
stitution. Congress could, If it chose,
refuse to appropriate money to carry
on the judicial branch OF the Govern
ment.
The President has offered since last
Saturday no explanation Of his letter
to Hill, but the criticism on Capitol
Hill is mounting. The resolution in
troduced by Senator Byrd of Virginia
is found to accentuate the issue. Byrd
calls on the Attorney General to render
an opinion in writing on the Guffey
bill, which was the subject Of Mr.
Roosevelt's letter to Hill Byrd just
wants to know what the Presidents
principal legal adviser thinks about
the bill. OF course, the Attorney Gen.
eral is not required to make an
answer, but 1t would be embarrassing
If no opinion were rendered, especially
since it is known around Capitol Hill
that an opinion has been written at
the Department of Justice which
L.1 L. -.
tutional.
Political Move Suspected.
What Mr.. Roosevelt will do about II
Il the Senate passes the resolution is
matter of wide conjecture. To
send to the Senate an opinion which
shows the Guffey bill unconstitutional
only makes more serious the Presi-
dents request that constitutionality
be disregarded and the bill passed.
The effort to pile upon the Supreme
Court responsibility for saying mo-
to a powerful labor union which is
debating the passage of the Guffey
bill is commented upon generally here
as political move designed to
strengthen Mr.. Roosevelt's position
with the labor vote in 1886. For even
If the court tabooed the law, Mr..
Roosevelt would get credit from the
labor unions for having tried to get
the measure through.
Then there is the strategy Of try
ing to get enough groups of voters
antagonistic to the Supreme Court SO
that a constitutional amendment will
be more easily adopted. The text of
the administration proposal for con-
stitutional amendment will probably
be written by the brain trusters, many
of whom insist Mr.. Roosevelt should
carry this issue to the country.
"Nazi Amendment"
Already the proposed amendment is
being called the NaZi amendment"
because it aims to centralize in the
Government complete control over
production as we'll as distribution, and
agriculture as well as manufacturing.
just as is the case in Nazi Germany
under Fascism.
Efforts no doubt will be made to
broaden the scope of the amendment
so as to provide for the recall. some
what after the manner of ministerial
government in Europe. Members of
Congress are divided as to whether a
constitutional amendment should be
made the issue in 1886, but Mr. Roose-
velt's outspoken defiance of the Su-
preme Courts precedents in his letter
to Representative Hill has come to be
accepted as the inevitable forerunner
Of a fight anyway on the broad issue of
constitutionalism in the 1896 cam
paign.