Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1937-03-11
Digest of Court Plan Protest by Wheeler
CONTENDS PEOPLE SHOULD HAVE POWER OVER CONSTITUTIONS

CHICAGO, March ia digest Of
a protest made by Senator Burton K.
Wheeler against the Presidents pro-
posal to revamp the judicial system
follows:
The President of the United States,
speaking at the victory dinner on
March 4, made the startling state
ment that in his opinion a great ma
tional crisis exists crisis even more
gray, than that which confronted this
country four years ago. The President
implied that he could not insure the
continuance Of democratic institutions
for four more years unless he was
given the power to increase immedi-
ately the membership of the Supreme
Court of the United States by adding
six new justices.
Crisis, power, haste and hate was
the text from which the President
preached.
Lincoln Advised Against Haste.
We may contrast President Roose-
velt's demand for haste to pack the
Supreme Court in this crisis with the
caution with which another Presi-
dent Of the United States approached
q real crisis in this country. Abraham
Lincoln, in his first inaugural address,
rs years ago, on taking ONCE when
the country was faced with dissolu-
ton, said:
MY countrymen, one and all, think
calmly and we'll upon this whole sub
ject. Nothing valuable can be lost by
taking time. If there be an object to
hurry any of you in hot haste to a
step which you would never take de-
liberately, that object will be frus-
trated by taking time; but no good
object can be frustrated by it =.
Intelligence, patriotism, Christianity
and firm reliance on Him who has
never yet forsaken this favored land
are still competent to adjust in the
best way all our present difficulty
1t is in the spirit of this counsel,
without hate or haste, that I address
this great gathering here tonight.
1t has been since demonstrated
beyond question that the age of the
justices had nothing to do with the
question of liberalism or reaction; that
the court was not inefficient but cur
rent in its work Furthermore, the
solicitor general has approved of its
practice Of disposing Of cases pre-
sented to it for review.
The President, realizing the fallacy
Of these arguments, made 4 dramatic
appeal based upon what he contends
to be "a crisis" fundamentally even
more grave than that OF four years
ago.
The picture of poverty, sweatshops,
unemployment, long hours, back
breaking work, child labor, Ill health,
inadequate housing, poor crops,
drought, floods, the dust bowl" agri-
cultural SURPRISES, strikes, industrial
confusion, disorders, one-third Of the
population Of the United States ILL
housed, ill-clad, nl-nourished, was
graphically painted to the American
people at the $l00-a-plate victory din
ner in the Mayflower Hotel, not by
the enemies of the administration, but
by the President OF the United States
himself
Court Blamed by Implication.
And all this, it is implied, was be-
cause of the Supreme Court. We were
led to believe that this court was the
instrument which had stricken down
all Of the legislation which the DEM
ocratic party had enacted during the
last four years and which 1t might
enact to relieve the situation in the
future.
That the administration sincerely
believes that this Is . crisis calling for
precipitate and unthinking action on
such q proposal cannot be maintained
upon the record which the admins
tration itself has made in the CAM
paign and in the past months. Nor
can 1t be maintained with candor and
good faith that the present powers of
the Congress and the President. under
the Constitution as it Is interpreted
by the present members OF the Su-
preme Court, are inadequate to con-
tinue to relieve those in need, to con-
tinue farm program or 4 flood con-
troll, irrigation and reclamation pro-
gram, or to protect the consumer
against monopoly.
AS for carrying for the needs Of the
unemployed; as for caring for the
needs Of the mothers, the drought
stricken farmers or the food victims.