The Ely miner. [volume] (Ely, Minn.) 1895-1986, 1937-07-29
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situation in the country.
The Van Devanter resignation
gave the President an opportunity to
appoint new member to the court.
1t 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 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
ocratic-dominated senate judi
ciary committee reported the bill
with scathing denunciation, the
late Senator Robinson astutely Of
fered a substitute bill in the nature
of a 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
ier one would have done.
Frankly, the substitute appears to
be losing ground because in the
house of representatives the other
day, Chairman Summers of the
house judiciary committee, Texas
Democrat, announced that if the
senate should pass the bill and if it
reached his committee, it would
never be reported to the house. Mr..
Summers is long time member of
the house and a highly respected
one. He dominates his committee.
There were few who believed that,
after the chairman's declaration,
~
reach the floor of the house.
There is yet another phase of this
picture. I refer to the line of cleav-
age that has been drawn within the
Democratic party on account of the
court legislation. It was this about
which Sumner spoke but which
he never mentioned directly in his
speech. He talked about splitting
the Democratic party and that was
as near as he ever got to saying
that if the President forces the court
bill through congress (Which he
might yet be able to do) there will
result Democratic party and a
New Deal party.
President Roosevelt vetoed little
known and little discussed bill the
other day. 1t was
otdT Voute known as "H. r.
Bill Vetoed 4408, 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 q
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.
I watched this legislation 60
through the house without dissent
ing vote; / saw Senator Mcclellan,
Democrat, of Tennessee, attack the
bill in vicious language and then
saw the senate pass it by vote of
nearly two to one.
In addition, / know that the rep
resentatives of these little known
carriers Qittle known except to
those whom they directly serve)
had tried for number of years to
obtain a 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 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 1845, |
except in minor ways Three quar- |
tiers of century or more is a long,
long time. The Presidents action |
in vetoing this legislation, therefore,
is very difficult to understand. His
action is made the more inconsis-
tent, many persons believe, because |
tho oJdifiopol oocf ~ fba oouarp |