Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1935-06-01

T uluIe IlIStOfldIlS Will lCdlISC II oCtCCl
than We do. The revolution is over.
or rather it was over until the Su-
preme Court spoke.
Can Change Constitution.
The prosperity of business is not
local State matter. Every one now
recognizes that. no matter what the
Supreme Court says.
The National Government has
been accepting that fact as settled.
because the public agreed. 1t has
taken extra Constitutional steps to
provide an orderly. bloodleSs Gov
ernmental revolution. furnishing CEN
trail authority which business needs
for cooperative effort.
IT the Supreme Court says ii
cannot be done because OF the
Constitution. and the people rant
to do it, the Constitution piU be
changed The only other thing
possible is a dictatorship, and we
do not rant that"
These are sharp words for a Presi-
dental counselor, but they were mild
in comparison to those offered by
some less conservative authorities.
The most important phase of the
decision was the reaction TO it. For
weeks before, business men Omitted
States Chamber of Commerce. ct all
were complaining publicly that the
New Deal should let them alone so
they could go ahead. If very many
of them went ahead. it was not ap-
parent The depression in the stock
market was unexpected and remark
able
Two Explanations.
Some business men explain this by
saying that they could not start a
bull movement in and out of the mar
ket because they did not know what
the President was going to do. This
is entirely true. The inflationary or
deflationary results rested entirely
with whatever decision he made.
But most authorities also suspected
that, If nature were permitted to take
its course. a deflationary period of
price cutting and wage cutting would
set in, which would more than offset
any business halleluJahs at being re-
leased from Government restraints.
What is driving lawyers mad is the
fact that the Supreme Court did not
really lay down any fixed policy of
restraint against the Government in
its N. r. A. decision.
For instance. the court said the
retail poultry business in New York
City is interstate commerce as far as
Federal antitrust law is concerned,
but not as far as the N. r. A. pro-
vision of wages and hours is con-
cerned
In other words, for one Federal
ldU. the business is interstate
commerce and subject to Federal
regulation. but, for the other, it IS
not. This definition Was evidently
so muddy that the court itself
added. "The precise line can be
dramn only as individual cases
arise"
Influential business men have been
making a subtle drive on Uncle Dan
Roper, the Commerce Secretary. BY
telephone and telegraph they have
been advising him lately to conduct
his department for the benefit of bust
ness in the same spirit in which the
Labor Department is conducted for
labor. They did not tell him so d.
rectly. but their gentle hints were
based on the feeling that Mr.. Roper's
political background has caused him
to lay undue stress on that phase.
The drive is not intended to get him
out of the cabinet, but to persuade
him to recognize that there is some
business besides politics.
Liberals are always denounclng the
public utilities for conducting a
Washington lobby. but the truth seems
to be the utilities reed all the lobby
they can get.
Wheeler's Trick.
Proof of that was established by
the ultra smart trick executed by Sem
ator Wheeler on Ire holding company
bill. 1t nearly ruined the utility op-
position.
The original bill was not exactly
waterproof and went too far.
Wheeler's committee decided to make
many changes and did. Ordinarily
these changes would be offered On the
Senate floor as committee amend-
ments to the original bill. vote
would he reouired IN each one