The times-news. [volume] (Hendersonville, N.C.) 1927-current, 1937-02-15
NEWSPAPERS OPINIONS
PRESERVE THAT CONSCIENCE

Ds'D D. Wallace of Wofford College, able his
torian, and clear thinker, has made as convincing
and logical statement we have seen in opposi-
ton to the Roosevelt plan for packing" the Su-
preme Court.
Here it is, as taken in full from The State, and
we hope every reader will examine his arguments
carefully:
"I hope that the reluctance of most busy con-
sevative people to rush into print to try to tell
their duly elected representatives how to run the
government will not prevent their letting views be
known regarding the attack by President Roosevelt
on the independence and integrity of the Supreme
Court
Coming as it does following the courts annul-
ling certain New Deal laws, the proposal to add six
new members to the court cannot be taken in eff
feet as other than proposal to pack the court for
the purpose of obtaining a foregone conclusion.
Let it be asked whether such a proposal would
have been made if all the New Deal acts had been
upheld by the court, whether it would be made
if it were certain that the six new judges would
vote to annul such measures. In communities where
opinion runs swiftly and narrowly, said a wise
South Carolinian in the exciting days of one of our
state crises, many things apt to be accepted as
good and true and others to be reprobated which
calm reflection finds to be the opposite.
1.-The proposal TO retire all federal judges at 70
would incur large losses, but would probably in
the long run do more good than harm if adopted
as a permanent and reasonable policy and not as a
court-packing procedure for some particular pur-
pose. Judge Holmes when he died at 81 the
most liberal judge on the supreme bench. On the
other hand, some of the younger members of the
bench may at times prove to be among the most
Conservative. But as permanent policy personal
.stinctions cannot be made. Let all judges, state
and federal be retired at 20 on full pay as the
lesser of two evils
"The proposal to raise the membership of the
court to Is would make the matter OF aged judge:
worse, not better; for these new judges would
themselves soon become over 70 and then the
younger members of the court would be smalle,
proportion of its membership than now. Now eact
aged Judges death renews one-ninth of the court
with new blood Then only one-fifteenth of new
blood would come in This alone is sufficient tc
show that what is desired is not primarily relief
from antequated judges, but the removal of con
scientious judicial opposition TO certain present
emergency policies The proposal is in effect, what
ever it may be in enthusiastic idealsrn proposal
to pack the court in the hope of obtaining pre-
determined decisions That precedent once estab
lished, there is no protection of constitutional hb
erty against any temporary political majority.
Questions such this should be frankly met
by the legally provided means, that is to say amend
ing the constitution. That the constitution must be
amended to meet modern conditions regard as
ndisputable. The question is, Shall it be amended
by frank, straightforward constitutional means, o,
shall il be warped and twisted, contrary to judges
oaths to support and defend it If the latter
is adopted, the character of not only the Judiciary
but the other two departments of the government
is fatally undermined; for one will, with