IX justices of the United States
Supreme court, Including Chief
Justice Hughes, joined In an opinion
that killed the Agricultural Adjust.
ment act. Three as-
soclate justices, Stone,
Brandels and Cardozo,
dissented. The major-
ity decision, read by
Associate Justice
Owen J. Roberts, held
that the AAA was
wholly unconstitution-
al becanse it invaded
the rights of the states
i in seeking to control
i farm production. The
Chief Justice _, 1o system of proc
Hughes essing taxes Imposed
to finance the program was swept into
discard.
Not only are the processing taxes
fllegal but the court apparently de-
clared the farm benefit contracts vold
and put up bars against any attempt
of the federal government to regulate
farm production by whatever means.
Senators and representatives who
immediately began planning legislation
to continue benefit payments to farm
ers and to balance agricultural output
did not seem to grasp the full signi
ficance of this part of the decision.
The court sald flatly that regulation
of farm production is not within the
scope of the federal government and
of its powers to accomplish this, nor
can it purchase adherence to a control
scheme by federal payments.
The decision destroyed not only the
original AAA but also the amended act
of the last session of congress.
The dissenting opinion held that the
AAA was a legitimate employment of
the power to tax for the general wel
fare. It attacked the theory that the
preservation of our institutions is the
exclusive concern of the Supreme court
and suggested that under the majority
decision the unemployment work relief
act Is unconstitutional
In his budget message President
Roosevelt included revenue from
processing taxes, so the Supreme court
decision had the effect of throwing the
1037 budget still further out of bal
ance by something like a billion dol
lars.
N HIS speech at the £50 a plate
Jackson day dinner in Washington,
President Roosevelt declined to com.
ment on the Supreme court decision
killing the AAA. “It Is enough to say.”
he said, “that the attainment of jus
tice and prosperity for Awerican agri
culture remains an Immediate and
constant objective of my administra-
tion.”
Secretary Wallace ealled Into con
sultation at Washington about 100 rep
resentatives of farm organizations to
try to formulate some plan for speedy
legislation to supplant the discredited
law, Assurance that farmers who have
fulfilled contract agreements would be
pald was given by President Roosevelt
when he advised administration lead-
ers In congress to push through a
£250,000,000 appropriation,
Clarification of the status of $1,200.
000,000 paid In taxes by processors
was expected when the court decides
the eight rice processing tax cases ar-
gued recently. Legal experts In con-
gress sald an act of congress would
be required If the $079.000,000
in processing taxes pald into the
treasury are to be refunded,
UCTIONED off to the highest bid.
der, the Democratic national con.
vention of 1088 was sold to Philadel
phia by the party's national commit.
tee. The price was $200,000, plus some
prizes and concessions. Chicago and
San Francisco also bid for the conven.
tion. The former offered a certified
check for $150,000. The California city
made the same bid and later raised
it to $202.500.
During a brief recess Chairman Far.
ley telephoned, presumably to the
White House, and Vice President Gar.
ner moved among the members of the
committee urging the selection of Phil.
adelphia. Therefore the City of Broth.
erly Love won the prize. The opening
of the convention was set for June 23,
two weeks after the Republican con
vention In Cleveland.
O TIME was lost In putting
through the house the bonus
measure that had been agreed upon
by veterans’ organizations and ap
proved by the ways and means com
mittee. It carries the name of the
Vinson-Patman-MeCormack bill and is
a compromise that authorizes Imme-
diate payment of fhe bonus but offers
no definite plan for raising the money.
It would provide 3 per cent Interest
until 1945 for veterans refraining from
cashing thelr adjusted service certifi.
cates at once, and cancel all Interest
still due on loans on the certificates.
INFUTRALITY legisiation desired by
the administration does not meet
with the approval of Senator James
Hamliton Lewis of Illinois who, though
a loyal Democrat, is sometimes op-
posed to measures fostered by the
President, He says the law under con-
sideration In senate and house conimit-
tees would close the markets of the
Middle West to world commerce, and
has asked the Illinols Manufacturers’
association and the Chicago Assocla-
tion of Commerce to support his oppo-
sition to It
As a substitute for the general neu-
trality law proposed by the President,
Senator Lewis advocates enactments
granting the chlef executive authority
to issue regulations placing embargoes
upon shipments of commodities which
would threaten American neutrality,
but stipulating that these reguiations
should be submitted to the senate for
acceptance or amendments,
ITH the obvions Intention of
building up public sentiment In
favor of the special brand of neutral.
ity legislation he desires, Senator Nye
had before his senate
munitions committee
for several days J. P.
