The Washington times., 1937-03-06
COURT BATTLE
STAND SHIFTED
BYPRESIDENT
Frank Policy Is Hailed
As End of Pretence
In Bitter Fight
By FRANKLIN G. sARTWELL

ny FhANhLlN u. SAHIWELL
President Roosevelt has sur
rendered the frontline trenches
in his battle to make over the
United States Supreme Court and
has fallen back to what he re-
CARDS as a stronger position.
The pretence, stated at great
length and in some detail in the
Presidents message to Congress
proposing that he be given power
to appoint additional justices,
that the enlargement of the
court was necessitated by a
crowded docket and the inability
of the court to keep abreast OF
it's business, was totally aban-
doned when the President deliv-
cred his March 4 address.
Strategically, that first posi-
ton was bad and could not have
b. IN held.
Docket Kept Up
AS soon as the Presidents
message was delivered 1t was
proved that the court was keep
ing up with it's docket; that the
age of the justices had nothing
to do with crowded dockets in
inferior deral courts, as
claimed in the message, and that
under Supreme Court procedure
the addition of even a hundred
more justices would not speed up
consideration of cases in that trl-
bunal. ~
So damaging was the battering
to which that first position OF the
President was subjected by mem
bers of his own party-even while
the partys official machinery was
grinding out propaganda to oe-
fend it-that it is not surprising
that the President has now taken
I'D the more frank and open posi-
tion, that he wants to appoint aodl-
tional justices to the court in order
that he may have his legislative
program declared constitutional.
Some of the Presidents best
friends, even some of those who are
going along with him on the court
proposal admit that the original
message was a tactical error-a
case of outsmarting himself. 1t
was labeled generally as devious" "
clever, less than frank" and one
irate legislator declared it to be
"a damned lea remark which
many felt to be too robust.
Failed to GO Over"
The surprising thing about the
message was that anyone at the
White House could have hoped
that it would "get across"
It didn't.
And so the talk of clogged dock
cts, of how the lowered mental or
physical vigor leads men to avoid
an examination of complicated and
changed conditions" is to be
dropped.
BY going to the heart of the
problem and frankly proclalmlng
that what he wants is a Supreme
Court through which he can get
approval of his economic and social
program, President Roosevelt has
greatly cleared the atmosphere on
Capitol Hill.
This should be helpful both for
proponementS and opponents OF
the court proposal. -.
Mr.. Roosevelt's supporters will
no longer have to discuss age and
docketS. They can pin their argu,
ments on the desirability of getting
a court which will accept as con,
tutional the legislation which MI.
Roosevelt puts through Congress.
Opponents of the proposal, on
the other hand, will no longer have
to search beneath the original mes
sage for the arguments which they
must attack. They can point out
with much greater simplicity the
danger of a controlled judiciary.
With this Qualification the Presl-
dent is right when he says that the
fight has just begun.