Indianapolis Times, Volume 47, Number 259, Indianapolis, Marion County, 7 January 1936 — Page 3

JAN. 7, 1936

CONFUSED NATION SURO WRECKAGE OF FARM LAW . HIT BY COURT’S DECISION All Hope foi* Revival of Act Under Present Conditions Relieved Gone; Roosevelt Forces to Ask $250,000,000 for Benefits.

scrambled President Roosevelt’s new budget, which made no allowance for the Ibss of processing taxes. Down with AAA fell its cousins—special control for tobacco, sugar, potatoes and cotton. Many believed the decision jeopardized New Deal policies due soon for court review, including the Tennessee Valley Act, upon which the court may rule next Monday. In the absence, of definite announcements from the New Deal, observers searched the known positions of President Roosevelt for some hint of the future. As recently as Friday night, in his "state of the union" address, Mr. Roosevelt expressed determination not to abandon farm aid. "Shall we say to the farmers the prices for your products are in part

NATION’S PRESS SPLIT ON MERIT OF AAA DEFEAT New York News Bitter; Blow to New Dealers, Most Agree. Rv United Pr,. Newspapers commented upon the ) Supreme Court invalidation of the AAA as follows: NEW YORK DAILY NEWS—It remains to be seen whether the American people will consent to be governed by a body of nine old men, all of whom were appointed for life j by Presidents now dead or repudiated. PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER—! The planners, the professors, the ; brain twisters and the President! have suffered setbacks before in their career of making America over. But never have they been faced with such a gigantic, over- , whelming failure, such a stupendous blunder as their fantastic AAA. WASHINGTON POST—Proposals In rurb the powers of the Supreme Court are certain to be revived. Now it is up to the people to decide whether the advantages resulting from a rigid centralized control of agriculture justify an amendment to the basic law under which future farm policies could be imposed upon the entire country from Washington. NEW YORK JOURNAL OF COMMERCE—The President and his advisers are shown once again, and in a glaring light, the need for a more responsible attitude in the formation of major national policies. MEMPHIS COMMERCIAL APPEAL—The way will be found to continue this aid either through a! direct, appropriation or a diversion , of the revenues from excises and j tariffs. President. Roosevelt has, thus been given another powerful; appeal in his race for election. CHARLESTON NEWS AND I COURIER—The courts decision [ lands on the jaw of the Republican j theory m protection. If the saving I • the tax can only be sustained by j ignoring the avowed purpose and j operation of the act and holding it a measure merely laying an excise tax on processors lo raise revenue for the support of the government"’ is sound (as think it, is> how can import duties, tariff taxes, be lawfully laid for any other purpose than j raising revenues for the support of the government?” DETROIT FREE PRESS—The knockout handed the AAA by Uie. Supreme Court is the most severe and significant blow the fabfic of New Deal legislation has suffered up to the present moment. The agri-j c.ulturist . . . finds he has beefi | led out on a limb and left., there. I NEW ORLEANS TIMES PlCAYUNE—America’s people in greatt majority will accept this decree of t their highest, court loyally. Those, of us who feel that the agricultural | agency now outlawed rendeved in- j valuable service during a national j emergency will be comforted by the] disenting opinions rendered by Jus- j tices Brandeis. Cardozo and Stone, i KANSAS CITY STAR (Ind.t J Irrespective of the effect of the j Supreme Court decision upon the, final farm policy of the government, j the court's action has precipitated j an immediate crisis in the payment j on farm contracts alreday entered into or complied with by farmers. Some way must be found, even if on a rPlief basis, for compensating farmers who have reduced their production in compliance with government contracts. ST. PAUL PIONEER PRESS— There will be impatient, rash persons who will tell the farmers that the decision condemns them to subordination to industry. The farmers will not give heed to such counsels against the Federal organization of this country. LOS ANGELES TIMES Tire whole legislative structure which the President and Congress have erected during nearly three years comes tumbling down. The blame, however, rests not upon the court, but upon an Administration which, in spite of all warnings . . . persisted in an attempt to enlarge its authority. SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE —No lee is left for the AAA to stand on. If other New Deal acts go out. as the present ruling indicates they will, and if they are revived under the general taxing power. everybody will be taxed to make everybody rich. It Is the final absurdity of the New Deal. PORTLAND. ORE., OREGONIAN —The court's decision, by analogy, carries down with AA so much other legislation as to point the complete and final wreck of the New Deal. KNICKERBOCKER PRESS. ALBANY. N. Y.—. . . Many of us have not realized how far afield the Roosevelt Administration has strayed. It Is therefore salutary for the Supreme Court to remind America again that an Administration born of hysterical voting has no right to violate teh sacred principles of our Constitution.

