The Washington times., 1936-06-03
HIGHEST COURT
SEEN AS ISSUE
OF new DEAL
BY EARL GOODWIN

While President Roosevelt Is
giving the impression that he will
not make the Supreme Court OF
the Constitution an issue in the
campaign, political observers here
believe that the court itself may
be the subject of considerable at,
tack in the Philadelphia conven-
ton.
They wonder how a pro-Roose.
welt platform can be written with
out involving the rather heated
temper Of the Rooseveltian sup
porterS toward the majority OF
the court which has done so much
to drag the Roosevelt program IN
the dirt.
The Supreme Court rs q polit-
ical issue looms larger than ever
today since the Presidents eau
tiouS comment on the courts
opinion nullifying the New York
State minimum wage law.
Battle Indicated
When the President told his
newspaper interviewers that the
courts successive opinions are out
lining a no mans land where
neither State nor Federal Govern
mentS, nor anyone else, can tunc'
ton, he was apparently pointing
out the battlefield for the next
peosevelkian advance into new
political realms.
Those who heard him speak
about the no mans land Of law and
administration got the impression
that some day he was going to
try to cross this same no mans
land in spite Of all entanglementS.
That means, in the opinion Of
those close to the Administration,
either a constitutional amend
ment giving the Federal Govern
ment the powers which the court
says it lacks-or an attempted
change Of some sort in the court.
Certainly, If the President is called
on to make appointments to the
Supreme Court, he will make lib
eral appointments.
Court Criticism Banned
Mr.. Roosevelt has promised he
will not make any statement crit
icizing the court, nor any propoS-
ais to change the Constitution.
That is, his trends in politics say
so. They feel that there is too
much dynamite in any political
promise of this sort.
There are stories about that the
President has said some strange
things about the court, particu-
larly after the courts rundown
of the Guffey act; but if this is
true he carefully conceals his feel.
ingS from his newspaper friends,
His statement at his press con-
ference yesterday was as devoid of
feeling as if he had been talking
about mathematical problem.
But if it was devoid of feeling,
it was by no means devoid of sig
nificance. He made 1t clear that
there is a vacuum that has got to
be filled; a no mans land which
must be captured. The President
believes that the outlines of this
no mans land are being more
clearly defined by the successive
court opinions.
Emergency Plans Hit
The President makes it clear
that when this country is in a
jam-if the court keeps on going
the same way-the country will
have to stay in a jam, because
the Federal Government can't
help.
The Administrations support
ers, who lave been soft-pSdalling
the Supreme Court issue, have
been saying to themselves all
along that the court is making
it impossible for the Federal Gov
ernment to help the country in
the next depression.
However. these Administration
supporters, all politicians, have
been cautioning the President to
keep down any and all criticism
of the court, or any suggestion
that he would favor an amend
ment to the Constitution.
It is odd that almost at the
same time the President yester-
day was speaking calmly a n d
guardedly. Representative Hamil-
ton Fish CRO, Of New York State,
was saying that the courts opin-
ion in the minimum wage law
would make 100000 votes for
Roosevelt in New York. While
Representative Fish Is q Repub-
lican, from the State most closely
affected by the Supreme Court
in it's minimum wage opinion,
there are scores Of Democratic
leaders who are saying the same