The Barnwell people-sentinel. (Barnwell, S.C.) 1925-current, February 25, 1937, Image 3
' ■
I
JTk«JfUr*w«IlJPeopl€hS€nUi»«UJJ^^
?• •
SUPREME COURT CHANGED 7 TIMES
. - i \ • • '
But President Roosevelt’s Proposed Increase to Fifteen Justices
Would Far Exceed Any Such Alteration in History.
IMPROVED
UNIFORM INTERNATIONAL
UNDAYI
chool Lesson
By RXV. HAROLD L. LUNDQUIST.
Doan ait the Moody Bible Institute
of Chicago.
• Western Newspaper Union.
Lesson for February 28
THE NEW COMMANDMENT
=
Charming Way to '
Use Cross Stitch
Even amateurs will have no dif
ficulty in tuminf out this finished
lookinf chair or buffet set—with
this easy-to-do pattern. And what
compliments they’ll get on this
cross-stitched peacock done in all
LESSON TEXT — John 12 : 20-33; 13:34.39.
GOLDEN TEXT — A new commandment
X five unto you. that ye love one another:
even as I have loved you. that ye also
love one another. John 13:34.
PRIMARY TOPIC — A New Command
ment.
JUNIOR TOPIC — A Great Man’s Way.
INTERMEDIATE AND SENIOR TOPIC—
What the New Commandm-nt Means.
YOUNG PEOPLE AND ADULT TOPIC—
The Measure of Christian Love.
Who will be the new members to Join this group, should the President’s plan carry through? Left to right,
front row: Justices Brandeis, eighty; Van Deventer, seventy-eight; Hughes, seventy-four; McReynolds, sev
enty-five, and Sutherland, seventy-four. Back row: Roberts, sixty-one; Butler, seventy; Stone, sixty-four, and
Cardozo, sixty-six. Mentioned as possible additions to fill in the question marks have been New Dealers Rich-
berg, Wagner, Landis, Frankfurter, Rosenman and Corcoran.
By WILLIAM C. UTLEY
S HOULD President Roosevelt succeed in his proposal to in
crease the number of justices on the bench of the United
States Supreme court, such changes would by no means be
without precedent, except in their scope. The number of justices
has been changed by act of congress no less than seven times dur
ing the 148 years of its existence, but never by more than three
justices.
Thera have been numerous in
stances of clashes between a Presi
dent and the Supreme court. Origi
nally the court was composed of
six members, but during the time
of the clash between Adams and
Jefferson in 1801 the number was
reduced to-six. Under pressure of
heavily loaded dockets as the young
country was growing, the number
was increased to seven in 1807 and
30 years later was increased again
to nine. Further expansion resulted
in the addition of still another jus
tice, and ia 1863 the Supreme court
reached its peak of ten justices.
In 1866 the number was reduced
again to seven, but in 1869 it went
back to nino again; President Grant
was at that time popularly accused
of having "packed” the court to
uphold legislation in which he was
interested, but the majority of his
torians absolve him from any such
Intention.
Now comes President Roosevelt
with his proposal to appoint to each
federal court (including the Su
preme court) a new judge for each
present one who is over the retire
ment age of seventy but has not re
tired. Apparently it ia beyond the
power of congress to require jus
tices to retire at seventy, for the
Constitution expressly provides that
they shall serve during good be
havior.
Appointments Permanent.
There are now nine Supreme
court justices, of whom six are past
the retirement age. It follows then,
that, at the present time, the mem
bership on the Supreme court bench
could not be increased to more than
15 under the President’s proposal.
New. judgeships on that and all
other federal court benches ( would
be permanent.
To the observer in Washington it
seems immediately apparent that
one of the President’s purposes in
securing the proposed legislation is
to nullify possible adverse rulings
on New Deal acts by older justices
- who have been in the habit of vot
ing to declare New Deal legislation
unconstitutional.
Chief Justice Charles Evans
Hughes, seventy-five, has voted
sometimes to uphold, sometimes to
nullify New Deal acts; he once ran
as the Republican candidate for the
Presidency. Louis Dembitz Bran
deis, eighty, has voted to sustain
all New Deal legislation except in
the case of the NRA in which the
vote was unanimously against. But
Justices Willis Van Deventer, sev
enty-eight; James Clarke Mc-
ReynoHs, seventy - five; George
Sutherland, seventy-five; and Pierce
Butler, seventy-one, have voted in
variably against the New Deal. •
The New Deal has suffered de
feat in 9 out of 11 major decisions
of the court. In at least four cases
a change of four votes could have
reversed the decision.
Up to June, 1935, the Supreme
court had held a total of 73 acts of
congress unconstitutional. Fifty-five
of these were in the period from
1789 to Juoe, 1921. Then in 11 years,
the court held unconstitutional 18
acts.
