Evening star., 1938-06-12
Present Issue Is That of
Checks and Balances
BY. OVEN L. SCOTT.

voters, lays claim to one distinction.
This Congress demonstrated that the
Roosevelt dream of real New Deal will
have to wait for still further shift in
the balance of Government power.
Elections in November, from the Presi-
dents point Of view, will be important
| in the degree to which they represent
a definite shift in this balance Of power
| that has been Mr.. Roosevelt's chief
| problem from the early days of his first
| administration. If President Roosevelt
| gets what he Is aiming at in the months
just ahead, 1899 will become a year to
/ make history.
The Presidents big trouble is that the
structure of American government is
budlt upon a series Of checks and ball
| ances.
All through his first administration
Mr.. Roosevelt was forced to keep one
eye on the Supreme Court. He was
fearful that the Nations judges would
exercise their power in way to inter-
| fere with the power of the Chief Execu-
tive. This fear was realized in court
decisions that overturned much of the
| first New Deal.
Faced with what he regarded as an
| encroachment on his power by the judi
| ciary. President Roosevelt attacked that
branch of the Government at the start
| of his second administration The Presi-
dent went down to apparent defeat. But
| actually the Supreme Court now Is inter-
| preting the Constitution in way that
| allows the President to do legally the
| things he wants to do. A series of
eighteen victories for the Government
| on constitutional questions and no de-
s,H ttn %n,vr tue I~~l .A~I~
demonstrates the judges are pretty well
out Of his path.
II y
Yet hardly had the judges stepped
aside before Congress appeared in
what-to Mr.. Roosevelt-was an unex-
| pected role.
Senators and members of the House
were flattered into thinking they now
could fill the role formerly filled by the
Supreme Court majority. They tasted
their power in the court fight and liked
| it. They beat the President on the issue
| of governmental reorganization and rode
rough-shod over his wishes on the issue
| of taxation.
The result is that If Mr. Roosevelt is
| to do the things he wishes to do before
| leaving office he must have Senate
| and House that are more amenable to
executive direction.
Here is the real explanation of the
elimination committee" up of
Jealous New Dealers-which is seeking
with Indifferent success, to turn what
actually is New Deal minority in the
Senate and the House into a New Deal
majority. Lacking success in that en-
deavor, the President may face what to
him will be highly unsatisfactory final
two years in Office.
| More and more of the discerning Gov
| ernment officials and even members OF
| Congress are found to be convinced that
| modern problems are going to place an
increasingly severe strain on the rigid
structure of this country's governmental
machinery. AS one important Official
not a New Dealer, observed:
IF government is going to be ex-
pected by the people to meet the fast
moving economic problems that develop
in this modern world. then there will
have to be some basis for a strong execu-
tive leadership in tune with a responsive
Legislature. The British appear to have
solved this problem. The United States
still faces it. They have, under their
parliamentary system, what amounts to
a dictatorship subject to recall The
Legislature either follows the leadership
of the executive arm of the government
| or the government falls and the people
| pass on the issue
AS consequence, British democracy
is flexible and quick acting, with the
executive exercising a free hand once a
course is set. There is no supreme court
check and neither is there a check by
| the Legislature on major issue, unless
| an election is to result.
If President Roosevelt had been
| British Premier, his Government would
| have fallen on two issues in recent
months-one involving reorganization of
the Government, the other taxation.
| But it is in the field of government
| controls over business and over finance
| that the contrast is most important and
most marked. The British government
| keeps tight hold on the nations econ
omy through controls and through taxes
| that would fabbergast an American
Congress.
| Mr.. Roosevelt, however, thinks that
he can get the same results in this
| country even with the rigid system of
checks and balances in government that
| the British get with their more flexible
| system. Yet the Presidents first expert
| ence should warn him of the troubles
| that certainly lie in the ambitious plans
| he has for the Congress that is to come
to Washington in 1899.
| X X 4
President Roosevelt sought recovery in
his first administration chiefly through
the use Of the compensatory spending"
theories of John Maynard Keynes, the
British economist Congress was very
| agreeable to the spending part of these
| theories. There was no White House
difficulty in obtaining the money with
| which to start the flow of cash into the
pockets of those who would spend this
money.
But when 1886 came around, with re-
| covery well under way, the Keynes the
| ory called for the Government to con-
tract its contribution to purchasing
| power through cut in spending and
| through higher taxes. The goal at that
|, stage should have been an early balance
in the budget and the start of an effort
| to cut down debts incurred by the earlier
spending.
President Roosevelt listened to the
Keynes theory advisers and agreed to
do their bidding But Congress, instead
of doing as they should have done to
fill the recovery prescription, dumped
two and one-half billion bonus dollars
into purchasing power stream that
already was widening. This added
| sneudinc rrodiIced a rrematllre hO0n in