Muncie Post-Democrat, Muncie, Delaware County, 31 May 1935 — Page 4

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M Democratic weekly newspaper representing the Democrats itfuncie, Delaware County and the 10th Congressional District The only Democratic Newspaper in Delaware County.

THE POST-DEMOCRAT

FRIDAY, MAY 31, 1935.

The Editor’s Comer

Entered as second class matter January 15, 1921, at the Postoffice •t Muncie, Indiana, under Act of March 3, 1879.

PtflCE 5 CENTS—$1.00 A YEAR.

223 North Elm Street—Telephone 2540 GEO. R. DALE, Editor

Muncie, Indiana, Friday, May 31, 1935.

Leave It to the Supreme Court And now, according to the Star, reciprocal tariff agreements made with foreign nations are sure to meet with the disapprobation of the Supreme Court and will be scrapped along with the NRA. , -Foreign nations have had occasion before to wonder at the complacency of people of this country who demand splendid isolation but that would probably be the last straw. On the first page of the Star that contained the Star’s prediction that the paramount judicial, executive and legislative body wouldn’t stand for it, Will Rogers proposes that the Californai legislature adopt his “plan” and send a wire to the Supreme Court and get a night letter back in tweptyfour hours and thus settle immediately a snarl the legislature got into over a certain bill that has Keen introduced. It costs much money for the nation to support such needless agencies as the Congress and legislatures so why not abolish them and leave it all to the Supreme Court. Now is a good time to adopt Teddy Roosevelt’s idea to pass a law authorizing a national referendum on the question of the recall of Supreme Court decisions. But, of course, the great Final Word would immediately declare such a law “unconstitutional.”

Who is the “Forgotten Man?” The “Forgotten Man” is not new to this country or any other, but perhaps not one person in a thousand knows his true identity. Fewer still sense his worth as to the state as a thrifty citizen. Fifty years ago William Graham Sumner immortalized him in a lecture which he repeated many times, saying: 1 “Now who is the Forgotten Man? He is the simple, honest laborer, ready to earn his living by productive work. We pass him by because hfe is independent, self-supporting and asks no favors. He does not appeal to the emotions or excite the sentiments. He only wants to make a contract and fulfill it, with respect on both sides and favor on neither side; He must get his living out of the capital-of the country. The larger the. capital is, the better living he can get. Every particle of capital which is wasted on the vicious, the idle, and the shiftless is so much taken from the capital available to reward the independent and

productive laborer.

“But we stand with our backs to the independent and productive laborer all Die time. We do not remember him because he makes no clamoj-; but I appeal to you whether he is not the man who ought to

be remembered first of all. * * *

- - “Now, I have said that this jobbery means waste, plunder, and loss, and I defined it at the outset as the system of making a chance to extort .part of his product.from somebody else. Now comes the question: Who pays for it all? The system of plundering each other soon destroys all that it deals with. It produces nothing. Wealth comes only from production and all that the wrangling grabbers, loafers, and jobbers get to deal with comes from somebodys toil and sacrifice. Who, then, is he who provides it all? Go ahd find him and you will have once

more before you The Forgotten Mark

“The Forgotten Man is weighted down with the cost and burden of the schemes for making everybody happy, with the cost of public beneficence, with the support of all the loafers, with the losses from all the economic quackery, with the cost of all the jobs. Let us remember him a little while. Let us take some of the burdens off him. Let us turn | our pity on him instead of on the good-for-nothing. It will be only justice to him, and society will greatly gain by it. Mr. Roosevelt: Statesman If President Roosevelt had not heretofore revealed his full stature as du American statesman, he did so in his veto and accompanying message on the Patman bonus-inflation bill. His act and words were those of a statesman who thinks of the welfare of all the people and qf the future of his country. They were far removed from the sphere of political expediency. They denied the right of any minority groups such us thp organized veterans and the inflationists to dictate the longtime policies of this republic. Had Mr. Roosevelt been as politicallyminded as some of his predecessors in office or as uncertain of his convictions as some of the members of congress^ he easily might have been swayed to sign the Patman bill and to have let the blame for later consequences rest upon congress and with the veterans. He showed greater courage, greater fore sight and truly illustrated that he thinks of his responsibilities as being those of a President for ALL THE PEOPLE. His bold stand against the inflationists and denial of the claims of the veterans that they should have preferred attention when millions of other citizens are starving, sharply refutes the assertions of his political opponents who have tried to make it appear that every step in the Roosevelt recovery and relief program has been designed as political bait

looking toward the 1936 election.

