Montana labor news., 1937-03-25
OPEN FORUM
FIVE TO FOUR, EIGHT
TO SEVEN OR
t. ATE"
An Extravaganza About the SUI
preme Court.
By E HAMILTON

By LEVERNE HAMILTON
During the past few months we
have heard little else than argu-
ments pro and con, anent the Presi-
dents proposal to increase the per-
sonnet, without in all probability
improving the judgment, of the SUI
preme Court.
The President is of course taking
the pro, or "semi-pro' side of the
argument 9 =
AS was to be expected when an
argument starts among politicians of
divergent opinions, and varying de-
grees of (what passes for intelli-
gence, the fur has begun to fly in
such large gobs that the real issue
before the public has been entirely
obscured (Which was of course the
intention of the instigators) and the
celebrated battle of the Killkeny
Cats takes on the aspect of a pink
tea by comparison.
1t seems that recent decisions of
the Supreme Court have so "irked"
President Roosevelt that he can
hardly restrain himself from speak
ing a cross word" to the said court.
However, the president is a very
diplomatic gentleman and in govern
ment circles it would be the height
of indiscretion for the President of
the United States to say frankly that
he thinks the court, or at least a ma
jority of that august body" is a
group of doddering old nincompoops
with antediluvian notions of what
the country needs, who should be
given a swift kick in the pants Cor
whatever a justice Of the Supreme
Court wears under his judicial robes)
and confined to the nearest foolish
house." No, all White House prece-
dents would be shattered if a Presiz
dent were to speak out frankly in
such manner. It would be poor di-
plomacy and would not be good poll
tics even though it might be an hon
est statement of fact. But then plain
understandable statements of fact
are seldom expected and never re-
ceived from the political fraternity.
But to return; Franklin has be-
come disguised with those "five to.
four decisions of the Court and feels
that he just has to do something
about it, so not being permitted to
"cuss out" the court, as would an
ordinary citizen, he proposes to in
crease the number of justices on the
Supreme Bench from nine to fifteen,
under the assumption no doubt that
an eight to seven decision would be
more satisfactory and final to the
public than a five to four decision, or
it is barely possible that he believes
that a law which was kicked into
the creek by eight judges would
make a bigger splash than if it were
kicked overheard by a mere five.
There may after all be something in
that idea.
There is much to be said in favor
of Franklin's proposal to increase the
number of justices, not the least i'm
portant argument being the fact that
the salary is something not to be
sneezed at. I personally would not
offer the slightest objection to ac-
cepting a salary of twenty thousand
dollars per annum. The major OBJ
lection on my part is that it seems
such a long way off. Of course if
Franklin adds six more judges, then
the next president may add twelve,
and the following one twenty-four
and so on until we got all the people
of the United States on the Supreme
Bench, That would be one way of
getting the WPA workers off relief,
but with a population Of one hun
dred fifty million I very much fear
that most of us would grow rather
hungry before we got a chance at
that twenty thousand a year salary.
Personally 1 believe the Townsend
plan, even with its rather slim
chances of enactment offers a more
readily attainable object.
On the other hand, the opponents
of the Presidents proposal seem OBJ
sessed with the idea that a law that
gets a swift kick in the pants from
five justices of the Supreme Court
has been just as thoroughly and
completely kicked, and is just as
likely to stay kicked as if the Con-
gress itself had done the kicking.
Who ever heard of a politician who
objected Except verbally to spend
ing the taxpayers money. The poll
tician's proverb is "A fool and his
money r oon parted and if a
mar is fool enough to be a taxpayer,
the politicians highest and hottest
aim in life is to see that his money is
spent foolishly and with the utmost
possible dispatch. Look at own
legislature. 1t cost the people Of the
state about two hundred thousand
dollars to discover that neither
branch of the assembly knew any
thing about running the business of
the state, so they turned it all over
to the Governor on the long chance
that maybe he MIGHT know some
thing about it.
Cono+o~ yIvLo - r