Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1937-03-11

preme Court, 1t has neither vetoed nor
INSTRUCTED laws to carry out these
purposes. And the suggestion which
the administration makes that relief
may be denied by the Supreme Court
is one which not even "so-called" de-
featist lawyers will entertain. More
has been spent for the needs of the
unemployed and the drought stricken
farmer than has ever been spent in
the history OF any other nation in the
world and justly so. I was one of
those who insisted long before the
administration came into power that
the National Government come to the
rescue Of the unemployed.
Power Over Rivers Established.
AS for Hood control, and the con-
servation OF waters for irrigation and
reclamation and our drought stricken
areas 1t Is not necessary that the
interstate commerce clause of the
Constitution be made conversant with
the habits Of the Ohio River or the
Dust Bowl by packing the court as
suggested by the President.
The Congress of the United States
has always assumed, and the courts
have always upheld, the power of Con-
Eress over navigable streams and their
, tributaries.
1t i'll beflts this administration to
say that there is doubtful power to
protect the consumer against mo-
nopoly.
Memories Of his N. R. A., dictated
in large measure by the United States
Chamber of Commerce, for the express
purpose Of permitting industry to get
out from under the provisions of the
Sherman antitrust law and the Clay
ton act. are too recent to be forgotten
Housewives and farmers can testify as
to what protection they got from
monopclistic prices under that act.
Well can you thousands of small busi-
ness men throughout the country re-
member what it was to be at the mercy
of the economic royalists, who not
only drafted the codes but enforced
them in their own self-interest. And
many OF you, am sure, are not I'M
mindful Of the favoritism, the petty
graft and the corruption that was
rampant in the activities of the code
authorities.
Unanimous on N. r. A.
The N. r. A. was declared unani-
mously to be nconstitutional-not
because Congress lacked the power to
regulate monopoly, but because the
court found that Congress had no
right to delegate its legislative powers
to private individuals, to be exercised
for their own selfish purposes. Few
are the people in the United States
who would disagree with the Supreme
Court decision in that case.
AS to the power Of Congress to cope
with the farm problem, it should be
recalled that it was a former Presi-
dent of the United States that vetoed
the McNary- Haugen bill. Every one
comedies that the farm problem is =
difficult one to solve, Supreme Court
or no Supreme Court. Both the theory
and the practice under the A. A. A.
Of curtailing the production of food
products and killing little pigs when
one-third Of the Nation was "ill-clad,
ul-housed and ill-nourished," as the
President says, is not entirely free from
criticism, or improvement. That the
present prices OF farm products have
come about largely because Of the
drought, no one can deny. -.
Let us be clear about It, I am not
criticizing most Of the legislation pro-
posed by the President Of the United
States during the last four years.
supported most Of it and led the fight
for the holding company bill.
| \
Handbags Democratic Solution.
| I submit that the Presidents pro-
posal leads US nowhere. It is neither
= panecea Of reform nor can it oe
JUSTIFIED Is temporary expedient. It
postpones, delays and renders their
democratic solution more precarious.
And those who sincerely believe in the
detectives for which the President