Carbon County news., 1937-07-30

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would not hold some Of his social
Legislation constitutional. That set Of
reasons was knocked into a cooked
hat when the Supreme court upheld
the Washington state minimum
wage law, the Wagner labor rela.
tions act and the social security
taxes. Then came the resignation
of Justice Van Devanter. Justice
Van Devanter was one Of the men
whom. Mr.. Roosevelt had In mind
as unwilling and unlikely to see so
cial legislation through the same
glasses as Mr., Roosevelt saw the
situation in the country. 49,. .
The Van DeVanter resignation
gave the President an opportunity to
appoint new member to the court.
It 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 Gil 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 a radi-
cal for the highest court. In any
event, those opposed to the court
bin 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
Democratic-dom 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 itsas long ais they would have
fought the original because it viii
give the Chief Executive control Of |
The Supreme court just as the ear
lier one would have done.
Frankly, the substitute appears to |
be losing ground because in the |
house of representatives the other |
lay. Chairman Summers Of the |
house judiciary committee, a Texas
Democrat, announced that If the
senate should pass the bill and if it
his committee, it would
never be reported to the house. Mr..
summers is long time member Of
he house and q highly respected
,ne. He dominates his committee.
There were few who believed that.
lfter the chairman's declaration, /
he Supreme court bin ever could
each the floor Of the house. L
There is yet another phase Of this I
picture. / refer to the line Of cleav.
lge that has. been drawn within the
Democratic party on account of the
court legislation. It was this about
which, Summers spoke but which
Il never mentioned directly in his
peech. He talked about splitting
he Democratic party and that was
IS near as he ever got to saying
hat if the President forces the court
ill through congress (Which he
night yet be able to do) there will
esult Democratic party and a
Tew Deal party. I.
President Roosevelt vetoed little
nown and little discussed bill the
-. other day. It was
Star Route known. as ''H. r.
Bill Vetoed 4408. an Act to-
~. ....=. Provide for the
OF Star-koute Contracts at
our Year Intervals" The title, of
curse. will mean little to most Of
hose who read these lines. But, .
mis- was bill intended to do Justice
|; those underprivileged classes
bout which Mr. Roosevelt has often
poken in his fireside chats over
1e radio. The men who would have
enefited by this piece Of legisla. .
on were the star route carriers of
le mails-the service that dates
Ack to the stagecoach days Of
merica and the service from r
'hich originated the Postal depart
rents famous phrase. ''the mails
lust go through" The star route
the only means by which a good i
lany thousand persons are aole to 4
eceive mails on anything like a 4
lodern basis because this service
caches the out-of-the-Way inland
WINS where railroads are not yet
nd possibly never will be in opera
on.
| watched this legislation 60
trough the house without dissent
Ig vote; / saw Senator McKellar,
emocrat, of Tennessee. attack the
III in vicious language and then l
Nv the senate pass it by a vote of
aarly two to one.