How easily and how politically proper it might have been considered for President Roosevelt to have signed the Patman bill. He might hav£ won support of the veterans and the inflationists for the 1936 campaign. But he was not thinking of personal gain or playing for fdture political success. He was thinking of the United States as a whole. To his mind came the picture of national disasters that in all countries have followed uncontrolled inflation and the issuance of printing press money. He knew that to yield to this temptation would lead to'other concessions being made to the Townsondites, the “Share-the-Wfcalth” clubs and all the others who have economic panaceas founded on propositions which do not reckon as to where the money must come from. It is fundamental, the President said, “that a government, like ah individual, must ultimately meet legitimate obligations out of the production of wealth by labor of human being applied to the resources

of nature.”

Most significant of the Presidents words were these: “Today, the credit of the United States is safe, but it cannot ultimately be safe if we engage in a policy of yielding to each and all of the groups that are a.ble to enforce upon the congress claims for special consideration.”

There is what we call a “Supreme” Court. All other courts are known as inferior courts. That doesn’t mean that all other judges are inferior judges. Delaware County has two judges. Lon Guthrie, a Republican, is judge of the Circuit Court and Claud Ball, a Democrat, is judge of the Superior Court. Both are good judges, who have the confidence of the people. Both of them are good lawyers and know law and equity as well, as better, than the nine on the Supreme bench. They did not qualify for the bench by serving as counsel for big corporations, public utilities and big business in general as did most of the judges on the Supreme bench, before reactionary presidents would entrust them with the big job of saying the final word affecting the interests of all classes. Justice Sutherland, when he was United States Senator from Utah, was a political disciple of the Morman reactionary, Reed Smoot. Lacking in statesmanship he put in his time in the Senate babbling about the Constitution and his colleague, Warren G. Harding, when he became President put him on the Supreme bench. Chief Justice Charles Evans Hughes was Harding’s secretary of State, sitting in the Cabinet with Fall, Daugherty and Denby and nobody ever heard of him squawking about this odoriferous trio. When Hoover named Hughes to the Supreme bench, he was representing big business, and was known as the leading corporation lawyer of his time. None of these suspicious connections could be laid at the I door of either judge in Delaware County and both were elected by the people. It is doubtful that a single member of the United States Supreme Court could have been elected by fhe votes of the United States. , The people of Delaware county are fortunate in having judges the people trust. * * * * When the “skip election law” added a year to my fouryear term of office I could have remained in office as mayor of Muncie three years longer if this law passed by the Indiana legislature had been held unconstitutional. I was solicited to make the test. By all the rules of the game the was “unconstitutional.” But I would have felt like a usurper in dispossessing an elected successor, by the nullification, by any court, of a law enacted by the state of In-

diana.

In other words I would not have sacrificed, for prolonged term in office, by lifelong conviction that courts have no right to question the constitutionality of laws made by assemblymen or congressmen selected by the people, and commissioned by them, to enact their laws.

* * * *

On the 11th of June the board of works and safety will receive bids for a drag line, or dredge, to be used in river

work.

Two months before the change in the city administration, when it was shown that such a machine was needed badly in order to keep NRA workers going on the river job, my board of w r orks agreed to advertise at once for bids, to hurry things along, provided the council would agree to

create the necessary bond issue.

The council, in caucus, agreed unanimously. The notice for bids was published but the council backed up. The ordinance was not passed so when the bidders showed up on the day the purchase was made they were told that the funds had not been supplied, that the “gentleman’s agreement” had been violated and that there would be no purchase. After the first of the year the new administration created the bond issue, and the purchase that was blocked then will be made on the 11th of June. Draw your own conclusions. 7

” Supreme Court (Continued From Page One) that power to the judiciary the people of America almost revolted tjiiit the philosophy of John Marshall persisted to the extent that now an unthinking people speak glibly about the constitutionality of this or that law without stopping to realize that the time might Cbme when nine men on the bench could by writing a mere opinion strike down the entire fabric of

governmental action. Marshall a Great Man

Marshall was a great man, a remarkable lawyer, and honest to a de&refc. By sheer force of his persuasive eloquence, and the logical Clarity of his opinions, he was recognized' in America as the final word in interpretation of the Constitution but it is doubtful that the great Marshall himself had in _

aXnd that his honest theories of cause he thought, as Socrates did,

several centuries before, that office holding might cramp his style. When Hughes quit the bench and ran for President he became an ordinary politician, like the rest of us, and. lost his rating as a demi-

god.

