Evening star., 1936-07-01
WALLACE LINKS
COURT W|THG.0.P.
He Calls for "Co-operative
Society" in Attack on
States Rights.
Fy the Associated Press.


NEW YORK. July 1.-The admins
tration's sharpest critic Of the Supreme
Court, in book to be published today.
groups that body with the Republican
party and the Liberty League as
upholders-"at least part of the time"
of the doctrine Of States rights "at
any cost"
Secretary of Agriculture Henry A.
Wallace, in a book called Whose
Constitution" likewise calls for estab-
lishment of a cooperative common
Wealth. cooperative society,"
1t was Wallace who publicly asserted
some months ago that the courts re-
turn to professors of taxes collected
under the defunct A. A. A. permitted
"legalized steal"
Balancing a major part of the books
philosophy on the thesis that this was
intended to be union of people in
stead Of States" the Secretary as
serted:
THE doctrine of States rights, now
invoked by the Supreme Court, was
barrier to progress even in 1887.
and was the cause of terrible con-
fiict in 1861 Today the States mark
no economic boundaries that make
sense ."
Cites States Rights Defenders.
He went on:
only the large corporations, the
Republican party. New England, the
Liberty League and most of the news
papers of the country are apparently
for States rights today at any cost.
ITO these sections, interests and
groups, however, must be added one
other body, at least part Of the time.
The Supreme Court has disagreed in
a number of instances with the posi-
ton taken by the administration on
the matter of Federal powers.
In the case of N. r. A.. it held that
the commerce clause of the Constitu-
ton did not give the Federal Gov
ernment the powers it had assumed
to set up rules for business. In TIE
case of A. A. A., it held that agri-
culture was local matter, and that
its regulation, whether or not in the
interests of the general welfare, is a
power not granted to the Federal
Government -.
80 do not doubt that through
the multiplicity Of legal precedents
available to the Supreme Court it is
possible to take a narrow view of the
Constitution, which virtually limits the
scope of granted Federal powers to
those which would have seemed use
full under the conditions of 1887 -"
Half Of People Would Starve.
80 - Were agriculture truly local
matter in 1886, as the Supreme Court
says it Is, half of the people of the
United States would quickly starve."
The Secretary, who said it might
be contended" that the constitutional
convention of 1887 was packed by the
propertied classes" remarked, never
theless, the "cue for solution of our
present problem lay in the Consti.u-
ton itself.
But, he went on, to set up the Con-
Stitution "aS sacred and changeless
authority on changing material con-
ditions is to deny the kernel and
worship the husk''
Saying the people must become
actively imbued with the idea of a
cooperative society" Wallace added
he believed the majority already was
receptive to the general purposes and
possibilities of a cooperative COM
monwealth."
Then, at the close Of his book,
he said:
We should eventually be
prepared if necessary to work out in
the spirit of Madison a mechanism
which would embody the spirit of the
age as successfully as the Constitution
Of 1877 mirrored the philosophy of
the eighteenth century. We may hope
that such action can be taken blood
lessly as the Constitution was en-
acted -. This will undoubtedly be
possible if a spirit of common sense
prevails-and if we use our Consti-
tuition as Hamilton anticipated it
should be used, such action may not
be necessary at ALL"