Decisions Make History.
The court hss hardly ever ceased
to be the subject of much political
•peculation and controversy in the
"hot stove league.” Perhaps this
is because the court as an institu
tion is umquo among governments,
ia its function of interpreting and
halting encroachments upon the
basic law of (He courtrv,
"Every decision becomes a page
of history,” wrote Charles Warren,
in his noted work on the Supreme
court. "The history of the United
States has been written not merely
in the halls of congress, in the exec
utive offices and on the battlefields,
but to a great extent in. the cham
bers of the Supreme court of the
United States.”
Historians outline the career of
the court by (a) the period of na
tionalism, from 1789 to 1835; (b) the
era of states’ rights, from 1835 to
1861; (c) the period of broad in
terpretation, from 1861 to 1930, and
(d) the present period.
. The Supreme court met and or
ganized for the first time in the
Royal Exchange at the foot of Broad
street in New York on February 1,
1790. The number of its justices
(five) had been set by the judiciary
act of September 24, 1789.
Edicts Free of Politics.
The present chief justice, Mr.
Hughes, once said of the court, "at
all times it has had the most se
vere critics.” Tradition has it that
all decisions are rendered without
consideration of political partisan
ship, and indeed there are more
than a few incidents to uphold the
tradition. Justices appointed by
President Jefferson helped to de
velop the nationalistic interpretation
of the Constitution which he de
plored; justices appointed by Pres
ident Jackson differed with his opin
ion and wishes in important inter
pretation, and his own appointees
held President Lincoln’s legal ten
der policy unconstitutional.
"Nothing is more striking in the
history of the court,” wrote Warren,
"than the manner in which the
hopes of those who expected a judge
to follow the political views of the
President who appointed him have
been disappointed.”
Changes in membership of the
court began early. In the election
of 1800, the Federalists suffered an
overwhelming defeat. The lame
duck congress, between the time of
Jefferson’s election a ! h3 his inaug
uration, to prevent the new Presi
dent from filling a vacancy on the
bench with one of his own appoint
ees, reduced the number of justices
to five. It also relieved Supreme
court justices from circuit court
duties, established six new circuits
with sixteen new judges and at
taches, and filled all the vacancies
with staunch Federalists. Adams’
appointments were confirmed by the
senate the day before Jefferson’s
inajuguration.
The next congress, controlled by
Jefferson, abolished two terms of
court, repealed the judiciary act of
the'Adams congress, abolished the
new circuits and restored the Su
preme court to its original member
ship of six. Ironically enough, it
was the Federalist - appointed Su
preme court which, in 1803, upheld
the constitutionality of Jefferson's
repeal act.
This was in the case of Marbury
vs. Madison. The former had been
appointed to a judgeship of the
peace in the District of Columbia
by President Adams, but his com
mission had not been delivered to
him at the time of Jefferson’s in
auguration. He sought a writ of
mandamus to compel the secretary
of state to deliver his commission.
The court ruled that the manda
mus wss the proper procedure, but
that congress in delegating to the
court the power to issue
WATCHo yout
sXtANtE
Medical Authorities reoofnbt lbs
value of a bsltnced Alkaline Re-
•erre a* an aid to cold prerentioo.
- LUDEN’S
contribute to your Alkaline Re-
serve because they contain an
ALKALINI FACT OB &
Temptation and Curiosity
So often Temptation is accom
panied by another fellow, arm in
fimrt rnriftftltv —
OX SIX VJ'wKX SWOIvjr •
such a writ (by the judiciary act
of 1789) had acted in excess of the
powers granted to it under the Con
stitution. This was the first instance
in which the court had acted upon
the constitutionality of an act of
congress, and established its right
to do so.
Jackson Battles Court.
The first time that any complete
act of congress was actually de
clared unconstitutional was in the
Dred Scott case 50 years later. The
court held only four federal statutes
unconstitutional during the first 80
years of its existence. By 1825,
however, it had under Marshall
strengthened the federal Tff^cture
considerably. It had invalidated 10
laws made by the states as un
constitutional.
During Andrew Jackson’s tenure
of office the state of Georgia passed
a law of division of some land in
the state to which the Cherokee In
dians held title; the Supreme court
decided this was outside its jurisdic
tion. The state then passed a law
requiring all whites in the Cherokee
territory to take an oath of alle
giance to the state. When two mis
sionaries refused they were impris
oned. The Supreme court issued a
writ of error and declared that the
statute was unconstitutional because
the federal government alone had
jurisdiction over the Cherokees and
their territory.
The country was growing, and
crowded court dockets made it ad
visable, on the last day of the Jack-
son administration, to increase the
number of justices to nine (there
were then eight, one having been
added in 1807). As the West began
to expand another justice was added
in 1863.