Crisis At Hand In the crisis at hand, caused by the court wreckage of President Roosevelt’s New Deal, the law as it is understood, may have been followed to a nicety. But what matters it to the decedent if it is said after the funeral that “the operation was successful but the patient died. As Senator Minton said, “you can’t eat the Constitution.” A learned court opinion will not assuage the hunger of millions who may be forced to the bread lines by reason of the decision. You can’t eat the Constitution and you can’t eat a court decision. Of course you might, at a pinch, but the digestive tracts would rebel. There is no distinct line that can be drawn between property rights and individual right. The New Deal contemplated a cure for sick business and sick labor. Both were “sick of a fever” and the Roosevelt plan was to get both out of the hospital as soon as possible, based on the thought that each depends absolutely upon the other

law would a century latef result in confusion and the Babel of tongues that is now the lot of the country that he loved. He believed in himself and his perfect honesty led him somewhat into the error of ignoring equity and the common law, in favor of his own profound convictions regarding the law and

the Constitution.

Thomas Jefferson, a stern critic of Marshall, was more concerned about equity and the rights of man, than he was in fine points of law, which might prove the lawyer to be technically right and “constitutional” but tough on the masses, who do not care much about

legal cobwebs.

Charles Evans Hughes, the pres- lJai ent Chief Justice, is just as honest j court's as John Marshall, is just as good a lawyer and has the courage of his own convictions, with One difference. Marshall once refused a prominent government post be-

if either expects health to return. The supreme court may have performed a successful operation when it explored the vitals of the body politic and cut out the heart of the New r Deal, but the patients, capital and labor, may not survive. The reactions or repercussions of this rhomentous and epoch-mak-ing decision are very significant of the fact that enemies of the administration take the decision as a victory for “our side.” One Republican senator, known for the implacable enmity toward President Roosevelt and everything he stands for, simply couldn’t contain himself when the

decision was made public. H. P. Fletcher Crows

“Thank God for the Supreme

Court!” he burbled out.

Henry P. Fletcher, chairman of the Republican national committee, thinking as he always does and always will, in terms political, merely said “that puts an end to

the New Deal.”

He should have concluded by saying that the Old Dealers may now resume their pleasant pastime of dealing from the top, bottom

and middle of the deck.

Thus we have it from politicians that the emasculation of a political party by court decree, that the

decision has a political

meaning, which even the members of the court will not relish, although all nine are Republicans, appointed for life by Republican

presidents.

And life to those whose tenure the

in office does not expire until the grim reaper calls them away, is a long time. There is something about the atmosphere of the Supreme Court cloister that makes for longevity. They never resign and seldom die. It is recommended highly as a health resort. And there is something that is not generally known. The United States is the only country in the world that subordinates the legislative branch to the judiciary and permits a few old men on the bench to dictate what laws shall, or shall not be, enacted. It was tried once in England but was never repeated, for obvious reasons. History records that the chief justice, one Tresillian, was at once taken out and hanged and his associate justices were all banished for life. Pull Out Whiskers The Post-Democrat would not advise such extreme measures in this supposedly enlightened republic. A milder form of punishment, possibly pulling out the whiskers of the Chief Justice, one by one and taking away of the “terbacker” of the associate judges, might be a hint to their highnesses that citizens of the land of the free who cast their votes object to disfranchisement. Imagine if you can what would happen to any judge in Italy who would render an opinion that would outlaw^ Fascism! The judge would either be given a quart of castor oil, Mussolini’s pet form of reprisal, or banished to the United States, where nine excellent old gentlemen act as judges and arbiters of legislation. In Germany, this fellow Hitler, is a pretty tough old guy himself, and would scarcely relish the idea of being lawed out of the game of rulership by the legalistic pronouncement of a German court. It is easily conceivable that the judge would play safe and cable his decision from some country where extradiction would be im-

possible.

