The Waterbury Democrat., 1936-02-06

Doomed Before lt Gets a
 Chance Old Supreme
 Court Room Remains Open
 for Sightseers Pope
 Gets Back at Nye Rep
 resentative Brewster on
 Other Side of the Fence.
 Washington, Feb. 6-Unlike AAA and MIRA, the Guffey Coal Act prob ably will be killed by U. s. Supreme Court before the country has a chance to learn how 1t would work.
 The court has paralyzed enforce ment of the act in advance. As the tribunal now is constituted, prac4. tically everyone is convinced, 1t won't sand for much of that aln- bilious plan for rehabilitation and stabilization of the coal industry.
 Encouraged by fate of other New Deal legislation, coal operators among them Andrew Mellon and his interests - have obtained in. functions in federal district courts relieving them from penalties pro- vided f6r failure to go in under the coal code provided by the act.
 Minimum price fixing, based on
 costs, is the backbone of the whole
 scheme. And the National Bitu-
 minous Coal Commission hasn't
 been able to fix prices, knowing
 that the act would break down at
 once when the operators protect
 ed by injunctions cut their prices
 below those fixed.
 No one saw any point in going before the court with such Q mess on public view.
 That's why it's 50 likely the Guffey Act will never have Q try. out.
 Some lawyers think only parts of teh act will be tossed out by the court. Others say that if the majority line of reasoning in rail- road cases is followed, the act will survive intact.
 They doubt, however, that the present majority vii follow prec- edent.
 
 Old Courtroom Is Shrine
 The old supreme court room in the Capitol is being kept open and unchanged as Q shrine for visitors to look at.
 Prior to 1859. when the court took 1t over, 1t was used as the Senate chamber. Some of the greatest debates of the Webster Clay Calhoun period echoed through it's narrow confines and its this early history, rather than the courts occupancy, which is given as the reason for It's preservation as some. thing extra-special.
 Pope Gets Back at Nye
 A half-forgotten incident of recent senatorial history has been recalled here in trying to ex- plain why Senator James P. Pope of Idaho tried to break up the rilu- nitions investigation committee. It was Senator Pope, who, with sen- ator George of Georgia, walked out on the committee and threatened te resign as Q protest against con- duct of the inquiry.
 You may remember that Sena- tor Pope went abroad last year and sounded off so sensationally az to European politics and Euro- pean- American relations that Senator LaFollette of Wisconsin introduced resolution of censure. The resolution was buried, but among those who voted for con- sideratlon of it was Chairman Nye of the munitions committee.
 Yves vote is said to have ran- kled with Pope, all the more be. cause he had bowed to Nye on the matter of the committee chair. to which Pope was tech. nically entitled. When Nye voiced his famous charge that Woodrow Wilson had 'falsified," Pope was one of the many eager to leap upon the North Dakotan.
 Brewster Does a Shift
 Congressman Ralph Brewster of Maine, once regarded here as a pro- gressive member from New England, has decided the game isn't worth the candle. Last year, after taking an active position for the holding company bill, Brewster swung around and voted against It. Then he made charges that Tom Corcoran, co-author of the measure, had threatened him with public works reprisals. The other night Brewster was at the Liberty League diner, and chumming with con- Representative Jimmy Wadsworth of New York. Later he was guest at an exclusive post-banquet party at the home of