Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

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I w i Baniwill Peopla-SentincU Barm we It 8. C, Thwa^ay, FtbruarylSslW? News Review of Current • > v Events the World Over President Proposes Reorganization of Federal Judiciary, Increasing Supreme Court Justices to Fifteen— r Efforts to Settle Motor Strike. By EDWARD W. PICKARD C^Wcatm Newspaper Union. PRESIDENT ROOSEVELT electri- * fled congress with a surprise mes sage proposing sweeping changes in the federal. court system which would allow him to pack the Supreme Court with justices President Roosevelt 1. That for every federal judge with a service record of at least ten years “continuously or otherwise” who fails to resign or re tire within six months after reach ing the age of 70 the President shall appoint another judge. 2. That the number of additional judges so appointed shall not exceed fifty, the Supreme Court being lim ited to 15 members, appellate and special courts to two additional members each and district courts to twice the present number of judges. S. That two-thirds of the Supreme Court and three-fifths of other courts shall constitute a quorum. 4. That the chief justice of the Supreme Court shall transfer circuit and district judges to jurisdictions with congested dockets in order to speedup disposition of litigation. 5. That the Supreme Court shall be empowered to appoint a proctor to supervise the conduct of business in the lower courts. The President also proposed a re form in the injunctive process which he declared would expedite Supreme Court rulings on the constitutionality of legislation and would further in sure “equality” and “certainty” of federal Justice. He said frequent in junctions which set aside acts of congress are “in clear violation of the principle of equity that injunc tions should be granted only in those rare cases of manifest illegality and Irreparable damage against which the ordinary course of the law offer* no protection." He asked that congress forbid any Injunction or decision by any federal court touching a constitutional ques tion without “previous and ample notice” to the attorney general to give the government an opportunity “to present evidence and be heard.” His bill proposed that any lower court decision which involved a con stitutional question be appealed di rectly to the Supreme Court, where it would take immediate precedence over all other business. New Deal leaders in congress were expected to back the Presi dent’s proposals solidly, while it be came apparent that the conservative Democrats might align with the •Olid Republican group in opposing it. The latter group saw in the bill a direct attempt to get rid of some of the older justices of the Supreme Court who have proved continual stumbling blocks for pet New Deal acts. Chief Justice Charles Evans Hughes, approaching 75, has voted sometimes to sustain, sometimes to invalidate New Deal laws. Justice Willis Van Deventer, 78, has invari ably opposed New Deal laws; so have James Clark McReynolds, 75; George Sutherland, 75, and Pierce Butler, 71. Louis Dembitz Brandeis, 80, has voted to sustain New Deal acts, except tin the cast of the NRA, rejected by unanimous decision. If the President is successful in putting over the proposed changes it will be the eighth time in the 148 years of the Supreme Court’s history that the number of justices has been changed. The largest number ever to sit on the bench was 10 from 1863 to 1866, and the smallest number 5 from 1801 to 1802. DROUGHT together by Gov. Frank Murphy at the demand of the White House, representatives of both sides in the General Motors strike were in al most continuous conference seeking a way to settle the controversy. The corporation was represented by Wil liam S. Knudsen, executive vice pres ident, and John Thomas Smith at the legal staff. Act ing for the strikers were John L. Lewis, head of the C. I. O., John Brophy, its Homer Martin, president of United Automobile Workers. It was reported that at one time the conference was near collapse. Then Governor Murphy received a message from the White House say ing the President expected a settle ment. During an interim the governor said both sides were in earnest and doing their best. ' Judge Gadola in Flint had issued an injunction ordering the sit-down William S. Knudsen director, and the strikers there to leave the plants. The sheriff served notice to the men and they Jeered him. They then sent to Governor Murphy a bombastic -message to the effect that they would resist eviction to the death. The mayor, city man ager and police chief of Flint, as serting the people were tired of strikes and violence, organized be tween 500 and 1,000 police reserves. The police chief warned Lewis he “had better call off his strike if he doesn’t want another Herrin mas sacre.” A writ of attachment