(Continued From Page One)

restored, now' go and hoe your own row 0 ' ” he asked. After referring directly to "ad-1 judication by the highest tribunal," j he added, "The Congress has the! right and can find the means to protect its own prerogatives.” Developments Outlined Out of the confusion of the first numbed reaction to the courts crushing blow emerged a number of possible developments: 1. Agitation for a constitutional amendment to give Congress pow-ers now denied it. particularly to control crop production. 2. Adoption of an equalization fee, an export debenture, or a domestic allotment plan, the first tw'o often proposed during Republican Administrations. 3. Separation of processing taxes from production control provisions. 4. Proposals to curb the power ol the Supreme Court to invalidate acts of Congress. 5. Enactment of state crop reduction programs under Federal subsidy. 6. A popular clamor for or against drastic Federal action. White House Is Silent Notable was the silence from the White House, where the chief executive conferred with his farm aids. Official and political comment was as confused and divided as reaction in farm villages, in cities, in towns. Surveying the wreckage, they found that all control of agricultural production was barred. All hope for reviving an AAA under present conditions was gone. It seemed inevitable that other laws regarded as important would be hurled along the same pathway of unconstitutionality. As its first move to bring some order out of the chaos caused by the Supreme Court’s decision. New Deal leaders at, a White House conference last night decided to sponsor a bill to appropriate about $250,000,000 on which the government is already committed for crop reduction next session. It, was expected to be a matter of days before a White House opinion on permanent strategy would be forthcoming. The effect of the 6-to-3 decision by which the court struck down the Administration's basic farm aid statute was so momentous that issues considered of tremendous interest a few' hours before w'ere almost forgotten. Benefit Payments Stop In rigorous adherence to yesterdays decision, the Administration overnight stopped, temporarily at least, all benefit payments and collection of processing taxes under the Agricultural Adjustment Act. The pay of 6646 AAA workers was stopped, as was any immediate payment on $282,910,348 or more of money due farmers on 1935 crop reduction contracts. The proposed appropriation w’ould discharge some of that obligation. The decision threw into uncertainty the status of processing taxes collected under the law'. They totaled $963,073,612 t,o Jan. 3. At that time an additional $201,000,000 was held in escrow in the courts where processors fought against making the payment under the amendments to the original AAA. The status of the latter fund probably will be decided by the courts in the pending rice case. The decision had a paralyzing effect on Washington. For months the source of action, Washington tuned an ear to the rest of America to learn how the country's millions received the news. Green Demands Action Senator Edward P. Costigan <D. Col.), w'ho is sponsoring a constitutional amendment to give Congress the broadest powers over industry and agriculture, said the decision imposed on Congress “the imperative obligation of submitting to the states a constitutional amendment, which will permit adaptable Federal legislation if and whan it is required by the general welfare to cope w'ith such bitter peace-time crises as our people have experienced.” ‘ It is inconceivable,” Mr. Costigan said, "that a Congress which is empowered to declare w'ar with all this implies will be content to remain powerless to deal with economic disorders w'hich if unremedied may force the nation into paths as difficult and disastrous as war.” President. William Green of the American Federation of Labor said the decision made "the necessity for an amendment to the Constitution more imperative.”

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MARION COUNTY FARMERS, FATHER AND SON. STUNNED BY AAA DECISION

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Father and son . . . dirt farmers . . . reading of the AAA deatn bjow . . . that struck their little red barn and farm . . , Seventy-fifth-st, and Allisonville-rd. . . Left, Albert Steinmeier, son, and Fred, the father, right.

