Evening star., 1937-02-18
JUDICIARY PLAN
BACKING DEMAND
OF LABOR GROUP
Congress Liberals Warned
in Letter by Berry.LeWis.
HiIIman Force.
PRESIDENTS CAMPAIGN
SUPPORT RECALLED
Roosevelt Confers With Several
More Democratic Senators, Pre-
sumably on Judiciary Bill.
BY G. GOULD LINCOLN.

D1 VI UOOLD L1NOoLN.
Those liberals in Congress who have
come out in opposition to President
Roosevelt's plan to revamp the Su-
preme Court were warned today that
Labor,s Non-Partisan League will
confidently expect that every progress
sive and liberal member of the House
and Senate-every man who. in So
liciting votes at the last election, sin
cerely claimed to be a supporter of
the President-will back his plan for
judicial reform
The warning to the liberals from
this organization, headed by Maj
George L. Berry, John L. Lewis and
Sidney Hillman, was contained in a
letter addressed to every member of
Congress. The letter is part of a
huge campaign that is being put on TO
force enactment of the Roosevelt
judiciary bill into law, a campaign in
which the American Federation of
Labor has now joined also
Several more Senators were called
into conference at the White House
today. presumably to talk with the
President regarding the judiciary bill.
Senators Maloney of Connecticut.
Moore of New Jersey and Brown OF
New Hampshire, all Democrats, were
with the President in a group. Sen.
ator O'Mahoney of Wyoming, Demo-
crat, was another conferee, and Sem
ator Byrnes of South Carolina was q
of ha prnr1lAy,+ -
The South Carolina Senator made a
radio speech in defense of the Presi-
dents bill last night.
Progressives Considered.
While the Labor League letter de-
manding favorable action on the
Presidents Supreme Court plan was
addressed to all members of Congress,
it seemingly was aimed particularly to
influence progreSsives like Senators
Wheeler of Montana. johnson of Call
ifornia, Borah of Idaho. Norris of Me-
braska and Frazier of North Dakota.
All have expressed, in greater or lesser
degree, their disapproval of the Pres
ident'S plan.
The position taken by some of these
opponents of the bill is that it would
be far better to have a constitutional
amendment than to tamper with the
court membership by legislation. La
bor's Non-Partisan League. while ad-
mitting lit may be true that we should
have a constitutional amendment re-
stricting the power of the Federal Judi
ciary," insists that to try for such an
amendment would cause costly delay.
However honestly public officials
may believe We should choose other
routes for judicial reform than that
proposed by the President" Sail let
ter signed by E. L. Oliver, executive
vice president, the plain fact is that
time will not permit.
Recovery has been we'll begun, but
it is far from complete. There is real
danger of relapse unless governmental
action is taken safeguard our pro-
ducing population
The letter added:
by the time the amendment could
be adopted the damage of unrestricted
industrial autocracy would have been
done. We escaped almost miraculously
from the last depression without ac-
tive and open attack upon our institu-
tions. but every man in public life
mus have known it was a narrow es-
cape. If Congress- now permits the
Nation TO be precipitated back into
the depths of economic collapse, it
may well be that many of our insti-
tutions-even democracy itself-will
not survive
More Directly to Court.
Turning his attention more directly
to the Supreme Court, the letter said:
Those members of Congress who
honestly feel that other methods of
court reform would be less open to
objection should reflect upon The his
tory of our Supreme Court-of the
many grave crises into which the
obtuseness of the judges have plunged
the Nation.
THE court has unquestionably
usurped a power never formally
granted it-and strongly denied by
(See JUDICIARY, Page A-2)