Evening star., 1937-02-22

Speculation is rife as to how long
President Roosevelt will wait before
broadcasting a My Friends" appeal to
the Nation on behalf of his imperiled
Supreme Court program. So far the
White House has withheld indication of
any such purpose. AS the fight wakes
hotter and the opposition grows in size
and importance, the impression wldens
that F. D. R. cannot afford to refrain too
long from going on the radio and throw
ing the full weight of his personal in
f1uence into the scales. This feeling is
heightened by the colorlessness of the
public defense the court plan has so
far had Hardly anybody outside of the
inner administration circle thinks that
Attorney General Cummings recent talk
STRENGTHENED the Presidents case. Other
pleas have suffered from certain con-
tradiction in argument. Apparently the
Rooseveltian strategy is to let the situa-
ton develop without Intervention by the
President, in the confidence that the
country in due course will line up on his
side. especially organized labor and farm
elements. But the view is crystallizing
that the opposition is gaining momen-
tum at clip which can only be checked
by some dramatic effort on Mr.. Roose-
velts part.
Connecticut, home State of Attorney
General Cummings and Wisconsin, an
cient citadel of Western liberalism, don't
seem to hold with current theories that
70 is the limit age of usefulness Tor puonc
men. At the November election Con-
necticut reelected Wilbur L. Cross,
former dean of the Yale Graduate
School. to fourth successive term IN
the governorShip. Dean Cross will be
IS years old in April. Progressive WIS
consin redrafted from private life ana
reelected to the State treasurershp
picturesque and perennial Solomon
Levitan, who was one of Fighting Bot"
La Follette's earliest lieutenants. "Old
Sol" was retired from office in 1883, When
the Prcgressives temporarily lost control
at Madison, but despite the fact that he
is in his 18th year, he was restored to his
former post for a sixth term, by an
immense majority, in 1886. Neither
Rhode Island nor Delaware has any
objection to statesmen in the lean ana
slippered cycle of life Little Rhody'
has just sent 69-year-old Theodore r.
Green to the Senate, and from Delaware
there comes to the same body James
H. Hughes, also aged SO.
\
No one would have been better
equipped to take hand in the Supreme
Court controversy than the late Repre-
sentative James M. Beck. In his famous
book on the Constitution, Beck induiged
in what now reads like grim prophecy.
Describing an independent judiciary as
"the balance wheel of the Constitution"
and the Supreme Court as the nnal
conscience of the Nation" Beck SAID:
This great power to curb legislatures
and executives, and therefore MAORI
ties, has been exerted for over 1870 years.
While not infrequently the party whose
power is thus curbed has vented its
wrath and disappointment upon the
Supreme Court, yet after the thunder
of political debate has passed and the
earthquake of party passion has spent
it's force, the still small voice of the
Supreme Court has always prevailed.
Each time the will of the majority IS
nullified because inconsistent with the
fundamental law, threats are made. as
are now being made, to destroy this
power, or at least to impair it by re-
quiring the concurrence of seven out OF
nine justices before q statute can be
invalidated The most effective re-
straint which freemen have ever i'm
posed upon themselves is this extraordi-
nary power of the Supreme Court. The
value Of such restraint upon precip.
itate action Is SO great that 1t is i'm
probable that the American people WILL,