Morgan, Thomas W,
Lamont and other
members of the great
Morgan banking com-
pany. Nye and Ste
" phen Rauschenbusch,
4 investigator for the
42 committee, sought to
prove that the United
a States was drawn into
J. P. Morgan the World war by
the loans made to the allies by Mor.
gan & Co. and its assoclates, The tes-
timony concerning these loans and
their implications was long and com-
plicated. The financiers were well pre-
pared for the Inquiry and were armed
with a great quantity of documents,
and though there was a good deal of
acrimonious talk, Mr. Morgan ap-
peared entirely unperturbed,
HEN the delegates to the naval
conference In London resumed
their deliberations Admiral Osami Na-
gano, chief representative of Japan,
firmly repeated his demand that Great
Britain and the United States concede
the paritydclaims of Japan as prelim.
inary to any agreement. This attitude
stopped all discussion of the British,
French and Itallan proposal for ex-
change of information about naval
building plans and threatened the con-
ference with early collapse, The crisis
wns so serious that Foreign Secretary
Anthony Eden himself took a part In
the affair, calling the Japanese to his
office in an attempt to induce them
to adopt a more conciliatory attitude
Japavese spokesmen declared they
were interested first and last In the
total tonnage question—under which
they demand equality—and were not
at all Interested In other aspects of
naval limitations.
URROUNDED by klieg lights, mi
crophones and movie cameras
President Roosevelt stood before the
senate and house in night Joint session
and delivered what
was nominally his an-
nual message on the
state of the nation
Actually It was not
that at all, but =a
statement concerning
the warfare and in.
ternational distur
bances on the other
continents, followed
by what the press
generally considered
an eloquent and mill. President
tant political speech Roosevelt
addressed to the people of the United
States, who by the millions were listen-
ing In on their radios. Partisan opin.
fon of his message Is perhaps worth.
leas. Of course his supporters praised
it highly, and his opponents were
equally emphatic in derogation.
Democrats and Republicans alike
commended the President's opening
paragraphs In which he boldly con-
demned the aggression of Italy and
Japan, though without naming those
nations; and there was little dissent
from his assertion that the United
States must maintain its neutrality
while seeking to “discourage the use by
belligerent nations of any and sil
American products calculated to faeil
itate the prosecution of a war in gquan-
titles over and above our normal ex-
ports to them In titne of peace.”
APANESE military commanders in
the North China area are evident.
ly preparing for further encroach-
ments. Their latest complaint is that
two Japanese stores in Tientsin were
looted and a Japanese flag trampled
on by soldiers of Gen, Sung Cheh-
yuan, chalrman of the Hopel-Chahar
political council. While Japanese alr.
planes flew threateningly over Pelping
antl Tientsin, the Japanese com-
manders filed a demand for an apol-
ogy for the Incident, an Indemnity,
punishment of the culprits, complete
elimination of antl-Japanism, a guar- |
antee against its repetition, and the |
appointment of Japanese advisers in |
the Chinese police departments. |
{
HOUGH the rainy season that will
check his campaign is fast ap- |
proaching, Mussolinl continued to send
fresh troops by the thousands to Ethi-
opla, It was estimated that Italy's
East African forces already numbered
more than 250000, and there were re-
ports that 100,000 more would be sent
In the near future.
The Ethiopian government, accusing
Italy of continued employment of poi-
son gas In a policy of “merciless ex-
termination™ of the Ethiopian people,
urged the League of Nations to dis-
patch a commission of inquiry to the
scene of strife. League officials an
nounced that the request would be
handled by the league council, which
meets January 20.
ECRETARY of Labor Frances Per
kins found in the developments of
the last year much of benefit for the
American workingman, In her annual
report she cited these
five great advance
ments for labor:
1. Unemployment
compensation, accom.
plished through the
social gecurity act.
2, Old-age security,
brought about also by
the social security act.
8. Establishment of
boards for settling in.
dustrial disputes lo-
cally. Secretary
4. Greater co-opera- Perkins
tion between the states and the Labor
department, through regional confer.
ences,
b. Development of the United States
employment service.
