Evening star., 1937-03-31
Dorothy Thompson Is First
Woman to Appear at
Senate Hearings.
CAPACITY CROWD DRAWN
BY PRESENCE OF WRITER
Follows DR.. Edwin Borchard of
Yale, Who Terms Proposal
Speculative Leap"
BY JOHN H. CLINE.

Describing herself as researcher
into mortality of republics, Miss Dor
othy Thompson. newspaper columnist.
told the Senate Judiciary Committee
this afternoon that the Presidents
plan to pack" the Supreme Court
necessarily carries an implied threat
of dictatorship.
The appearance of the smartlv
dressed columnist, first woman TO
testify before the committee, drew a
capacity crowd to the large Senate
caucus room. Many of these were
women who were reluctant to leave
during the luncheon recess fer fear
they might not be able to get their
seats during the afternoon session.
Miss Thompson. wife OF Sinclair
Lewis, the novelist took the stand
after Dr. Edwin Borchard, professor
Of constitutional law at Yale, had
testified that the court plan is
speculative leap in the dark unless
revolution in the attitude of the
judges toward the Constitution Is
anticipated"
Minton Discusses Hughes.
In the Senate, meanwhile, Senator
Minton, Democrat, of Indiana, de-
clared that Chief Justice Hughes once
a candidate for President, had never
forgotten the lessons he learned in
the arena of politics"
Minton ardent supporter of Presi-
dent Roosevelt's court reorganization
bill, took the Senate floor to discuss
the letter written by Chief Justice
Hughes to Senator Wheeler, Demo-
crat. of Montana. Hughes said an
increase in the size of the court would
impair rather than increase its ef-
ficiency.
Borchard and Miss Thompson
agreed that the court legislation is
legally constitutional but politically
unconstitutional"
Declaring that for some time she
had been IAN observer at the collapse
of constitutional democracies," Miss
Thompson continued:
Il have never suggested that Presi-
dent Roosevelt is trying to tablish
a dictatorship, but I have said that
if any President wanted to establish
dictatorship and to do so with al
the appearances of legality. this is
the way he would take. He would
keep the Supreme Court, but switch
it into line.
Coups Keep Legal Apparatus.
The modern coup detat," she
added, does not destroy the legal ap-
paratus of the state. 1t keeps it, for
the coup detat wishes to appear legal
1t only alters its spirit and its aim
The greatest danger to democracies
she continued, is that reforms, oftel
very good and much needed reforms,
should be rushed through at rate III
which they cannot be digested by So
ciety.
Pointing out that Hitler, in aSsum-
ing leadership in Germany, took an
oath to support the constitution OF
Weimar, she declared:
He has never offered another Con-
stitution. He just obliterated it by a
series of DEGREES backed by supine
Parliament. But the German gov
ernment, under the Weimar constitu-
ton, did not perish because it failed to
meet human needs. 1t perished be-
cause it guaranteed TO meet them, and
there came time when it could not
possibly meet them on the scale to
which the people hao become accuS-
toned"
Political Freedom Necessary.
Declaring the demand for economic
freedom" through a redistribution of
wealth justified" she warned that
economic freedom will prove a COM
plete mirage unless it is accomplished
with the maintenance of political
freedom"
Urging constitutional amendment
instead of the court bill, she con-
cluded:
You are being asked to push the
process of centering power in the Ma
(See HEARING, Page A-5)