for forcible expulsion of the sit-down strikers was obtained by the G. M. lawyers. V/f ARTTIME workers on the Paci- fle coast ended their long strike by accepting working agree ments that had been negotiated in San Francisco and the 40,000 men returned to their jobs. Ships in all the ports, long idle, got up steam and prepared to resume business, and the ticket offices were thronged with passengers. Shipowners issued a statement as serting the end of the walkout would mean a business revival for 1,000 industrial plants and 500 export of fices up and down the coast. CECRETARY of the Interior Har- ^ old Ickes and the national re sources committee of which he is chairman have produced a public works and national water program for the next six years, and it was submit ted to congress by President Roosevelt with the recommen dation that it should be adopted. It in volves the expendi ture of five billion dollars and calls for lump sum annual appropriations under Harold Ickes the regular budget for a list of ap proved projects, and allocation of the funds to a permanent public works or development agency. As the chief part of the plan, Mr. Roosevelt presented congress with a list of some $2,750 000.000 worth of water conservation projects, in cluding a $116,000,000 flood-control program in the inundated Ohio and Mississippi river valleys. In his transmission message the President warned congress against considering each project as a sep arate entity. The report, be said, “should, of course, be read*in con- J notion with the recommenda tions for highways, bridges, dams, floods control, and so forth, already under construction, estimates for which have been submitted in the budget.” “During the depression,” he told congress, “we have substantially in creased the facilities and developed the resources of our country for the common welfare through public works and work-relief programs. “We have been compelled to un dertake actual work somewhat hur riedly in the emergency. “Now it is time to develop a long- range plan and policy for construc tion—to provide the best use of our resources and to prepare in advance against any other emergency.” The committee that drew up this program includes, besides M r. Ickes, Secretary of War Harry H. Woodring, WPA Administrator Har ry Hopkins, Secretary of Agricul ture Henry A. Wallace, Secretary of Labor Frances Perkins, Secretary of Commerce Daniel C. Roper, Frederic A. Delano, uncle of the President, and Charles E. Merriam, University of Chicago professor. r\ ESPITE the warm opposition of ^ Democratic Senator J. W. Bail ey of North Carolina and others, including the few Republicans, the senate passed the house deficiency relief bill carrying an appropria tion of $948,725,868. Senator Bailey spoke in support of his amendment which would require a means test, or “pauper’s oath,” as some have called it, for states, counties, and their political subdi visions to secure federal aid for their relief requirements. The amendment was rejected without a record vote. Out of the total allocated in the bill for “relief and work relief,” about $650,000,000 was expected to be given to the Works Progress Ad ministration. From this fund aid will be given to victims of floods in the Ohio and Mississippi valleys. 'T‘3 FINANCE for another year the social security board, vet erans’ administration and about thirty other federal agencies* the house appropriated one billion, for ty • six million dollars. The bill, passed without a record vote, car ried a last minute amendment pro viding that none of the funds ap propriated should be available to pay for the expenses of any con gressional investigation This amendment was aimed at senate investigations such as the La Foi- lette and Wheeler inquiries. what thinks about: Irvin S. Cobb Ths Plight of Spain. B everly hills, calif.— In the bloody task of utter ly destroying herself Spain can not complain that she lacked for hearty co-operation on the part of some of her sister coun tries. Openly or secretly, half of the great European powers are contrib uting to the bloody ruination, so that, when die finish comes, they’ll have spoils or dubious prestige or both and that ill-fated land will be a burying ground and a deso lation. A fellow gets to Wondering why this or that government chooses for an em blem some noble creature when the turkey buzzard or the grave-rob bing hyena would be so appropri ate. Fierce winters and devastating floods may be curing us here on this side of the water, but at least we have been spared the affliction of having for our next-door neigh bors certain nations. • • • Kidnapers' Ransoms. ITS all well enough to pass an 1 act making payment of ransom to a kidnaper a criminal offense— as though heartbroken parents would hesitate to pay ransoms to get their babies back, no matter what the penalty for so doing might be! And can you