Montana labor news., 1937-07-08
THE SUPREME COURT
And THE ORGANIZED
LABOR MOVEMENT
Speech of William f. Dunno, at
Butte High School, June 10.
The New Crisis and Its Possible
Outcome
Continued From Last Week.

Once again a d%eep-going social and
economic crisis has produced a crisis
of the Constitution. This crisis to-
day is more fundamental than that
which produced the Civil War.
This crisis centers around the basic
principle of the capitalist system
the vested right to unrestricted rob-
berry of the working population-the
right to throw whole huge sections
Of the working population into mass
unemployment through improved
machinery, old age or lack of profit
able markets without provision for
their livelihood.
Once again the electorate has re-
jected the party of extreme reac-
ton; but this time the majority is
more decisive, q millions as against
II millions in the popular vote, and
46 states against 2 in the electoral
vote. And once again the Supreme
Court has come forward as the bull
wark Of defeated reaction, has set
itself as a barrier to prohibit, as con-
trary to the Constitution, those poll
cies adopted by the nation in the
vast plebiscite of the election of 1896.
The Supreme Court, by multiplying
almost all the legislation embodying
R%oosevelts policies, and thus closing
constitutional doors against any mea-
sures of a progressive, democratic,
and MISUNDERSTANDING character,
has brought the country into a dead
end canyon.
Roosevelt, and all the progressive
and democratic forces which have
gathered around him, must either
surrender to the program Of his de-
feated enemies of the Republican
Party, the Liberty League, and the
right-wing of his own Democratic
Party-OR he must take up the
battle to override the Supreme
Court, to bring that institution in
line with the policies which aroused
the enthusiastic support of the vast
majority of the people.
Roosevelt has chosen to take up
this fight. In this choice of weapons
he has taken that one which prom
ises the least fundamental victory,
but the quickest one-to change the
composition Of the Supreme Court.
The Democratic Party, which
Roosevelt heads, has an overwhelm-
ing majority Of the members of both
Houses of Congress. With his pro-
gram clearly and indisputably with
in the constitutional powers of Con-
gress to enact and enforce, it would
seem that Roosevelt's victory in this
fight should be quick and over
whelming.
But this is not so clear in the
actual relation Of forces. Among the
Democrats, particularly in the Sen
ate, there is a strong right-wing
which on this issue is combining
forces with the Republicans, prob
ably as a prelude to a more perma-
nent reactionary political regroup-
ing in the country at large. Senator
Burton K. Wheeler of Montana is the
public spokesman of this group.
In the Senate a little group whose
votes will be decisive r carefully
sitting on the exact middle of the
fence, swaying with the political
winds and trying to make up their
minds as to which side of this issue
will best advance their future politi-
cal careers.
1t is this relation of forces which
has made it necessary for Roosevelt
to go to the country with an appeal
for the support of the masses. In
this appeal the dominant note is, of
necessity, a call to the workers and
farmers, those whom Roosevelt,
speaks of as the underprivileged, +"
to rally against the forces of mon
opoly capital, of entrenched privilege
and greed.
The battle over the Supreme
Court has reached an intensity far
beyond that of the presidential cleo
ton last year, unprecedentedly bit
ter as that was. The Republican
Party, the Liberty League forces, the
Manufacturers Association, and the
Chamber of Commerce, have been
Joined by those reactionaries who a
year ago still remained for various
reasons in the camp of Roosevelt.
The Democratic Party is now in
process of being split much more
seriously and fundamentally than Al
Smith and his "~Jeffersonian Demo-
Gratis were able to split it in 1886.
The shifting of the upper classes
to opposition, and the lower classes
to support Roosevelt, is on the Su-
preme Court issue more pronounced
than ever. For the first time in ma
tional politics class divisions appear
clearly as the all-dominating feature
Of a decisive political struggle.
American Communists Stand With
Organized Labor
The working class, the farmers,
and the working middle classes, are