Evening star., 1937-03-15
Playing for Time.


Confident that delay is helping their
cause, administration leaders on Capitol
Hill are making no effort to expedite a
vote in the Senate on President Roose-
velt's Supreme Court bill. This may be
good tactics. 1t is more than a tacit
admission that the opposition to the
measure is far stronger than, probably,
the President had any idea when he
gave it to an aStonished, amazed. and
In part-thoroughly disgusted Nation.
tremendous campaign is today get
ting under way to give the President
his Will in this matter of packing the
Supreme Court. Indeed, it is already In
progress, and the pressure that is being
exerted on members of the Senate and
House is remarkable. Bait of one kind
or another is dangled before their eyes
and threats if the bait is not accepted.
A Democrat from West Virginia, Senator
Holt, made a fiat charge that the admin
iStration is using Federal patronage to
try to win over Senators in this fight;
that a high official of the Government
had come to consult him about an i'm
portant Office for which he was asked
to recommend an appointee. Senator
Holt pointed out that for year prior
to this he had been given no considera-
ton in any appointments by the admin
tStration-because of his break with it
over the administration of the w. P. A.
In his State
1t is not pleasing or an admirable
picture, if Senator Hollis charge is true.
A question Of vast Importance to the
American people is to be settled perhaps,
because the administration is able, by
special favorS to win over Senator or
CWo, or enough to give it a ma jority in
the Senate of the United States in sup
port OF the Presidents court bill. The
quid pro quo method of winning elections
or of putting through legislation may be
adopted by those who believe the end
justif1es the means-but it does not
follow that in the end it elevates the
country or makes for the happiness of
The American people.
Clearly the administration leaders are
hopeful that as the weeks go by great
popular uproar in support of the Presi-
dent and his program will bolster the
cause of the court bill in both houses of
Congress. So far, however, the uproar
has been on the other side of the question.
Frankly Senator Ashurst, chairman of
the Judiciary Committee, has admitted
that when the bill was first sent to
Congress I'VE were at the bottom of the
we'll" 1t is his belief that the country
will react more and more favorably to
the Presidents program as time pro-
crosses.
The administration is seeking to line
up all the groups it can in support of the
measure; to bring all the organized pres
sure it can through these groups on
individual Senators and Representatives.
When there is added to this kind of
pressure the patronage club, swung by
experienced hands, the weight of the
administration attack becomes tre-
mendous.
Those who look upon the Presidents
program as destructive of an independ-
ent judiciary and as destructive of the
Constitution itself in stealthy manner
understand that they have formidable
fight ahead of them. They have no
the people the preservation of an in
dependent Federal judiciary, not sub
servient to the executive or the legisla-
tive branches of the Government.