Montgomery County sentinel. [volume] (Rockville, Md.) 1855-1974, 1937-07-29
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them. Mr.. Roosevelt then came for
ward with a second set of reasons,
namely, that the Supreme court as
at present constituted could not and
would not hold some of his social
legislation constitutional. That set of
reasons was knocked into a cooked
hat when the Supreme court upheld
the Washington state minimum
wage law, the Wagner labor rela-
tons act and the social security
taxes. Then came the resignation
of Justice Van Devanter. Justice
Van Devanter was one of the men
whom Mr.. Roosevelt had in mind
as unwilling and unlikely to see So
cial legislation through the same
glasses as Mr.. Roosevelt saw the
situation in the country.
The Van Devanter resignation
gave the President an opportunity to
appoint new member to the court.
It also gave the senate an opportu-
nifty to burst forth with expressions
of its own ideas concerning the type
of man who should succeed Justice
Van Devanter and the senators were
not backward in promoting the name
of the Democratic leader, Senator
Robinson. But Mr.. Roosevelt thus
far. has failed to fill the vacancy,
and this failure has been interpret
ed by the opposition among the
Presidents own party as an unwill-
ingness to select anyone but a radi-
cal for the highest court. In any
event, those opposed to the court
bill contend that the Presidents de-
lay constitutes only another reason
why he should accept ''the inevi-
table defeat Of the court revision
program.
When it became apparent that the
original bill for six new justices
could not be passed because the
Observation-Disclosures senate judi
ciary committee reported the bill
with a scathing denunciation, the
late Senator Robinson astutely Of
fered substitute bill in the nature
of compromise. This substitute
bore the authorship of Senators Lo-
gan of Kentucky and Hatch of New
Mexico. Even the substitute which
provided for one additional Judge a
year until the Supreme court num-
bered eleven members has received
the same bitter criticism that char
acterized the first measure. Many
members of the senate say they will
fight it as long as, they would have
fought the original because it will
give the Chief Executive control of
the Supreme court just as the ear
lier one would have done.
President Roosevelt vetoed a little
known and little discussed bill the
c.n other day. 1t was
Star Route known as III. R.
Bill Vetoed 44O8, An Act to-
Provide for the
Renewal of Star-Route Contracts at
Four Year Intervals" The title, Of
course, will mean little to most of
those who read these lines. But,
this was bill intended to do justice
to those underprivileged classes
about which Mr.. Roosevelt has often
spoken in his fireside chats over
the radio. The men who would have
benefited by this piece of legis-
lation were the star route carriers of
the mails-the service that dates
back to the Stagecoach days of
America and the service from
which originated the Postal depart
ment's famous phrase, "the mails
must 60 through" The star route
is the only means by which a good
many thousand persons are able to
receive mails on anything like a
modern basis because this service
reaches the out-of-the-way inland
towns where railroads are not yet
and possibly never will be in opera
ton.
! watched this legislation 20
through the house without dissent
ing vote; / saw Senator Mcclellan,
Democrat, of Tennessee, attack the
bill in vicious language and then l
saw the senate pass it by a vote of
nearly two to one.
In addition, / know that the rep
resentatives of these little known
carriers (little known except to
those whom they directly serve)
! had tried for a number of years to
obtain basis of pay that will let
them live. They finally were able
to convince Postmaster General
Farley that unless they were paid
more money the number that would
go broke in carrying out their con-
tracts would be amazingly large.
have not the slightest doubt that this
group ought to be paid more money
for the work they do because their
present basis of compensation is
shamefully low-so low that if they
were members of a labor union,
they would all 60 on strike.
No change has been made in the
basis of compensation or in the
method of contracting for this serv-
ice since it was organized in l845,
except in minor ways. Three quar-
tiers of century or more is long,
long time. The Presidents action
in vetoing this legislation, therefore,
is very difficult to understand. His
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