During the reconstruction period
in 1866 President Johnson was on
trial on impeachment charges, his
leniency toward the South having
angered party leaders. Congress
passed a statute returning the num
ber of justices to seven. Johnson
vetoed it, but the reduction was car
ried over his veto. A bill requiring
a two-thirds vote of the court to de
clare a law unconstitutional failed
to pass in congress about that time;
it had been drawn in the fear that
the court would declare the recon
struction laws invalid.
, Grant Appoints Two.
President Lincoln clashed with
Chief Justice Taney when, soon
after Fort Sumter was attacked,
John Merryman, a Confederate lieu
tenant, was arrested on charges of
aiding the enemy. Taney gave him
a habeas corpus to get released
from Fort McHenry, but the officer
in charge, acting under the Presi
dent’s instructions, refused to obey
the writ. Taney ordered the arrest
of the officer, but the civilian who
bore the writ Was refused admission
to the fort. Taney wrote an opinion
declaring that a writ of habeas
corpus could not be suspended.
The number of justices was in
creased from seven to nine shortly
after Ulysses S. Grant * became
President. The court, by a vote of
4 to 3, held unconstitutional the le
gal tender act which was passed
during the Civil war; there were
two vacancies on the bench at that
time. The day the opinion was de
livered by Chief Justice Chase,
President Grant nominated two new
members, and soon after the court
ordered that the "greenbacks” case
be re-argued.
There was a great storm of in
dignation when the new justices
joined with the three who had voted
to uphold the act, and the legal
tender act was declared constitu
tional.
Most persons, of course, believed
that Grant had intentionally packed
the court to secure this decision,
but historians do not agree
In the last week of our Land’s
ministry on earth many important
events took place, but we pass most
of them in our present series of
studies. The incident related in our
lesson of today is of interest in and
of itself, but it is of peculiar sig
nificance because it introduces a
marvelously instructive disco arse of
our Lord.
Whatever had prompted tueir in
quiry, we are delighted to note that
the Greeks came with an earnest
desire to see Jesus.
I. Seeking Jesus (12 20-22).
A man has progressed far on the
road to blessing when he makes
known his desire to see Jesus. Com
ing to him means coming to the
One who has the words of eternal
life.
Note that the disciples were wise
enough to bring the men to Jesus.
The true function of every Christian
worker is to bring men to him. On
the back of the pulpit in one of
America’s greatest churches, direr t-
ly where the preacher can see them
as he arises to preach, are the
words of our lesson, "Sir, we wiuld
see Jesus." Little wonder that a
strong and true gospel is preached
in that church.
II. Finding the Cross (w. 23-33).
The reply of our Lord to the
Greeks and to the disciples who
brought them to him, seems a bit
singular at first glance. Did he
not wish to receive them? They had
probably come to see the great re
ligious leader, the King of the Jews
—why does he talk about death—
why is his soul troubled?
The words of our Lord are clear.
Men do not need an example, a
leader, a teacher, they need a Sav
iour. It is as a sacrifice for sin
that Christ will draw all men unto
himself (v. 32).
We need to relearn that lesson.
Leaders of the church are earnestly
seeking the explanation of the rapid
decline in the influence of the Chris
tian church. It is a good sign that
some are beginning to realize that
the difficulty is in the realm of the
spiritual. The barrenness of so-
called modem theology has become
apparent to its leaders and they
have begun to talk about a "spirit
ual revival." But unfortunately we
soon find that they use the expres
sion to stand for something entire
ly different from a real scriptural
revival. "The voice is Jacob's voice
but the hands are the hands of
Esau” (Gen. 27:22).
Let us make no mistake about it,
a real revival will center in the
cross and will manifest itself in
denial of self for the glory of God.
One cannot forego mention of the
fact that the last part of verse
26, "If any man serve me, him will
my Father honor," was the motto
of the late Dr. James M. Gray,
whose life gloriously exemplified the
truth of the passage. God is willing
and ready to do as much for you
and for me.
III. Loving One Another (John 13:
34, 35).
When these words were uttered
our Lord was two days further in
the last week before he was cruci
fied. He was alone with his disciples
in the upper room. What message
does he have for them in that sol
emn hour? That they should love
one another. That is a message
that needs renewed emphasis in our
day. The strife which fills the world
has almost engulfed the church, and
there is bitterness and strife where
love should reign.
Let us observe carefully that it
is as his disciples that we are
able to love one another. There are
two erroneous extremes to be avoid
ed. First, we have the out and out
conservative, who proclaims his be
lief in the Bible as God’s Word, who
is anxious that he be absolutely
correct in doctrine, a really saved
man, and who then becomes the
kind of "fighting” fundamentalist
who dismally fails God in the testi
mony referred to in these verses.
