Evening star., 1936-02-17
THE POLITICAL
MILL
By G. Could Lincoln.

week. Senator Robinson of Arkansas,
the Democratic leader, and Senator Nor
ris of Nebraska. defender Of President
Roosevelt and the New Deal, both at
| tackled the ruling Of the court on the
agricultural adjustment act. Norris
| fatty declared that a majority of the
courts to 4-should not have power to
declare a law of Congress unconstitu-
| tional. Robinson insisted that the court
had "impeached" its own decision in the
| A. A. A. case by holding that agriculture
was State matter, not national prob
| lem.
Should the Supreme Court, in its COM
| ing decision in the Tennessee Valley
| Authority case, hold that law also to be
unconstitutional, more fur will fly. How
far are the supporters of the New Deal
| prepared to go? No one seems definitely
| to know, despite the fact that Robinson.
as Democratic leader Of the Senate, and
Norris one of the Presidents chief pro-
tagonists. have spoken out pretty plainly.
| There has been no definite word from
the White House. Plenty of bills and
resolutions to curb the power of the
! court in passing upon the constitutional
ity OF the acts of Congress are pending
before the Senate and House Judiciary
Committees. Doubtless the machinery
would start grinding If hint could be
had from the President.
During the debate on the farm relief
bill which has just passed the Senate
the question of the courts authority to
deal with it was raised. Senator Dickin-
son OF Iowa, who has aspirations for the
Republican presidential nomination this
year. lifted his voice in support of the
authority OF the court to declare laws
unconstitutional. To break down the
right OF the court by majority to in
validate a law would be to destroy the
| theory OF majority rule in the Govern
ment of the United States, he said. De-
spite the fact that 5-4 opinions of the
| court are inclined to leave in many
minds the question of reasonable doubt,
there seems to be no way Of bettering
the situation. To compel two-thirds
| opinion or a 7-to-2 opinion to hold a
law unconstitutional merely makes it
| possible for minority of the court to
uphold the law; makes it possible for the
tail to wag the dog, in common parlance.
| *% X
Senator Borah of Idaho, recognized as
an authority on constitutional law and
the operations of the Supreme Court
probably unequaled by any other mem
| Der of the present Congress, has yet
to be heard in the Senate in this dis
| cussion of the powers of the court. 1t
looks as though the Idaho Senator were
overlooking an opportunity. Further
more. the country as well as the Con-
gress would be glad to hear from him
on this subject. Not long ago he pub
liShed in the Red Book an article deal
ing with the Supreme Court in which
he left no possible doubt as to his atti-
tude. He supports entirely the authority
of the court in passing upon the con-
stitutionality of laws He holds that
| an untrammeled court is the only real
safeguard of the liberties of the people.
The National Economy League is per-
sistent in its efforts to build up senti-
ment for balancing the Federal budget.
Today it publishes replies from Presi-
dent Roosevelt and from Gov. Eugene
Talmadge to its QUESTIONABLE asking the
views of national figures on the need
| for prompt budget balancing. The reply
| of President Roosevelt is contained in a
letter sent to Henry H Curran, director
| of the Economy League, by his assistant.
secretary, Stephen Early. 1t is a
declination to answer the QUESTIONABLE.
The reason given is that the President
of the United States receives many
| questionnaires and that it would be
physically impossible for him to answer
them all. Therefore, the President will
not break his rule of answering none
I Of these questionnaires.
|
Gov. Talmadge, who has been a per-
| sistent attacker of the Roosevelt admin
| istration, and particularly of its SPEND
| ing program, however, haStenS to reply
that he is for prompt balancing of
| the budget. His answer is brief and
| to the point. The Georgia Governor
said: II would say, think the Federal
budget should be balanced for the fiscal
! year. In view of the enormous expendi-
tures if this should not be possible, then
| think it should be balanced at the
| first possible moment and kept balanced.
! think it should be balanced by the
elimination of useless functions of Gov
ernment, countless unnecessary bureaus,
etc. Many of these are not needed and
are dangerous" Among those whose
replies to the Economy League ques-
tionnaire have not been made public
| yet are Senator Borah, Gov. Landon
of Kansas, former Gov. Alfred E. Smith
of New York and Senator Carter Glass
of Virginia, chairman of the Senate
| Committee on Appropriations.
x
| The Presidents budget for the fiscal
year ending June 80, 1887, sought to
show that the deficit probably would be
less than the deficit for the present
fiscal year. The President in his budget
message, however, omitted all estimate
for relief appropriations for the next
fiscal year, an estimate which he pro-
posed to send to Congress in two months
time. Obviously, without such estlmate'
the fixing of deficit was impractlcaole.
Since the budget message both Congress
and the Supreme Court have taken
hand in affecting the fiscal affairs OF
| the Federal Government. The former
put through the act for the immediate
payment of the soldiers bonus-over
presidential veto. The Supreme Court
| invalidated the A. A. A. with its process
ing taxes, making it necessary for the
Government to find nearly half billion
dollars elsewhere for the continued pay
ment of benefits to the farmers. 1t is
clear, therefore, that the deficit, even
without the estimates for relief, is to be
| increased by some $2,700, 100000, and
| will be in excess of the deficit for the
present year by large figure.