see any American jury convicting those parents? The au thor of the law is no doubt well-in tentioned but there is another law, called the law of human nature, which most surely would defeat his purposes. By the way, a person who should know what he’s talking about, tells me that three out of every four known kidnapers during recent years have been ex-convicts with records as repeated offenders. So, instead of trying to penalize agonized parents for obeying a na tural instinct, how about a snappy little law to curb certain parole boards which seem to delight in turning ’em out as fast as the courts can clap 'em in? Optimism De Luxe. T LIKE the spirit of a gentleman 1 in New York who started dredg ing operations in East river. He set out to dig up a minimum of $4,- 800,000 in gold and silver from the ooze, and to date has salvaged 96 cents, two rusty frying pans and a penknife—and is still probing. For gorgeous optimism I can think of but one case to match this. I was on the French Riviera one summer. They’d been shifting the railreftd tracks along the Gr4^i Comiche. This left a disused tun nel. So, week after week, a beard ed gentleman sat at one mouth of the empty bore with a sign over his head reading: “This property for sale.” When I left he was still there, waiting for somebody who was in the market for a second hand tunnel. • • • South America* Explorers. F RECENT years, those hardy ^ adventurers who set forth to invade the last great unexplored area, interior South America, seem to follow a regular routine, to wit, as follows: First—They start off. Second—They get lost. Third—They are rescued. But wouldn’t it save wear and tear and nervous strain if the rescue expedition went on ahead so it could get settled down in camp all nice and comfortable and be waiting for the explorers when they staggered in, exhausted from toting all those tons of material for future lec ture tours? The modern discover er is gallant, but apparently has no more sense of direction than an egg-beater and seemingly could get lost on top of a marble-top,table. Or possibly the tropic sun has an addling effect on the human brain. Anyhow, since nearly always he is in an intact state when res cued, this would seem to indicate that the head-hunters of the Ama zonian jungles are now getting fussy about the types of heads they collect. • • *• The Charms of Music. A CCORDING to a medical pro- fessor in Pennsylvania, sam ples of whisky, when subjected to a musical sound treatment for sev en hours, produce a liquor which equals one that has been aged in wood for at least four years. But why get excited about this? I’ve known certain brands of classical music which, in one evening, have aged a grown man to a point where he figures the present Christian era must be about over. Only a few weeks ago, being soft ened by the spirit of the approach ing holidays, I suffered myself to be lured to a Chopin recital and got jammed in and couldn’t escape and finally staggered forth into the night feeling that Methuselah had little if anything on me. IRVIN 8. COBB. MU Washington! Digest National Topics Interpreted By WILLIAM BRUCKABT JMBM Washington.—I have said in these columns many times that politics is ... a business. If any- Politics body desires proof Is Business of that statement 11 think I am able now to offer the beat possible evi dence of me truth of that statement. Lately, W. Forbes Morgan, treas urer of-, the Democratic national commiuee, has demonstrate^ be yond tnfe-shadow of a doubt what politics as a business actually means. He did so in the recent an nouncement that the Democratic national committee would seek to build up a “war chest” of $10,000,000 that the vast New Deal party ma chinery can go on at top speed; that the momentum gained by the suc cessful Presidential campaign of 1936 can be maintained and that the party can continue to function as a cohesive unit through which millions of voters may speak. It appears that Mr. Morgan will not succeed in getting anything like $10,000,000 together but it is very significant that he is thinking in terms so large as those mentioned in his announcement. It means sim ply that the present control of the New Deal party is determined to carry out to the nth degree the the ory of its chairman, James A. Far ley, only recently reappointed as postmaster general of the United States. f r Mr. Farley plays politics in ex actly the same manner that he would engage in a business ven ture. He takes chances when the stakes are high, he knows his men, his workers, and moreover, he knows how to get the best results out of the material he has. His operations are not unlike the func tions of a sales manager of a great concern—he sells what he has to the voters and if any salesman fails to function, Mr. Farley looks for re placements. We might illustrate the Farley methods further by reviewing some of