Evening star., 1937-05-26
WASHINGTON OBSERVATIONS
BY FREDERIC WILLIAM VILE,

Whatever betides respecting his Su-
preme Court proposal--whether it's de-
feated, abandoned or compromised-un-
prejudiced observers contend that Presi-
dent Roosevelt is in position to claim that
his basic objectives have already been ac-
complished. or are by way Of being real
lied. The court, as at present constituted,
has now validated every New Deal prop
osition that has come before 1t since the
judiciary bill was launched. In addition,
Justice Van Devanter's retirement gives
Mr.. Roosevelt opportunity to appoint =
iberal-minded successor who presum-
ably would stabilize that "enlightened"
majority outlook toward national prob
lens which the President seeks to bring
about on the high bench. In rapid sue
cession, beginning with the minimum
wage law decisions and continuing
through the upholding Of the Wagner
labor relations act to the approval of
the social security laws, the Supreme
Court has gone virtually the limit in
sustaining the New Deal viewpoint on
all fundamental aspects of Mr.. Roose-
velt's social reform program. He could
thus afford to stack arms on the court
enlargement bill, feeling that his broad
purposes have been attained. though by
a different route than the one he orig
inally charted.
Whether or not it was planned that
way, 1t must have been peculiarly
deep satisfaction to Justice Cardozo to be
able to celebrate his sixty seventh BIRTH
day anniversary by delivering both af-
firmative decisions on the social security
act. The New York jurist, during his
eminent career on the supreme bench
of the Empire State, was famed for his
'fervent interest in cases involving hu-
man equations. When he took Office at
Washington five years ago, his friends
feared that Justice Cardozo would find
Supreme Court work preponderantly
legalistic In character and thus so for
eign to the particular ideals and view
points with which he had previously
been identified that he would never be
thoroughly happy in the Federal en-
vironment. Many of the issues success
sively brought to the surface by the New
Deal presented situations in full keeping
with the Cardozo conceptions of human
justice, as distinguished from purely ju-
ridical interpretations of the law. It
may be assumed with certainty that the
man whom President Hoover placed on
the supreme bench chiefly at the urging
of Senator Borah relished the oppor-
tunity to write the decisions which made
American history this week.
X X
Senator Robert F. Wagner and As
sistant Attorney General Robert H. Jack
son each emerge with twin victories of
major magnitude as the result of late
Supreme Court findings. The Senator
was the author of both the labor rela-
tions act and the social security law,
which in turn received the hallmark Of
constitutional approval, while the As
sistant Attorney General was chief Gov
ernment counsel in pleading the legality
of the laws in question. Messrs. Wagner
and jackson still rank high among pos
sibilities for new Supreme Court Justice
ships. Probably the only factor that
operates unfavorably against them is the
circumstance that they are New Yorkers.
With trio Of justices from the Presi-
dents own State already In oddce-
Hughes, Stone and Cardozo-it's re-
garded unlikely that he would further
pack the court with appointees from the
same neck Of the national woods.
4
One Of the hottest conference fights
In contemporary congressional annals
looms IN connoctton With tho difference