As for England, whose common

law is ours, once was enough for any British judge. The precedent established by Chief Justice Tresillian’s executioners proved as effective as the law of China, which provides death for bankers who go wrong, their clerks and the families of all connected with the bank. No judge in England since the day Tresillian was hanged has ever tried to upset the government. And in China, where the banker’s law was enacted a thousand years ago, the law was never invoked, mainly because no Chi-

nese bank has ever failed. As missionaries who have been

sent from America to civilize the heathen Chinese can testify, China

enforces its laws promptly. The fourteenth amendment to Constitution which declares

Ithat no person shall be deprived I of his life, liberty or property J without due process of law, is not, unfortunately, the safeguard against injustice that was intended by the author of the amendment. Right To “Interpret” In assuming the right to “interpret” the constitution, the couxt of final resort is empowered, or rather has arrogated to itself, the self-imposed task of deciding in many cases, involving the rights of numberless litigants, ju^t what “due process” means. Thus it rests entirely to the individual of the court, to exercise their own judgment and what they finally determine may be as far from “due process” as was the wholly illegal building up of the theory the court itself was commissioned by God Almighty to tell Presidents, governors and state and national legislative bodies what laws to pass. I have written many editorials over a period of years in which I have consistently expressed the opinion that the people just think they are voting. They may holler themselves hoarse when their favorite wins at the polls, but the Supreme Court has the final vote. So it doesn’t matter who is elected President, governor, congressman or member of the state legislature, as long as the present philosophy of the government's position with relation to the supreme court persists. About all we get out of it is a momentary gesture of exultation because our favorites were elected. Nobody yet has tested before the Supreme Court what we think is our proud American privilege of celebrating a political victory. It may be unconstitutional. 1 don't know, nor do you, for certain. We may be taking the joy out of the life of the fellow who lost without due process of law for all I know now and will never know for certain until the Supreme Court “interprets!” Job seekers thought, until this week, appointments made by the President were final. But now we are not so certain. In another decision the court decided that the president was without power to remove some fellow who sued to be reinstated. The president was “ordered” to put him back to work and pay him for the time he had

lost.

The case was an obscure one but it may have been a “test case looking to an eventual ruling that the Supreme Court, instead of the president is the government employment agent ..kjwj Serious gemiemen and profound editors view with alarm the possibility of a dictatorship with President Roosevelt as the No. 1

dictator.

Have Perfect Dictatorship Why bless there innocent little hearts we now have a perfect dictatorship. Mr. Majority Opinion of the Supreme Court of the United States has taken over the dictator job in a manner that should make Kemal Pasha and Stanlin turn green with envy. It the bemused old folks on the supreme bench have become unduly inflated because of their unbridled power it is the fault of a people who have acquiesced and have never truly learned what freedom means. If the bemused old folks on the wings of this judicial oligarchy and it must be done quickly if America is to preserve its freedom. Wfe are now a nation of serfs. If these old men feel that they are greater than the President of the United States, and are chief advisers to God m ruling the universe they should be quickly disillusioned and I feel that President Roosevlet.is capable of rendering that service. o Father Ryan Continued on Page 4 Fears Dictatorship “Unless this system is adopted, the industrial organization now operating under the NRA will inevitably ,be converted either into economic Fascism or* some form of Communism.” Father iRyan insists in the most emphatic manner that the immediate duty of the state is to remedy economic ills, which he outlines as follows: . Reductiion of the working week and a program of public works, sufficient together to provide jobs

for all.

Adequate enforcement of all provisions of codes. Public ownership of public utilities, mines and petroleum deposits as rapidly as it can be wisely accomplished. 'Government competition with private industry when necessary to curb private monopoly. Sharp reduction in interest rates, and higher taxes on incomes, inheritances and excess

profits.

Rap At Hoover Father Ryan pays his compliments to those who complain the government is interfering too much in business, and especially criticises Herbert Hoover’s book, “The Challenge to Liberty,” in which the former President bemoaned the “host of governmental agencies spread over the land, limiting honest men’s activities.” “In the main,” Father Ryan pithily comments, “it is the activities of dishonest men that are limited, the chiselers of all sorts. Does the liberalism so dear to Mr. Hoover include this sort of liberty.” A pessimistic note was sounded by Fother Ryan when he said that the “extent to which the New Deal is impeded by wage-cutting, extortions and downright dishonesty is causing a rapidly increasing n,umber of observers to doubt whether as a people we have the moral qualities necessary to carry out successfully any plan of social

reform.”

It is better to be insurance poor than just poor. * * * * ■ Hard times makes hard guys. Many who used to be solid gold are now r off the gold standard. » * * * A sign of the times! The sale of red ink fell off thirty per cent in

1934.

* + * *

Eighty-five per cent of the success of a school is due to the teacher; the building, equipment, etc. are only responsible for fifteen per cent.

