Evening star., 1937-04-12
Court

Continued From First PageD
oen Hartman. mentioned for appoint
ment as Minister to Norway: Mrs. Gif-
| lord Plnchot. wife of the former Penn
/ sylvania Governor and Mrs Mabel
Walker Wlllebrandt. former Assistant
United States Attorney General.
The Jones and Laughlin case opin-
ion reversed ruling by the Fifth Cir
cunt Court Of Appeals. which had held
the activities of the steel corporation
constituted intrastate commerce and
| therefore were not subject to regula-
tlon by Congress.
( The Jones & Laughhn Corp, ac-
cordlng TO findings by the Labor Re-
lations Board, had been guilty of un-
lar labor practices in discriminating
/ against employees belonging to a union
animated with the Amalgamated As
soclation of Iron, Steel and Tin
Workers
The labor board had found that the
( steel corporation, although having its
Two principal plants in Pennsylvania
used the lnstrumentalities of inter-
state commerce in shipping raw ma
terials to its mills and in transporting
It's finished products to various sections
. OF the country. The Supreme Court
( opinion pointed out that these findings
by the board were not in dispute so
lar as the challenge of the validity
OF the act was concerned.
The steel corporation challenged the
/ Wagner act in its entirety as an at
tempt to regulate all industry. thus
invading the reserved powers of the
States over their local concerns.
/ The company also argued that the
legislative history of the act showed
an essential universal purpose in the
/ nght of which its scope cannot be
limited by either construction or by
/ the application of the separability
/ clause. This clause permits the court
to sustain valid features of an act
| while declaring unconstitutional pro-
| visions invalid.
/ Chief Justices Words
Referring to these contentious. the
Chief Justice said
II this conception of terms. intent
and consequent inseparabillty were
sound, the act would necessarily fall by
reason of the limitation upon the Fed
eral power which inheres in the con-
sttuuonal grant, as well as because
OF the explicit reservation of the tenth
amendment.
The authority of the Federal Gov
ernment may not be pushed TO such
an extreme as to destroy the distinc-
ton. which the commerce clause itself
establishes, between commerce among
several States and the internal con-
Germs of the States That distinction
between what is national and what il
local in the activities of commerce is
vital to the maintenance of our Fed
eral system.
But we are not at liberty to DENY
effect to specific provisions, which
Congress has constitutional power To
enact, by superimposing upon them
inferences from general legislative dec
larationS of an ambiguous character,
| even If found in the same statute.
The cardinal principle of statu-
tory construction is to save and not
to destroy. We have repeatedly held
that as between two possible interpre-
tatlons of the statute. by one of which
1t would be unconstitutional and by
the other valid, our plain duty is to
adopt that which will save the act.
Even'to avoid serious doubt, the rule
is the same"
Seen Reply TO President.
This language by the Chief Justice
was construed as a direct reply to the
President and those of his supporters
who have charged that the Supreme
| Court, in passing on the validity of
acts of Congress. had failed to follow
the rule that the law should be pre-
sumed to be constitutional until the
contrary is clearly shown. He added ::
we think it clear that the national
labor relations act may be construed
so as to operate within the sphere of
constitutional authority"
Discussing the avowed purposes Of
the act, the opinion pointed out that
the grant of authority to the board
lationship between all industrial en-
ployes and employers"
Its terms" the opinion continued,
do not impose collective bargaining
upon all industry, regardless of effects
upon interstate or foreign commerce.
1t purports to reach only what may
be deemed to burden or obstruct that
commerce, and thus qualified, it must
be construed as contemplating the
exercise of control within constitu-
tional bounds.
1T is familiar principle that acts
which directly burden or obstruct in
terstate or foreign commerce, or its
free flow, are within the reach of the
congressional power. Acts having that
effect are not rendered immune be-
cause they grow out of labor disputes -
Combining their dissenting opinions
in the cases of the Jones g. Laughlin
Corp, the case of the Fruehauf Trailer
Co. and the case of the Friedman
Harry Marks Clothing Co., Inc, the
four justices declared 1T seems clear
to us that Congress has transcended
the powers granted.
| The right to contract is funda-
mental and includes the privilege OF
selecting those with whom one Is
willing to assume contractural rela-
tions. This right is unduly abridged
by the act now upheld. A private
owner is deprived of power to manage
his own property by freely selecting
those to whom his manufacturing
operations are to be intrusted We
think this cannot lawfully be done in
circumstances like those here dis
posed'