The times-news. [volume] (Hendersonville, N.C.) 1927-current, 1936-02-20
IVA ISSUES NOT FINALLY SETTLED

IVA ISSUES NOT FINALLY SETTLED
I'm view of the location of Hendersonvllle
in Tennessee Valley territory and the more
mi. less, direct connection Of this town ara
section with the IVA experiment, The
Tjmes-Ncws will be pardOned for making
additional reference to the Supreme Cours
decision which was discussed yesterday.
Al that time this newspaper voiced the
opinion that the courts ruling was neon
,.n,-.ye and settled few or none of the QueS-
,iors at issue in connection with the IVA
project. except that of sale Of power pro
,u,ed at the Wilson dam.
We find that an overwhelming majority
of the newspapers received ut The Times
News office agree with our views OF the
,rartar. and we find that similar views are
EXPRESSED by all sorts and conditions OF cltl-
ems i'm commenting on the decision, this
being true in all eases except where the
commentators are taking strictly political
and partisan view of the IVA experiment
and the probable effect of the court decl-
The Charlotte Observer calls the court ;
ruling AN IndeciSiye Decision and says
that il lacks much of clearing the constl-
tutfonal skies as to all the points involved"
i'm the IVA experiment. I'm no sense is the
verdict to be interpreted as a sweeping
victory for this phase of the New Deal,
asserts the Charlotte newspaper. COntlnU-
ing the discussion of related or collateral
fstues The Charlotte Observer says:
And none of these unapproached collateral is
Sues is more blatant than that of whether or not
using this case as a precedent, the government
may not, at the will Of Congress and carrying its
IVA contentious to a logical conclusion, determ-
inc TO establish plants producing other or similar
commodities in the meantime developing markets
therefor and thus eventually bringing the Fed
craI government into direct competition with not
only public-service corporations, but any and all
lines of private enterprise.
It IS at this point that the business and indus
trial regimes Of America have their final stake
in the simple question of whether it is con-
stltutioual for the State to engage eompettlvely
I'm business with private capital, with all the ad-
vantages naturally aecruing to the government
prise, by virtue of these superior advantages OF
the government, handicaps and burdens that
Xould obviously be crushing and confiseatory.
That's the unanswered question in the answer
Of the Supreme Court to the challenge OF the
IVA, but the unavoidable issue that must yet
find its way into the legal laboratories OF the
judicial masters.
For the very simple reason that involved IN
that question is the critical issue of whether
America is to remain a democracy or revert TO
State socialism.
No palmer. more emphatic or more slgnl
Iicant language has been used oy an
newspaper or individual commentator thai
The Observers statement that there is IN
volved in this IVA fight ''the critical iSsu
OF whether America (the United States
is TO remain democracy or revert to Stat
socialism" "
The Charlotte News questions not ont
the constitutionality of the IVA eXperl
ment, but also what it calls the larger ques
ton of the deSirability Of the project, an
we quote two paragraphs from New
editorial:
The court did not pass upon the constitutional
ity of the rest of the Tennessee Valley de-
velopment; the dams built primarily, as every
body knows, to produce cheap power as yard
stick and as feature of the More Abundant
Life; and it is not our purpose here this after
noon to try to beat the Court to the draw All
the same, if the construction of the Norris Dam,
saw, is held to be within the powers OF Congress
for the reason that it will aid navigation on the
Tennessee River, then its eonstitutonality rests
mon fiction. The Tennessee may, indeed, be
made a navigable stream, but so may the
Catawba-for rowboats.
In addition to the question of cOnstitutonality
.bora i tbe much larger question of desirability