The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1937-03-18
Reviewing The Record

Reviewing The Record
In such a fight as that over the Pres
ident's proposal to pack the Supreme
Court, the heat engendered makes it
difficult to see the facts clearly.
There is tendency on both sides
to exaggerate and become emotional.
It is not surprising that the people as
a whole get confused and line up
mostly according to their prejudices.
E**
However, the record of Mr.. RoOSe-
welt in this business is such that even
the most friendly and least discrimi-
mating mind can hardly fail to be i'm
pressed with its homogeneous and con-
tiicting character. 1t is doubtful wheth-
er in all our history any President ever
got himself into position where his
words were so completely contradic-
tory and his proposals so wholly out
of harmony with his pledges. Only the
blindly partisan can shut their eyes
to the facts and it is an amazing thing
that any President can thus play fast
and loose with the American people
without arousing far more general re-
sentiment than he has.
##*
Partly it is perhaps a tribute to his
personality and partly to the lowered
standards of country where con-
stancy to a promise and consistency
in a course appear no longer regarded
as essential in a public man. Those
who reflect on that part of the record
so far developed and not disputed are
COMPOUNDED by the inconsistencies.
There is, first, Mr.. Roosevelt's declara-
ton in 1888, read in the Senate Friday
by Senator Wheeler, from his book,
Looking Forward" in which the Pres
ident fatty asserted he did not believe
in putting more judges on the bench,
considered that that method not only
would not cure the defects but would
aggravate them. In other words, Mr..
Roosevelt in 1888 criticized and OPP
posed the very program he presents in
1887.
In the summer Of 1886 Mr.. Roosevelt
himself wrote the plank in his platform
which pledged him to seek "clarify-
ing amendment" to the Constitution
Instead Of seeking such an amendment,
he seeks to put six new judges on the
court and thus insure Interpretation
of the Constitution as he wants it..
During the campaign charges were
made by various opponents that if
elected the President would attempt
to seize the court, and these We're de-
nounced as wicked and unfounded by
various Administration spokesman, in
Guiding Senator Ashurst, chairman of
the Judiciary Committee, whose sup
port of the Presidents plan has made
him the current Senatorial joke.
~
Such was the record prior to the
election. Since then, it is equally con-
fusing. When the President first
launched his plan, he presented in his
message number of plausible argu-
ments stressing the delay in trying
cases, picturing the judges as over
burdened and back in their work
Within a week these arguments had
been shown without foundation. The
reverse of what the President argued
was true, and instead Of the courts
being back in its work, it was the
President who was behind in his APP
pointments-there being at the time
nine vacancies on the Federal bench
which he had not filled, some of them
vacant for more than a year. One OF
two of these he has since filled in ac-
cord with recommendations from Sena-
tors who have swung to his side of the
fight.
##*
After the facts were brough out, the
President completely abandoned the
elaborate case for Reform of the judi
ciary" set out in his message, dropped
the arguments as to clogged calendars
as though they had never been made.
In his most recent speech there was no
concealment of his purpose to secure
control of the court. His attack was
centered upon three points-frst, the
age of the justices; second, the iniquity
of fve-to-four decisions; third, the al
legged usurpation by the court of leg
IEVHINCI0Nc VIZ, 20 al