Even the large number of strikes
during 1935 could be viewed with some
satisfaction by her, for she sald they
were “due In part to the natural expec-
tation of labor to share In the early
fruits of business improvement”
N HIS message to congress submit.
ting his approved budget for the
1937 fiscal year, beginning July 1 next,
President Roosevelt followed the dou.
ble system of accounting his admin
istration has always employed—one set
of books for regular expenditures and
income and another set for emergency
spending and appropriations. He as-
serted that receipts from all sources In
the next fiscal year will aggregate an
estimated $5.054,000000, Expenditures
for all regular government departments
are estimated at $5.640000000, So
the “reguiar” budget will be in balance,
with a surplus of $5,000,000, :
But the message went on to say, af-
ter explaining that the regular gov
ernment books will show fiscdl affairs
in the black, as to Income and outgo,
they will show red to the extent of $1.-
103,000,000 in works relief spending, less
the $5,000,000 “surplus,” this leaving
the new appropriation for further
worksrellef open for at least two
months,
That figure of $1,103.000000 repre-
sents the President's estimate of unex.
pended balances on July 1 from the
$4.850,000,000 and previous e
appropriations. It does not take into
account probable new appropriations
for similar purposes yet to be deter |
mined. !
A — :
[HAROLD L. ICKES, in his capacity |
of administrator of the PWA, |
went to Brooklyn to take part in the
ceremony of breaking ground for the |
$12,783,000 Williams-
burg slum clearance |
S
H
ardund ‘the
NATION;
API ew
Carter Field
Washington. Lurking In the minds
of a group of very prominent conserv-
men who secretly
agree with the views of John W. Davis
and other Liberty League directors,
but who have not and will not come
out into the is a
with respect to the Republican party
which has received little, If any, at
tention,
What they are afrald of Is that the
Republican party will nominate no one
prominently mentioned for the
place, but some radical figure such as
Senator Gerald P. Nye of North Dakota.
One such Democrat, who has been one
of the heaviest contributors to Demo-
eratle campaign funds for a genera.
tion, told the writer that Nye was his
chief fear.
“If the Republicans nominate any
fairly conservative candidate, not too
objectionable,” he sald, “I will pre
serve my party regularity. 1 will even
contribute, say, $1.000 to the campaign
fund. But down In my heart 1 will hope
the Republican wins, jut if the
Republicans nomirate a man like Nye,
every ounce of force 1 can bring to
bear will be put behind the re-election
of Roosevelt, little as | agree with his
policies.”
This particular Democrat was en-
thusiastically for the Roosevelt and
Garper ticket in 1082-—after ‘the con-
vention. He particularly approved the
Democratic platform as adopted . at
Chicago. But economically he agrees
n
open, contingency
now
of Virginia and Tydings of Maryland,
Now the Importance of all this is
not this man's views, nor the effect of
his active support or contributions
Actually the Democrats will not have
any real trouble getting all the money
they want. The assured success of the
Jackson day dinners, to be held all
over the country, is a sufficient demon.
stration of this. And there are always
plenty of rich men eager to ingratiate
themselves with the President of the
United for that matter
with a man who has a good chance of
becoming President. There is not
only the possibility of appointments In
the diplomatic service, so glitteringly
attractive to many rich men's wives,
but the mere prestige of being Invited
to an occasional White House dinner
I= worth a lot to a great many rich
families,
Calvin Coolidge understood this
well, On one occasion, on one of the
famous week-end trips on the Mayflow-
er, which rarely extended more than
the six miles down the Potomac river
to Alexandria, he spoke to a guest
just before retiring.
“Thought you might want to write
to some of your friends” he said,
handing his guest a handful of en
velopes and writing paper embossed
with the name “U. 8 8 Mayflower”
and the Presidential seal. That sort
of reflected glory Is worth a mint to
more people than one might hurriedly
suppose,
The really interesting thing about
this fear felt by some rich and con
servative Democrats is that they are
tisually pretty well Informed. They
keep their eyes on the situation, and
their ears close to the ground. And
they are accustomed to figuring out
situations with some accuracy.
Which would seem to indicate that
maneuverings on
the surface, in this fight for the Re
publican nomination, is something
which most of us have been missing,
This writer cannot bring himself to
believe that Gerald Nye or anyone like
him has a chance for the Republican
nomination. But he thinks the pres.
States.—or
None of the groups and blocs In
F
¥
:
iH
they return to Washington as the sil-
ver advocates, particularly these
among them who were more interested
in the Inflation aspect of the “cause”
than the expected benefits to the silver
miners, 5
The answer to the last is quite sim-
ple. In the first place, there are prac.
tically no silver miners, as such. Prac
tically all the silver produced in the
United States is 8 by-product of lead,
zine, copper or some other metal
Further, the Treasury department has
been and still is paying a high price
for newly mined silver. Right at the
moment it Is around 50 per cent
g
i
§if
1
£
i
i
§
ury, even at this late day, should gim-
ply take all the silver offered in the
This speculator belleves that the
floating supply 18 not more than sixty
million ounces at the outside. But the
way to it, If the desire to put the
price up is real, he insists, Is simply
to stand there and take all that is of-
fered as long as it Is around the pres-
ent price,
under the price at which the govern-
ment ccmmandeered all silver held In
this country—30 cents an ounce,
have the effect of reconvineing the
world that this country was going to
do something about silver, which be.