On the other hand we have the lib
eral who has abandoned the scrip
tural basis of discipleship and who
then boasts of his great love for his
brethren. Love is no substitute for
regeneration, and regeneration is
no excuse for lack of love.
Pattern 5740
the glory of its natural coloring
or in two shades of a color for
a more subdued effect. The
crosses are 10 to-the-inch—the col
ors are clearly given in a color
chart. With two patterns a hand
some scarf could be made. In
pattern 5740 you will find a trans
fer pattern of a large motif 13 by
16 inches, and two smaller owes
4\4 by 6 inches; material require
ments; color chart and key; illus
trations of all stitches used.
To obtain this pattern, send 15
cents in stamps or coins (coins
preferred) to The Sewing Circle
Household Arts Dept., 259 W.
Fourteenth St., New York, N. Y.
Write plainly your name, ad
dress and pattern number.
SMALL SOX.
60c
LAKGf SIZE
$1.80
RcnMtdy-
mi Nnrltli wtferm. A pmittk Blood
Porllior. Moltet ttrin Blood Rich oad
Hoolthy. Build* Strongth tod Vigor.
Alwoy* Effective . . . Why tnffer?
AT ALL GOOD DRUG STORES
\
Devouring tho Deed
He that is proud eats up him
self; pride is his own glass, his
own trumpet, his own chronicle;
and whatever praises itself but
n the deed, devours the deed in
the praise.—Shakespeare.
CLASSIFIED
DEPARTMENT
CARTOONING
LEARN MODERN CARTOONINO
Tom Doorer Method—-IndivtdudUy tuuftrt
by recognized master. Pint lesson FREE.
Send Sc postage only. Nation*! Arts OoUS,
Dept. D, Washlngtss, D. C.
OPPORTUNITIES
BETTER TRAN A JOB I
Bond (or ■ Pro# copy of "Self Help Bul
letin.’’ Make money as your own boos.
Lo Vote. Ml BeraM PI., Syraoase, N. T.
FRUIT TREES
Paaah Traos.
■pected. Guar
Travla Bros.
. aU leading varieties. State la-
ranteed true to name. 4e each.
Naroertes, Rlverdole, Oh.
te DEUCIOUSI
iyb CEOBCE KECTOK
^^Of PHILLIPS KITCHENS
PHIUIPf
^IICIOU* ,
ICR'S
of
bare won bin World
•Yob cant boat PHILLIPS
DELICIOUS Sottpo for roal
homo-like flavor,* bo adfe,
DELICIOUS **r ry n»-
wa mTs-viip^ *bM Sou thorn a
VARIETIES dotidoas as thoir
• mnd women • • • ooast-to-comet •
echo these words of prmiae
For into this gym phony of sigh toon wholo
•ome And nourishing Soupo ia blondod roal
Down-In-Dixio culinary craftsmanship . . .
from rociDoo that woro Old When DLrio Was
Young. Veteran Chefs brow thorn prido- j
fully . . . skillfully . . . patiently, to bring I
out all tho marvelous flavor of garden-!
fresh vegetables ... picked while the dew of*
Dixie mornings is still upon thaan, . Ask
jmur grocer today for tbooo grand-tasting
Soups of the South.
ON THE AIR
WED- TEUB. and
mi. AFTBBNOONS
LSIt B. Sw T.
PHILUPS JbeUcioM.
•^South&w SOUPS
PLEASE ACCEPT
THIS
4-PIECE SILVER SET
Courtesy of the Heart
Therein a. courtesy of the heart,
it is allied to love. From it springs
the purest courtesy in the outward
behavior.—Goethe.
Duty of Gratitude
Gratitude is a duty none can be
excused from, because it is always
at out own disposal.—Charron.
The Fountain
Look within—within is the foun
tain of good; and it will ever bubble
up, if thou wilt ever dig.
for only
25c complete with
your purchase
of one can of
B. T. Babbitt’s
Nationally Kkiown
Brand of Lye
TU» lovaty pure rihror-pleied Set-knife,
(ark, soap spoon and taqqpoou in nristo-
emtk Em pin design b offered solely to
*et you to try tbs pare broads of toe
with 100 aeee, shewn nt right Use bre tor
cleaning clogged sad (rosea *
(or making finer seep, for
swflL etc. You'll use no other Lye
you’ve tried one of them brands.
Horn to Get Yam Sibmr Sm
To ret your 4-piece Silver Set ■
■end the band (ran aay can
at right with 26e (to ew
■afling, eta.) with yeur aea
' .f
> f
to B. T. Babbitt he- Dept WM, Mt
Fourth Ave^ Now York City, N.Y. Your
hose farads of Lyo to you.
•rrifc mooD with any labkl
SNOWNDgLOW
rvg^
• iB