'Politics,’Retort Hoosier Farmers to AAA Ruling Fred and Albert Steinmeier, Father and Son, Puzzled by Blow'to Law So Helpful to Them. BY ARCH STEINEL Legal lightning, generated in a marble temple of justice >n Washington. hit a red barn atop a hill on Allisonville-rd. leaving two Indiana dirt farmers with a S9OO hole burned in their pocketbooks, “Politics!” was their comment. In the barn, similar to thousands of others in Indiana. Fred and Albert. Steinmeier. father and son. mulled over the United States Supreme

Court, decision wiping out the AAA which had increased their income. Even the pigs squealing in the barnyard in the assurance that in recent times they were worth more than 3 cents a pound on the hoof seemed a bit apprehensive. Ted, the braying ass, ‘‘stomped’’ near the banr door as Albert Steinmeier swung a hefty pitchfork bedding down the cattle ana talked about what, the corn-hog and wheal contracts under AAA had meant to his family and neighbors. Nearby the father, for 60 years atiller of the soil in Marion County, pitched corn from a crib into a wagon and shook his head in puzzled fashion when asked what would happen now. “There isn’t a farm around here, except ours, that isn't, mortgaged. But all of them are beginning to come out of the depression. We made a little money last year—our first in five years, We’ve lost money all around here and now—l guess it’s between S2OOO and S3OOO owing us—l couldn't sell that, paper for 10 cents on the dollai,” the stalwart 72-year-old farmer said as he fingered an ear of corn and shook his head disconsolately. War Seems to Be Legal "The only good times we had was during the World War. We don’t want another war. But it’s a wonder the Supreme Court don't call war unconstitutional. Politics! that's all it is! Roosevelt did something for the farmer and he's the only one that did. Sure my sou and 1 are Democrats, but politics

THE INDIANAPOLIS TIMES

don't mean a thing when it comes to being for the AAA. Republicans —we got them in this township—are for it,” the father added. “Ted,” the farm’s rebel, brayed and kicked at a barn door as the pitchfork of the son. Albert, halted in midair and then grounded and the son added his thoughts. “You see last year we got about S9OO out of our corn-hog and wheat contracts. Do you know what that bought? Well we needed anew binder and tractor and that cost SIOSO. more than we' got from the government. Then we spent about S7O painting up things—and of course the women folk needed things around the house. They got them. It helped my girl on her tuition at Butler. “I don’t, like what they've done to us. but I have to. I guess." he added as he tried to be philosophical about it. “You know it wasn’t the contract money, the S9OO they gave us for only raising so many pigs and so much corn and wheat that counted. We didn’t need that. It was the

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prices. Why I remember 15-cent corn. You do, too! Hogs down to almost a price where it would be cheaper to just feed and let them die of old age than to butcher and kill them. Now we been gettting good prices. But—what’ll happen now—?” “Ted,” the farm’s cut-up. brayed i another one of his razzing notes. "Better watch that mule. He’ll be S trying to make a break for it,” ad- ! vised the father. | A white pig squealed as one of : Ted’s hoofs lashed out as he jumped ! a barnyard puddle. The wise eyes iof a white cockerel perched on a ! fence near the two men blinked and ; blinked. The gray day seemed grayer. The ; corn tossed in the wagon-bed by the father thudded dully. Albert's pitchfork lifted with less zest as he handed back a newspaper telling of the Supreme Court decision banning corn-hog contracts. Expresses Hopeful View "Maybe, maybe, they'll fix up something to right it all. Maybe it’ll i be anew law to give us back the j first chance we’ve had to get on our ; feet,” said the son. "There'll be no hay-loader or ■ spreader this year.” chimed in the ! fat ier.” and the lime won’t go on rthe alfalfa pasture.” | "Ted” brayed again, loud and long, and seemed to be giving expression to the opinion that somei thing—"politics” the Steinmeier.?' 'call it—already had been spread over the farm and the little rod bam and the thousands of farms and other bams in Indiana by nine men in a marble temple in Washington. Dental Clinic to Bp Held The Indianapolis Dental Society is to hold its midwinter clinic in the Indiana University dental school Monday afternoon. A dinner is to be held that night at tho Lincoln. Raymond S. Springer, Connersville, is to be the speaker.

