The Washington times., 1937-03-05
NO LEGISLATION
CONGRESSMAN
PASS, SAFE
Power Of Bench Bars
All Roads, He Says,
Until Curbed
Continued from Page II


audience of several thousand
Democrats celebrating the victory
of last November. His larger audi
ence was the country. and it was
to the country that his appeal was
addressed. Radio networks car
ried his words to the nations fire
sides.
The issue Of judicial reform,
the President said, rises above
party and above personal ambi-
ton. He prefaced his assault on
the judiciary by making it crystal
clear that he harborS no third
term ambitions for himself. More
than anything else, he said, he
wants to turn over a nation to my
successor" in 1941 that is intact,
at peace, that is prosperous, and
that has proved that the Demo
cratic processes of government can
succeed. He explained:
81 do not want to leave 1t
(the NatiOn) to my successor
in the condition which Bu-
chanan left it to Lincoln"
Lincoln inherited conditions, he
reminded his hearers, that led to
the Civil War.
The issue Of slavery took 40
years to settle, he said, adding:
But economic freedom for
the wage Garner and the farmer
and the small business man will
not wait, like emancipation, for
40 years. 1t will not wait for
four years.
"It will not wait at ALL"
Democracy in the United States
has not been completely success
full these last four years, the
President said, nor could he give
any assurance that it would be
unless the "three-horse team" Of
the American system Executive,
legislative and judiciaD pull to-
gether.
BY such an approach did Mr..
Roosevelt lead up to the Supreme
Courts inva1idating decisions on
principal New Deal acts.
Ever since the World War, he
said, the American farmer has
been endeavoring to improve his
poor lot, and his Administration
dared to give him the Agricul-
ture Adjustment Act, approved by
the Congress and by the people.
He declared:
"YOu know who assumed the
power to veto and did veto that
program"
- PARTY WARNED
And then, to the recalcitrants in
his own party, he added:
Neither individually nor as a
party can we postpone and run
from that fight on the advice of
defeatiSt lawyers. But I defy
any one to read the majority
opinion invalidating the AAA
and tell us what we can do fer
agriculture in this session Of
the Congress with any reason
able certainty that what we do
will not be nulIified as uncOn-
StitutiOnal."
And as with the AAA, he said,
so with the National Recovery
Act:
"The farmers were not the
only people in distress in 1892.
There were millions of people in
industry and in commerce who
had lost their jobs, young peO-
pie who had never been able
to find their first job, and more
millions whose jobs did not re-
turn them and their families
enough to live on decently.
"The Democratic Administra-
tion and the Congress made q
gallant, sincere effort to raise
wages, reduce hours, to abolish
child labor, to eliminate unfair
practices.
"And what happened?
"YOu know who assumed the
power to veto and did veto that
program"
Mr.. Roosevelt mentioned other
New Deal acts which the Supreme
Court has inValidated during the
last four years-the Railroad Re
Clrement act and the Guftey Coal
act.
New York Wage Act
He even cited a State statute,
the New York minimum wage act:
"SOOn thereafter the nation
was told by judicial prOnuncia-
mentO that although the Federal
Government had thus been rem
dered pOwerleSS to touch the
problem of hours and wages, the
States were equally helpless; and
that it pleased the personal
economic predictions of a
majority Of the court that we
live in a nation where there is
no legal power anywhere to deal
with its most difficult practical
problems no mans land of
final futility."