lief was what put the price up above
70 cents, while the collapse of that be-
Hef was what dropped It back to be.
low 50 cents,
jut the real, starry-eved sliver boys
are those who think in terms of bimet-
and $1.29 an ounce or
than $2 If you figure gold devaluation
and the 16 to 1 ratio,
A fight will be made for himetalism
at this session of congress, There is
that, But it is highly
doubtful If the fight gets very far. For
one thing, the sliverites will not have
0 much co-operation from the infla-
tionist group as they did when they
forced Roosevelt and Morgenthau to
accept the silver law, For it was only
because it was the only way to avoid
having a straight-out printing press
money measure jammed down its
throat that the administration accept-
ed the sliver bill in the first place,
The considerable Improvement In
business has taken some of the steam
out of the Inflationists. Others who
believe implicitly in inflation have
come to believe that there 8 no use
fighting for it right now, because It
is on the way anyhow!
They figure that the national debt
will go on mounting, further devalus-
tion of the dollar will be the only way
out for the government after a few
years, and then inflation will be here.
So they think It is easier to walt until
the train comes along than to run to-
ward it
So the sliverites do not know what
to do, but they are mighty unhappy.
Utilities Watch Court
If the United States Supreme court
should declare unconstitutional the
public utility holding company law
forced through by President Roosevelt
at the last session of congress, there
is a very fair chance indeed that the
new law, to take its place, might fol
low the lines of the compromise gug-
gested by Wendell Lo. Willkie,
dent of the Commonwealth and South-
ern corporation,
If the Supreme court upholds the
present law, there the prover.
bial Chinaman's chance that congress
will repeal the present statute, and
substitute anything so mild. To put 1t
another way, If congress were about
to write the public utility bill,
the President unchanged in his atti
tude, It would undoubtedly be a milder
billmuch milder—~than the present
one ut that Is a very different
thing from putting through a repeal
measure and modifying the enisting
law,
The answer to this somewhat para-
doxical appearing situation is found
in the difficulty of putting through any
new legislation to which the President
is opposed. If the law were not on
the books, the President would try
whip and spur to get it there. He
would then be forced to take consid-
erably less than he got last year,
Beat to hope, as some utility officials
do, that congress will substitute a
more “reasonable” measure at this
session shows abysmal ignorance of
how the the wheels go "round In Wash.
allsm, more
no doubt about
presi
is not
with
Just about unthinkable,
of proposition long ago, instead of pre-
tending they didn’t need any regula.
tion?" The answer to that, of course,
is very human. Nobody goes looking
for trouble. No one openly admits he
needs to be curbed. Human minds
don't function that way.
When the blow finally fell, and
when the utilities, last year, realized
utilities, It would give the securities
and exchange commission authority to
supervise the Issuance of holding
company securities. It would subject
all utilities companies to the securi.
hdl;
:
Layer in Air Storm Cause
French scientists who have been
conducting experiments in east
Greenland say there is a layer of
ice in the alr over the polar regions,
phere a million times finer than wa-
ter) Is situated approximately 60
miles above the earth,
The discovery was made when
electrical impulses from an electrie
sounding machine were reflected
back. Time of the impulses in tran.
git was recorded and computations
made which gave the height of the
ice layer. This Ice is believed to be
finder Magazine,
A SIS
I'M SOLD
It always works
Just do what hospitals do, and the
doctors insist on. Use a good liguid
laxative, and aid Nature to restore
clocklike regularity without strain op
ill effect.
A Saud can always be taken in
dually reduced doses. Reduced
osage is the real secret of relief from
constipation.
Ask a doctor about this. Ask your
dropgist how very populaz Dr. Cald-
rell’s Syrup Pepsin has become. It
gives the t kind of help, and right
amount of help, aking a little
each time, gives the bowels a chance
to act of their own accord, until they
are moving regularly and thoroughly
without an belp at all.
Dr. Cal
tains senna and cascara—both natural
laxatives that form no habit. The ac.
tion is gentle, but sure. It will relieve
any sluggishness or bilious condition
due to constipation without upset,
Clouds Will Break
Saving for a rainy day is difficult
when It seems to be a rainy season
Myldeal Remedy for
PAIN |
“Though I have tried al! good
remedies Capudine suits me
best. It is quick and gentle”
Quickest because it is liquid
its ingredients are already dis.
solved. For headache, neural. 7
arrives
it is vitally important that the be rid
of waste matter. Your intestines must funo
tion-regularly, completely without