STONE DISSENT ! IS HELD BOON! TO ROOSEVELT Minority Opinion Would Be Help If Court Is Made Issue, Is View. (Continued From Page One) i

Roberts led the conservative attack which wrecked the first railroad pension bill. He voted against NR A but fn support of the New Deal in the gold cases. Until he came to the bench, the man from Pennsvlavnia was best known as the oil scandals prosecutor of Harry F. Sinclair and Albert B. Fall. He is 60. I Holds Judicial Power Abused There were no Supreme Court mourners last spring for the Blue Eagle and NR A. The National Recovery' Administration w'ent down 9-to-0 before the court of last resort. But there was dissent yesterday when Mr. Roberts read the Agricultural Adjustment Administration into the junk pile. The theme song for reform of the courts or amendments to Constitu- ; tion—or something more abrupt and painful—seemed to be written into ; the dissenting opinion. "So may judicial power be abused.” was the solemn warning of Associate Justice Harlan F. Stone who read the dissent in behalf of himself and Justices Louis D. Brandies and Benjamin N. Cardozo. “The only check upon our owa exercise of power,” said Justice Stone, ; “is our own sense of self-restraint. I For the removal of unwise laws from , the statute books appeal lies not to the courts but to the ballot and to the processes of democratic government.” Against Mr. Stone's warning that. the courts are not justified in assuming sole protection for our in- j stitutions, Mr. Roberts argued that i the courts do not in fact, pass judgment on the wisdom of congressional acts but must apply to them the test of their rightness under limi- , tations of the Constitution. Mr. 1 Roberts insisted that this question the courts must "decide.” He refused to consider the argument that AAA could be substan- j tiated under the constitutional j authority for Congress to "provide j for the general welfare.” Justices Stone. Brandies and Cardozo challenged him there. But the issues raised extend faT* from the bench t,o the grass roots and it is there they probably will be settled either in the presidential campaign this year or later. Reasonably certain it is that they will be settled. Mr. Stone uttered grave warning of possible consequences of that settlement if the Supreme Court stands fast in the position assumed yesterday. Greater Danger Is Feared "Interpretation of our great charter of government (the Constitution),’’ he said, "which proceeds on any assumption that the responsibility for the preservation of our institutions is the exclusive concern of any one of the three branches of government, or that it alone can save them from destruction is far more likely, in the long run ‘to obliterate the constituent members’ of ‘an indestructible union of indestructible states’ than the frank recognition that language, even of a Constitution, may mean what it says: ‘That thp power to tax and spend includes the power to relieve a nationwide economic maladjustment by conditional gifts of money.” The sharp touch of sarcasm gave hint of the antagonisms aroused in the court as in the nation by the challenge to AAA. "That the governmental power of the purse is a great one is not, now for the first time announced,” Mr. Stone insisted. "The suggestion that it must now be curtailed by judicial fiat because it may be abused by unwise use hardly rises to the dignity of argument.” Sees Absurd Consequences He contended that AAA was outlawed not because its taxes were unlawful but because the majority held that Congress could not impose conditions upon the persons to whom the tax money was passed on—in this instance farmers who received it on condition they would curtail crops. Mr. Stone said that limitation "must lead to absurd consequences”—and he cited them in staccato series: 1. “The government may give money to the unemployed, but may not ask that those who get it shall give labor in return, or even use it to support their families. 2. “It may give money to suf-