* * * *

The exhaust from an automobile engine carries carbon monoxide in

.. ..J*! Legislative (Continued From Page One) and as such is invaluable because it keeps the people interested in public affairs—an interest which they say woulld decline under a single centralized couhty government. Cost Would Be Reduced Proponents of the plan for mergiing the poorer townships with other townships claim that the cost of government in these districts woulld be reduced without curtailing any of the essential services demanded by their citizens. One of the things brought out by the map pictured above is that of the 129 townships with less than $500,000 valuation, all but nine are located below a line drawn across the state from the north boundary of Vigo county to the north boundary of Union county- 1 Only eight counties in the entire state, however, have all townships iWith more than $1,500,000 valuation. These counties are Lake, Porter, Benton, Wabash, Tipton, Hamilton, Marion and Vermillian. The legislative committee will submit a report, probably with drafts of recommended bills, to a special session of the legislature if called, or to the next regular session.

KEY’tlflW NO.tWB ftmc Hi crow roxAfin 129 * 2-n 1*500.000 197 *2,|| tDOQOW t. *(500,000 190 * 1.91 □OVER *1.500.000 SOO * |.l# TOMl NO. T0WHS1UP5 1.016 ■ m A Word To The Wives Is Sufficient

were born in Italy.

* * * *

The moral coward and weakling who is unwilling to face the dif-

a dangerous amount. It has be^n fi cu ities in life, shows his yellow

demonstrated that a car while “warming up” ’ in a closed garage 10-ft. by 10-ft. by 20-ft. will,in three minutes contaminate the atmos^ phere to a degree that may cause

death.

* * JJ. ?• , In Waltham, Mass., David T. Dickinson, a paralytic, was arrested by police for operating bis storage battery driven three-wheel-ed . chair without a license.

* • * *

Six-year-old Eugene Robinson, of Blair, Nebraska, is reported recov-, ering from a complication of measles, mumps, and whooping cough.

* * * #

streak by declaring all things rotten, and then retires from the con-

flict.—'Liberty.

* * * *

The officials of the First Baptist church, Jefferson City, Missouri, voted to keep their church open continuously to the public but the very next day a thief stole their new $70 vacuum sweeper and these officials immediately went into another “huddle” and decided to keep the church locked at night.

* * * *

Robert H. Thieme, Los Angeles, recently celebrated his 103rd birthday. He claims to have been unsuccessfully married fifteen times and in his own words, “I’m still

Research workers have added a ttllu llt llia „„„ new vitamin to the alphabetical J trying to find the right girl, list. It is vitamin K. This new * * * * vitamin is claimed to be a cure j “The tree has leaves,

for anemia.

* * * *

It takes about 400 years to accumulate an average of one inch of top-soil, according to the Department of Agriculture. There has been considerable rain in the southwest recently and the drought seems checked in the dust

areas. * * * *

In order to get the entire $4,880,000,000 work-relief fund into circulation in the year and a half projected, the New Dealers will have to move the money out of the United States treasury at the rate of about $63,000,000 per week.

* * * *

There are nearly two million persons in the United States who

The road has miles, And nothing grieves Whene’er it smiles. The crops have sun The streams close by Do ramble on, And so do I.”

A FLOWERY FIGURE The British Ministry of Agriculture reveals how much Great Britain spends each year on cut flowers: $60,000,000. o GIVEAWAY “It says the man was shot by his wife at close range.” “Then there must have been powder marks on the body.’ “Yes; that’s why she shot him.”

Don’t Overlook Medicine Cabinet When Spring House Cleaning QF all the nooks and crannies attacked by marauding housewives during spring cleaning raids, one of the most important spots sometimes overlooked by the most alert of housekeepers is the family medicine cabinet. To do the spring housecleaning job thoroughly, every careful housewife should 'check this important department of the household as carefully as any other place in the home, discarding all old bottles, the labels on which have become soiled or discolored thxough constant usage. Don’t take medicine from old bottles without labels. Careful housewives will not allow bottles to remain in the medicine cabinet unless they are properly labeled as to their contents. Especially is this true of mothers when there am children in the home. Make your housecleaning efforts* complete, don’t place your seal of approval on your spring cleaning; until the medicine cabinet has been; changed from a gathering place fori old prescription bottles, emptyj tooth paste tubes, old tooth brushes, and other odds and ends, to a neat, orderly place for all the toilet and medicinal accessories for the entire family.

WOMEN’S RIGHTS Chinese women organize to do political battle against Marshall Chiang Kai-Shek and his mandarins, who have robbed them of their rights to: Take part in mixed bathing. Dance with men. Smoke. Wear sleeveless frocks. Work as waitresses. * Bare their legs. Walk on bare feet. Accompany their husbands to a restaurant.' • * — Walk level with their hu&bapds on the sidewalk. Use cosmetics.