Montana labor news., 1937-06-24
THE SUPREME COURT
And THE ORGANIZED
LABOR MOVEMENT
Speech of William f. Dunno, at
Butte High School, June 10.
METHODS OF SOLVING THE
CONSTITUTIONAL CRISIS
Continued From Last Week

Continued From Last Week.
The Constitution itself provides
two ways of solving such a constitu-
tional crisis. One way is to amend
the Constitution, as provided in that
document, with a declaration on the
matter in dispute. The other way is
to bring the opinion of the Supreme
Court into agreement with Congress
and the executive by changing its
composition through additional APP
pointments. The only other way is
by civil war-military force.
Constitutional amendment IS, how
ever, so hedged about with Difficult
ties that it has never been success
fully applied on any question which
deeply divided the country on eco
nomic and social lines. Such an
amendment must be submitted by
Act of Congress to the separate 48
state legislatures for their approval,
and for adoption requires the agree
ment of SO out of the 48 states. Any
10 states can block such an amend
ment and prevent its ratification.
Such a group of 10 states might COM
prise less than five per cent of the
population, but its veto is as effec-
tive as if it were a majority. Amend
ments to the Constitution, on funda-
mental issues, have proved in past
history capable of adoption only aft
er a practical solution of the issue
in controversy had been found by
other means.
A few simple examples will suf-
ficiently illustrate this point. Pro-
hibition of the manufacture and sale
of alcoholic beverages was written
into the Constitution during the
World War, under the influence of
war conditions which made national
control necessary. After the war,
the population turned against pro-
hibition by an overwhelming major
ity. But prohibition remained for
many years the law of the land, until
mass violation of the law had multi
fled it in practice. Only the growth
of a tremendous industry, outside
the law and creating an atmosphere
of general lawlessness among the
population, finally forced the advo-
Gates of prohibition themselves to
agree to its repeal as impossible OF
enforcement. Since this issue did
not involve any basic alignment Of
class interests, it serves to bring out
all the more sharply the rigidity of
the American constitutional system.
The constitutional amendments
which abolished slavery in the U. S,
and guaranteed equal rights to all
citizens, came only many years after
the practical decision had been made
by the Civil War. The slave power
in the Southern states had long dom
mated the Federal government in
all its branches; it had established
the principle of the constitutional
inviolability of slavery as an institu-
ton. The slave power lost control
of the executive and Legislative
branches of the government. in the
election of 1860, not on the issue Of
slavery itself, but only on the issue
of its extension to the new Western
states just being opened up; ever
after 1860 it still retained control o.
the Supreme Court. Slavery wa
destroyed only when the slave state
tried to withdraw from the fedora
union, in order, by military power
to force slavery upon the new states
Even then, abolition of slavery wa
only adopted, after four years o
Civil War and the sacrifice Of hun
dreds of thousands of lives, as
military measure necessary to a mill
tary decision of the struggle to pre-
vent the permanent.disruption of tn,
Union. Only years later did consti
tutional amendment register this de
cision in the fundamental law.
Look at the fate of the proposed
amendment prohibiting child labo.
in articles of interstate commerce
This has been a source of Legislative
struggle for years and is still hang
ing fire.
Of all possible issues one woulC
think that the constitutional outlaw
ing of child labor would secure al
most unanimous agreement will
little controversy. Senator Wheele.
and other opponents of Suprem,
Court reform claim that the mali
opposition to the Child Labor amend
ment comes not from economic roy
alists" profiting from child labor bu
from certain religious groups.
He is wrong-or at best only par
tally correct. The spokesman of tn
Catholic church oppose the Chill,
Labor amendment. In New Yorl
state they recently succeeded in de
feating it. The hierarchy is exercise
(Continued on Page 81