OFFICIAL WEATHER Stair* Vntkfr Bnrraa _

Sunrf?* I:#) Snnrt I:3* TEMPERATURK —Jan. 7, 1935-7 7 a m 49 1 p. m 39 —Today—- * a. m .32 in i m 32 1 a. m 32 II i. in 32 * a. m 32 12 iXoonl 34 a. m 31 I p. m 34 BAROMETER 7 a. m .... 39.42 1 m 39.49 Precipitation 24 hrs. ending 7 a. m .. .09 Total precipitation since Jan. 1 31 Deficiency since Jan. 1 .51 I OTHF.R CITIES AT 7 A. M. Station. Weather. Bar Temp. Amarillo. Tex Snow 30.32 20 Bismarck, N. D Clear 30 40 —IS Boston Cloudv 30 08 34 Chicago . . Cloudv 30 4S 32 Cincinnati Rain 30 40 38 Denver PtCldv 30 22 IS Dodge Citv. Kits. ... PtCldv 30.48 10 Helena. Mont Clear 30 14 4 Jacksonville. Fla Cloudy 30 24 64 Kansas City, Mo. ... Snow ' 30 54 16 Little Rock. Ark Cloudv 30 36 36 Los Angeles PtCldv 29 96 50 Miam . Fla Cloudy 30 20 74 Minneapolis Clear 30 56 —l2 Mobile. Ala Cloudv 30 10 64 New Orleans Cloudv 30 06 62 New York. Cloudv 30.18 36 Ok!a City. Okla Cloudv 30 40 26 Omaha. Neb Cloudv 30.64 0 Pittsburgh Cloudv 30 32 36 Portland. Ore Rain ‘ 29 82 44 San Antonio. Tex Cloudv 30 08 38 San Francisco PtCldy 30 06 46 St. Louis Rain 30 44 30 Tampa, Fla Cloudv 30 20 fig Washington. D C Cloudy 30 28 34 ferers from earthquake, fire, tornado, pestilence or flood, but may not impose conditions—health precautions designed to prevent spread of disease? All that, because it purchased regula'ion infringing stale powers, must be left for the states, who are unwilling or unable to supply the necessary relief. Holds Answer Is Plain 3. “The government may spend its money for the suppression of the boll weevil, but it may not compenate the farmers for suspending the growth of cotton in the infested areas. 4. "It may support rural schools, but may not condition its grant by the requirement that certain standards be maintained. “Do all its activities collapse because in order to effect the permissible purpose, in myriad ways the money is paid out upon terms and conditions which influence action of the recipients within the states, which Congress can not command? “The answer would seem to be plain. If appropriation in aid of a program of curtailment of agricultural production is constitutional and it is not denied that it is payment to farmers on condition the' they reduce their crop acreage if constitutional.” Equal Latitude Urged The justice said that under the constitutional power to control interstate commerce the Congres' actually had set aside intrastate railroad rates, and under the power to levy customs duties had made ; and destroyed intrastate industries i by raising and lowering tariffs. He contended that the taxing power enjoyed by Congress under |the Constitution should be perj rnitted equal latitude in touching : upon purely intrastate matters and i that to deny that right was to draw i a distinction making the scope of | the taxing power considerably less | than the scope of other powers dele- | gated to Congress under the na- ; tional charter. “The only conclusion to be drawn," he said, “is that results become lawful when they are incidents of those powers (commerce and customs), but unlawful when incident to the similarilv granted power to tax and spend.”

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MINTON SCORES SUPREME COURT FOR AAA RULING Hoosier Senator Delivers Caustic Comment on New Deal Upset. (Continued From Page One) in law between a tax for the benefit of manufacture and a tax for the benefit of agriculture." Mr. Robinson said. Norris Asks Amendment Senator George W. Norris <R, Neb ), sugested that a constitutional amend nent "may be the way out.” Willi&n Green, president of the American Federation of Labor, joined in that suggestion. Senator Edward P. Costigan (D, Colo.i, said "the decision is so sweeping as to impose on Congress the imperative obligation of submitting to the states a constitutional amendment which will permit adaptable Federal legislation if and when it is required by the general welfare to cope with such bitter peace time crises as our people have experienced." Other comment included: Senate Republican Leader Charles L. McNarv. Ore.—"lf the AAA is dead, it’s dead as hell and something will ha vp to be done about it.” Must Find Remedy Speaker Joseph W. Byrns—' The AAA was the mos important legislation passed by* Congress in years and if there is any way to replace it under the Constitution it should be done.” Chairman Robert L. Doughton of the House Ways and Means Committ.ee—'"lt. will be a great calamity. if Congress does not find soma way in a constitutional method to take care of the farmer by legislation.” Senator John H Bankhead Ala.). Author of thp Bankhead Cotton Control Act, Knocked Out by the Decision—"l believe a remedy can be worked out by passing laws separating the processing tax features from the production control provisions.” Rep. Marvin Jones <D., Tex.). Chairman of the House Agriculture Committee —“We will have to get. appropriations to pay the farmers who carried out the adjustment contracts in good faith.” "It's Terrible Blow” Senator John Overton (D., La.)— •‘lt’s a terrible blow.” Rep. Lindsay Warren 1 D.. S. C.— "It’s a sickening and saddening blow ; to the farmer.” House Majority Leader William B. I Bankhead 'D.. Ala.)— "lt is distressj ing and disappointing.” Rep. Percy L. Gassaway <D., \ Okla.)—'We will just have lo build ; us another one.” Senator Richard B. Russell Jr, id., Ga.) The court's action means Congress will be here two months longer trying to figure out a way to pay these contracts.” Senator Royal S. Copeland (D., N. Y.) —“Any measure that did so much to increase the cost of living in our cities could not possibly run the gauntlet of the Supreme ! Court.” ; Rep Hamilton Fish Jr. (R.. N, i y.)—‘lt is now up to the Republic!an Party to provide some sound, | clear program lor the benefit of the farmers.”