Coulee City dispatch. [volume] (Coulee City, Wash.) 19??-19??, 1937-08-12
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HEARD
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By Carter Field y
By CarterField

the Supreme court, may prove the
chief obstacle next year to Pres1-
dent Roosevelt's New Deal pro-
gram. Close friends assert that the
President has not given up his hope
for reform" of the Supreme court
that with the converting Of con-
gress in January he will lay his
plans to put some sort of legisla-
ton through to obtain his obJec-
tives, or resort to the constitutional
amendment route, which he has al
ways objected to as too SLOW
There is no doubt that this is his
present intention. But he just may
find himself faced with new prob
lens next. January. The point is
that congress is feeling its oats. 1t
is in no mood for insurgency. Every
thing on the surface is going to be
kept as peaceful as possible. DEM
ocrats will be thinking Of the pri-
maries and election next summer
and fall. They do not want to en-
courage gentlemen-or ladies-back
home to run against them in the
Democratic primaries, with "loyal-
ty to the President" as the chief is
sue. They have healthy respect
for the machine into ev-
cry county of every state-which
Jim Farley has built up.
But there are many degrees OF
obedience-many fine lines where
loyalty to the President enters. 1t
certainly does enter into the phras-
ing of bills, but it is very difficult
to make the folks back home under
stand this.
On clean-cut question such as
whether six additional justices shall
be added to the Supreme court there
are no such fine lines. One has to
be for the President or against him.
But most legislative matters are
not so clearly defined. And it is
easy for a Democratic senator to
protest the utmost loyalty to the
Chief Executive but insist that Har-
old Ickes, or Harry Hopkins, or
Henry Wallace had deceived the
President into taking a very un-
Democratic position!
Brain Trusters Out
In the first place, there is no
chance whatever, judging from the
present temper of senators and rep
resentatives, that there will be any
more Brain Trust drafting of legis-
lation-much less permitting a
Brain Truster to sit in on the meet
ings of a conference committee
seeking to rewrite the senate and
house drafts of a piece of legisla-
ton into some compromise form
that will be acceptable to both. This
happened in the famous public util-
ity holding company death sentence
bill, but it is not likely to happen
again.
Moreover, the struggle to control
the party, looking forward to the
1910 campaign, with view to NOM
mating Roosevelt's successor and
writing the platform of that year,
has already begun. There is a very
strong group of Democrats who do
not intend that the Democratic NOM
inee of 1910 shall be a New Dealer.
Words of praise for the Roosevelt
administration will drip from the
platform, if they have their way,
but there will be a good deal OF
hypocrisy and party expediency in
them. Their real intention is to
carry the Democratic party back
quite a step toward the ideals of
such men as Carter Glass and 10
siah Bailey, rather than forward to
those of Felix Frankfurter and Ben
Cohen.
So it is possible, if not probable,
that Mr.. Roosevelt will have good
deal of trouble in getting just what
he wants from congress next year
despite the oratory from the very
men who will be seeking to block
him praising him to the skies. L
is the conviction of many disinterest
ed observers that congress mex
year will pass no legislation which
the present Supreme court woule
not approve. But it looks as if i
will be a most interesting session
Still Puzzle
The attack of Gov. George H
Earle of Pennsylvania on Gov. Her
bert H. Lehman of New York il
connection with Lehman's letter tt
Senator Robert F. Wagner on thu
Supreme court issue is still puzzlint
Washington politicians.
Every one here has assumed fo
a long time that Governor Earl
was hearing the buzzing of the pres
idential bee practically continuous
ly. So they have been trying to fl
together the pieces of this jigsav
puzzle and get the picture whicl
must be in Governor Earle's mind.
One phase of it is of course yer.
clear. Earle wanted to curry favo
with President Roosevelt. He ha
lost no opportunity to do that-no
only to praise the President extrav
agantly at every opportunity, but t
demonstrate himself, in one way o
another, as being even more Ney
Dealish than the President himself
The idea here of course is to sho,
Mr.. Roosevelt that Mr.. Earl is jus
the type of man to whom might b
safely entrusted the carrying on c