The Omaha guide., 1936-01-18
KELLY MILLER
SAYS
HIGH TIME IN WASHINGTON

annual address to Congress IN
which he set himself up as Cham
pion of the New Deal" for the
new day, and offered battle to the
death to the old order. The chal-
lenge was at once accepted by the
opposition and the presidential
campaign of 1896 was launched.
The press and the radio resound-
ed with this challenge and accept
ance for three days before the de-
cision of the Supreme Court, in
validating the AAA, was handed
down on Jan. 9th. The nation was
startled out of its breath. The de-
cision of the Supreme Court in
validating the acts of Congress es-
tablishing the NRA and the AAA,
and which at the same time fore
Swallowed the invalidation of all
essential "New Deal" legislation,
sharply drew the issue not only
between the legislative and judi
cial branchqsof the government,
but between the legislative and
executive branches, on the one side
The Supreme Court set itself up
as superior to both the president
and to congress. Nine men have
assumed the right to determine
the fate of 10000 900 free peo-
pie against the almost unanimous
will of their chosen representa-
tives. The nation has never ben
in such confusion since the issue
of human slavery reached its eli
max in 160. The issue was then es-
~sentially the same as it is today.
Property in man entrenehed be-
hind tradition and the bred Scott
Decision sought not only to over
ride legislation passed by congress
and approved by the president, but
also to thwart the progressive
voice of the people. Today this
same spirit of property owner
ship seeks entrenchment and pro-
lection behind the same tradition
and the sanction Of the same jul
dicial tribunal. When the progress
meets with the reaction it is easy
to predict, if not the immediate re-
suit, certainly the ultimate out
come. All history tells the same
story.
When | was a school boy the
question of what would happen if
an irresistible force met an i'm
movable body was used to con-
found the student of physics and
of metaphysics. Although in sci
ence and philosophy the answer to
this question is deemed unthink-
able, yet in politics and practical
human affairs the immovable al
ways gives way to the irresist-
ible. An impossibility of thought
becomes a possibility in action and
gress and the administration, rep
r%esenting the contemporaneous
will of the people, constitute an
irresistible force in American poll
litics. On the other hand, the court,
IMPLYING the ~crystalized will and
purpose of the nation a hundred
and fifty years ago, stand for the
stablizing immovable factor. Vest
/, ed interests always seek to en-
trench themselve behind the bull
wark of the courts and traditions
built, as they suppose, on founda-
tions which cannot be moved. But
in the case of the bred Scott De-
cision, the infallible decree of the
Supreme Court was thrust aside
by the imperial will of the people.
There are two factors in human
society-the progressive and the
conservative. When the two come
to rips the conservative must
needs give way. The progressive
force of American politics runs
like a stream through our his
tory, and although impeded and
delayed by Instructions and him
derances it has kept its onward
way to the ocean of human adj
vancement to which it is headed.
coin, Grover Cleveland, Theodore
Roosevelt, Woodrow Wilson and
Franklin D. Roosevelt have blaz-
ed a progressive path in our po-
litical history. Although in each
case the progressive presidents
were followed by reactionary sue
%cessor, thee but represented back
eddies in the ever onward moving
stream. Jackson was succeeded by
VanBuren, Lincoln by Andrew
Johnson, Cleveland by Mckinley,
and Harrison: Theodore Roose-
welt by Taft, and Woodrow Will
son by Harding, Coolidge and
Hoover. And yet these conserva-
tive or reactionary interludes but
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