the methods he employed in the last four years. For, when it comes to raising money, the Democratic national committee, under Chair man Farley, is both businesslike and versatile. It will be recalled how whenever the pretext arose, the Democratic national committee sponsored such things as dinners to which the faithful partisans were asked to buy tickets, usu ally high priced tickets, for an ordinary banquet. It will be re- also how elaborate pro grams of the Democratic national convention were sold by the hun dreds of thousands; how those pro grams were loaded w to the gunwhales with advertising of concerns' that could not well refuse to buy adver tising space; how victory dinners were given, and how finally the in augural ceremony when Mr. Roose velt took office was turned into a gigantic political rally that spread itself into every hotel in Washington that had space for great dinners and dances. These things are but a few which demonstrated the Farley versatility but they prove to my mind that if the Democratic na tional committee sets out to build up a real “war chest,” it will ac complish exactly its objective. The committee set-up is the most pretentious yet attempted by any political organization. It has a large and exceedingly efficient staff of trained men and women and it runs like the well oiled machine that it is. It will cost money to keep that machine running at high speed, but Mr. Farley recog nizes how elections are won. His philosophy is that the early bird catches the worm and so, al though there is not another election for two years, the Democratic na tional committee is making ready for that election campaign right now. Unless the wise political stu dents around Washington are badly mistaken, Mr. Farley will know pretty well when the congressional and senatorial candidates take to the stump early in 1938 just what the last two years of the Roosevelt administration will be like. It goes without saying that he will be pre pared for them. • • • In contrast to the circumstances I have just related, it must be dis heartening to wit- G. O. P. ness the feeble, al- Contrast most futile, ef forts that are shown around Republican headquar ters. Of course, old time politicians always say that a winning horse can be financed, never a loser. John D. M. Hamilton, the Republican na tional chairman, rode a losing horse. Ho came out of the race saddled with a gigantic deficit. Defi cits for losing political parties are not as easily finanoed as United States Treasury deficits these days and so Mr. Hamilton is having his troubles in that direction as well as finding any enthusiasm among Republican party workers. But that does not excuse the Re publican national committee nor Mr. Hamilton. After all, it is to be & remembered that approximately 18,000,000 voters cast their ballots for the Republican presidential nominee. Governor Landon of Kan sas. That is not a small number, any way you examine it. It is a powerful segment of the American population but it is powerful only to the extent that its leadership devel ops enthusiasm for the fight and ca pacity to take it on the chin when victory goes the other way. ' Among the New Dealers who can be classified as sound politicians, there is considerable regret at the failure of the Republican leadership to get going. President Roosevelt, himself, would like to see more op position because it would make his task much easier and would prevent some of the unsound legislation from seeping through congress on account of a lack of opposition. Fur thermore, if there were more Re publican fight, there would be less chance of splits in the Democratic ranks in congress. Democratic leaders entertain a very real fear of this possibility. • • • From among the corps of politi cal writers in Washington, I hear ... much criticism of Criticize the Republicans Republicans who are variously described as being “dead on their feet.” They are certainly doing less than nothing. They have allowed the Democratic national committee to carry the ball on every play; they have offered no publicity by way of criticism of New Deal programs and they have de veloped no plans at all for reviving the Republican organization or re storing life to the party workers. I am not saying that Mr. Hamil ton is wholly to blame for this con dition. He must accept responsi bility, however, because he is the titular head of the organization. It would seem, therefore, that unless Mr. Hamilton awakens and shows some fight, there will be fewer Re publicans in the house or senate after the 1938 elections than there •re now. The national chairman of the Republicans, according to all discussion that I hear, sooner or later will have to start cooking or depart from the kitchen. Otherwise, the 18,000,000 voters which the Re publican party has as a nucleus upon which to build will become so badly disorganized, so