Evening star., 1937-10-15
THE POLITICAL
MILL
BY G. GOULD LINCOLN.


commended by the President, will be
ready for submission to either House or
| Senate no one seems to know. Chair
man Marvin Jones of the House Com
mittee on Agriculture has been working
on crop-control bill during the recess
| 1t is possible he will call his committee
to meet in Washington in advance of
| the opening of the special session on
| November IS. The Senate Committee
| on Agriculture. headed by Senator Smith
| OF South Carolina, began hearings in
the West and the South october l and
| will conclude them November l.. Senator
Smith has not indicated whether he
plans to bring the committee back to
Washington at that time or not.
X
Despite the Presidents insistence that
| speedy action be taken on the crop
| control bill, the situation suggests that
| there will be delays. Senator Smith and
| other members of the Committee on
| Agriculture have indicated they intend
| to take their time over this farm bill
| and write a law that will not only stand
| up in the courts, but will be of real and
| not imaginary benefit to the farmers
| themselves. They have also to take into
| consideration the consumers The House,
| because Of its rules, is able to act more
| speedily than the Senate on controver-
| Sial measures. The farm bill. on that
| account, may receive consideration first
| IN the House.
Supposedly the farm bill will have to
| stand the scrutiny of the administra-
| ton in any event-particularly of the
| President and Secretary Wallace of the
| Department of Agriculture-even after
| it has been whipped into shape by the
| congressional committees.
In the Senate a special order was made
last August to take up the anti-lynching
bill, which has passed the House, imme-
| diately after the farm bill has been dis
| posed of. If Southern Democratic Sena-
| tors follow the course they have pursued
| in the past they will make a last-ditch
fight against this anti-lynching bill
not because they believe in lynching. but
because they insist it is matter which
the States should deal with, not the
Federal Government. Knowing that the
anti-lynching bill is due to come before
the Senate for action as soon as the
farm bill has been passed. the opponents
of the measure will not be in any great
hurry to get the farm bill out of the way.
Southern Democratic Senators have
been effective in fighting off anti-lynch-
ing bills in the past by the filibuster
route. 1t is only few years ago that
they conducted campaign of obstruc-
ton which tied the Senate into bow
knots before motion could even be
made to take up the anti-lynching bill
Today, however. there is an overwhem-
ing majority of Democrats and New
Dealers in the Senate. Many of them
come from States of the West and the
North. and the Southern contingent on
the Democratic side of the chamber is
really in the minority. The Democrats
from the West and North and the
administration, has angled strongly for
the support of the colored voters. They
may be expected to continue vigorously
the fight for the anti-lynching legisla-
tion. What will be the political effect
in the South is still to be determined
Before Congress adjourned in August
the Senate had passed a wages-and-
hours bill. the second of the major
measures on the Presidents program for
the special session now approaching. 1t
was held up in the House There the
Rules Committee declined to bring out
special rule for its consideration. That
bill can be taken up promptly in the
House and disposed of. if the opposition
has been overcome. 1t looks, however,
as though this was the only measure on
the flve-point program of the President
upon which quick action may be taken,
and that is not entirely sure.
The Senate can tackle the Presidents
bill for the reorganization of the execu-
tive department of the Government
Senator Byrnes of South Carolina. who
stepped into control of that legislation
after the death of the late Senator
Robinson, says he is ready to 60 ahead.
Senator Byrd of Virginia, another Demo-
crat, is by no means ready to 60 ahead.
This bill is likely to bring a long, drawn
out fight, with Byrd demanding that
many of the provisions asked by the
President be stricken out and that the
measure be designed to bring real econ
omy in the Government service.
The other two points in the Presidents
program, the regional planning units,
like the T. " A. and the bills to
strengthen the antitrust laws, will have
their day, but how soon no one seems to
know. Take it by and large, the program
which has been outlined is sure to go
into the regular session in considerable
part next January.
\
The President made no reference, in
his radio address Tuesday night, to a
new court-reform bill That doesf not
necessarily mean however, he will not
undertake to revive the issue in the regu-
lar session. If he does, he is in for
another big fight. Considerable specu-
lation has been aroused in Washington
as to whether the next attack on the
court will not be an attempt to curtail
its powers in passing on the constitution
ality of acts of Congress. The President.
in his Constitution day address, insisted
there is nothing in the Constitution
which gives the Supreme Court the right
to pass on the conStitutionality of leg
islation. This statement by the Presi-
dent has been widely challenged. Attor-
ney General Cummings, in a recent
speech, again attacked the operation of
the court, and Assistant Attorney Cen
eral Robert H. Jackson, speaking in
Rochester, N. Y, took crack at judicial
review of the acts of Congress.
x+
II the administration gets back of
bill to deny the Supreme Court the right
to review acts Of Congress, or to make
| it necessary for the court to have two
thirds or more of its members in agree
ment to hold law unconstitutional, fur
will fly. Any bill seeking again to
increase the size of the Supreme Court