Evening star., 1936-01-12
Reactions to the
A. A. A. Decision
BY Queen L. Scott.

Biggest of the questions bothering the
New Deals heavy political thinkers TO-
day are these: Will the passing of the
A. A. A. cause no more definite reac-
ton among voters than did the peaceful
end of N. r. A. codes? Or should de-
struction Of the farm program serve as
the signal for start of an attack on the
power of the courts?
Mr.. Roosevelt and his aides already
have revealed their eagerness for q
battle designed to shear the judges of
some of their powers. They are busy
again assessing the prospects of success
in such a fight. But now, as following
the Supreme Court decision that caused
demise of the Blue Eagle, the Strategists
are taken aback by the apparent lack
of public interest in any such fight.
The President revealed his hand last
May when he told newspaper men that
the courts, by their Interpretation of the
Constitution, were forcing the country
back to. the "horse and buggy" days.
Once more, in his message to Congress
January 3, Mr.. Roosevelt made a re-
mark that caused little comment at the
time, but which is to assume more inn
portance as time goes on. He said:
"The carrying out Of the laws of the
land as enacted by the Congress re-
Quires protection until final adjudication
by the highest tribunal of the land. The
Congress has the right and can find the
means to protect its own prerogativeS. y
Reference here was to the lower courts,
which were hampering the New Deal
with about 1000 injunctionS. When
newspaper men asked for Qualification,
the President said that the words would
have to speak for themselves
Now. minority of the Supreme Court
itself has supplied the New Dealers with
material for open criticism of the judges.
Less than a month ago, Justice Car
doZo accused the majority of the Su-
preme Court of using process of psy-
choanalysis" to impute meaning to acts
of Congress. He implied that the judici-
airy was encroaching on the domain of
the Legislature and the Executive. This
comment did not pass unnoticed at the
White House.
Now Justice Stone in dissenting from
the opinion that ended the A. A. A..
programs, took even a more decided
stand on that score He said in words
that may find wide future use:
Courts are not the only agency of
Government that must be assumed to
have capacity to govern. Congress and
the courts both unhappily may falter
or be mistaken in the performance of
their constitutional duty.
But Interpretation of our great char
ter of Government which proceeds on
any assumption that the responsibility
for the preservation of our institutions
is the exclusive concern of any one of
the three branches of Government, or
that it alone can save them from de-
Struction. is far more likely, in the long
run, to obliterate the constituent mem
berS' of indeStructible States than the
frank recognition that language. even
OF a Constitution, may mean what it
says: That the power to tax and spend
includes the power to relieve a Nation
wide maladjustment by conditional gifts
of money"
officials of the A. A. A had expected
destruction OF the farm program 10 re-
suit in an open revolt against the courts
out in the farming country officials
Of N. r. A. had expected the same thing
from the workers after the decision last
May that killed the Blue Eagle Both
were disappointed. Workers accepted
the end of codes with scarcely a ripple
OF objection. Farmers, judged by first
reactions, are doing about the same in
the case of A. A. A. control programs.
What those shaping New Deal political
strategy wonder is whether, beneath the
surface, there is the basis among city
workers and farmers for a coalition that
would sweep the party back into power
DR.. ReXford Guy Tugwell, an adviser
to the President, recently suggested that
the New Deal should surge forward"
on the shoulders of workers and farm
ers. Postmaster General Farley and
other political advisers were reported to
have suggested to Mr.. Roosevelt that
this would be a good time to ask DR..
Tugwell to retire
But the President. instead. is pre-
pairing to act on the Tugwell suggestion
and depend on workers and farmers to
return him to Office in November.
The question is whether the appeal
to these groups should be through a de-
mand for changes in the Constitution
to increase Federal power sufficiently to
enable controls over industry and farm
ing of the type that the workers and the
farmers may want.
Organized labor, represented BY the
American Federation of Labor, and or
ganized farmers, represented by the
Farm Bureau Federation, are talking
about the need for changes in the Con-
Stitution.
However, the rank and file thus far
show little excitement.
x X
In the case of farmers, officials of the
A. A. A. attribute this apparent ready
acceptance of the decision to several
factors. Among them are these:
l. The assurance given farmers that
some system of bounties will be devised
to replace the system now ended.
2. The fact that checks to 1000 900
farmers are not to stop Immediately if
assurances of the President that appro-
priations will provide funds for payment
on existing contracts are carried out.
3. The absence of any marked upset
in prices of farm products
While appraising farm and city senti-
ment toward courts and the Constitu-
tion, New Dealers are looking ahead to
decisions Of the Supreme Court that
now are on the way.
They see the early destruction of the
Guffey coal act, with its code for the
soft coal industry. The pension system
for railroad employees is expected to
follow later. Little hope is held among
the Governments legal experts for the
labor relations act, under which