disheartened and discouraged, that it will be im possible to reunite them. Part of the Republicans’ difficul ties are traceable directly to Capi tol Hill. I simply cannot under stand t why Senator McNary of Ore- f gen, continues to serve as Republi can leader in the senate when, in the opinion of most observers, he has failed to justify his title in any way. It will be recalled that he did nothing in behalf of Governor Lai>» don’s candidacy against Mr. Roose velt. Nor has he shown either the capacity or the desire to carry on as an opposition leader should carry on since the new congress convened. Again, this is not the fault of Chairman Hamilton. Frankly, I think it is the fault of the few Re publicans in the senate. If they had any fight in them, or any faith in their party label, they would insist upon a militant leadership on their side of the senate chamber, small as their number is. • • • There are much greater signs of fight among the house Republicans. They are trying Signs of to make them- Fight selves heard, but the preponder ance of Democratic strength in the house coupled with the gag rules which have beed applied without stint or limit by the Democratic majority, precludes Republican leader Snell and his associates from doing very much for their party in the house. Where senators have the privilege of unlimited debate, House members are allotted time and lately the time allotted to the Republicans has been infinitesimal. That, of course, is one of the spoils of victory and the Dem ocrats cannot be blamed for assert ing their power. But the point of it all is that while Democratic Chairman Farley has his team on its toes, full of fight, ready to go, Chairman Hamilton has not even been vocal personally, much less has he been able to stir up fight among his associates. It is a situation from which most any thing may emerge. Mr. Hamilton sought and was given a vote of con fidence by his own national com mittee shortly after the election. He cannot say now that his hands are tied insofar as the authority of lead ership is concerned. So, it is made to appear that unless tha present leaders of the Republicans really enter the arena, unless they show their ability to carry the fight to the enemy, it seems rather likely that new leaders will come from the ranks of the Republicans and the present group will become beens. • w« A Slip That Saves Time and Bother A well-fitted slip is the ftwnda* tion of any adequate wardrobe, saving many an otherwise ruffled and rippled appearance. Hence the shortcut to the successful wearing of fitted frocks is in the attention given to the slip under neath; and this clever slip will save a lot of time and bother for maid or matron. Made plain or with an applique of lace, and fitted at the waist with darts and point-« ed panels, it will work up beauti fully in silk or satin or linen or No. 1988 rayon or taffeta. Best of all, it is delightfully simple to make and satisfying to wear. Each pattern provides a detailed instructioir chart with step by step directions. 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A friand ana- aaatad Adlarika. Tha fleet doao I took draught mo raliaf. Now I oat aa I vwiah, alaap flno and navor fait batter.* —Mr a. Jaa. Filler. Adlarika acte on BOTH upper and lower bowtla while ordinary laxatfvaa act an tha lower bowel only. Adlarika f livaa your system a thorough cleans- ng, bringing out aid. poisonous matter that you would not boliove waa In your system and that has bean causing gas pains, sour atomach, nervousness and headaches for months. Or. H. L. SA—fc, Nam Tark, ramartu "lm additlam la latatiimal rltmmllaf, Adlardkm grratly red meat kartaria aaA ralan bacUtl.~ Give your bowsla a REAL cleansing with Adlerika and sea how good you feal. Just one spoonful relieves QA8 and stubborn constipation. At all Leading Druggists. Sentinels of Health Don’t Neglect Them 1 Nature designed the kidneys to do ft marvelous job. Their task Is to keep tha flowing blood stream free of sn excess ot toxic impurities. The act cf living—it/e ilttlf—Is constantly producing waste’ matter the kidneys must remove from the blood if good health is to endure. When the kidneys fail to function ad Nature intended, there is retention o< waste that may cause body-wide dis» treee. One msy suffer nagging backache, persistent headache, attacks of dizziness, getting up nights, ewelling, pufflaeos under the eyed—feel tired, nervous, all worn ouL Frequent, scanty or burning passage* further evidence of kidney or bladder disturbance. The recognized and proper treatment , — • diuretic medicine to help the kidneys tet rid of ezceee poisonous body wastes Use Doan t Ptllt. They have had mora thu forty vein of public approval. Arm oadoraad tha country over. Inaiet aa i>taa a. Sold at all drug atorta. Doans Pills Believe the Ads They Offer You Special Inducements worthy, the