Behind the Scenes in Washington
Meiman, Benjamin
Behind the Scenes in Washington By Benjamin Meiman Our Washington Correspondent The "Breathing Spell" EVEN though the President's "breathing spell" to big business did not come from...
...They lie softear the surface, however, that their existence and influence art not likely to be disclaimed But tht subject is not exhausted wh* the recognition of their power...
...Deep below consciousness are other forces, the likes and the dislikes, the predilections and »h| rfTJudices, the complex Of eks and emotions and habits snd convictions, which make the nun...
...They do not suggest a slash in the debt services, through which the city pays close to a third of a billion dollars a year to their class...
...change is much to the fore, there is almost no discussion of this problem...
...That is, these big business shots, in seeking to save a little less than $14,000,000 find $12,000,000 by cutting wages, principally of underpaid and overworked city workers...
...Amlie said the President apparently had decided to shut his eyes to the problems of the millions of unemployed and those living on charity, and added: "The President's popularity among some liberal, labor said farm groups has been based on the hope that before long he would do something fundamental about the fact that although we live in an age of potential abundance, the people are forced to endure appalling and unprecedented poverty...
...The "breathing spell" assurance is substantially the same as that given privately by the President to departing Congressional leaders...
...Behind the Scenes in Washington By Benjamin Meiman Our Washington Correspondent The "Breathing Spell" EVEN though the President's "breathing spell" to big business did not come from Washington I hope I'll be permitted to say a few words about it...
...In addition to that a formal expression of "deep regret" — the usual diplomatic salve on wounded national pride, will suffice...
...We offer these suggestions to the national committees of both parties...
...Howard as the proper channel for this long awaited statement...
...The career of John Marshall strikingly illustrates that judftl "do not stand aloof on chill tad distant heights...
...the tax bill is obviously only an initial step in the program outlined in Mr...
...No matter how an election goes, each corporation will have a record of all orders for legislation...
...Furthermore, Italy has been having considerable difficulty arranging credits and the Government here has decided Italy is not a very good risk just now...
...Like every dictator, he surrounded himself with faithful vassals and armed guards...
...Doskow says this decision reached to the very vitals of our government...
...Howard's words about "granting a breathing spell to industry...
...months ago...
...The New Leader Book Corner NOTE—All books reviewed in The New Leader can be ordered through the Rand School Book store, 7 East loth Street, N. Y. C. By Charles Solomon HISTORIC OPINIONS OF THE UNITED STATES SUPREME COURT...
...And—that'si it...
...For weeks it had been plotted and planned...
...That is our quarrel with the New Detl —that, so far as the present tat future interest of the workers a concerned, there is...
...Socialists Act to Put Milwaukee in The Meat Business MILWAUKEE.—Acting to curb the rising meat prices Milwaukee Socialists have moved to invoke a dormant unpassed ordinance to permit the city to enter the marketing business...
...I*HIS...
...Is came...
...But what makes the phrase doubly unfortunate is that a breathing spell is not an escape: it is only a respite, a temporary release...
...This of itself was his admission that his course had closed the democratic channels of meetings, discussion, and popular decisions at the polls and that personal violence might be expected...
...On the other hand, the murder of Long solves no problem...
...In an interesting preface in which a dramatic picture is given of the memorable session of the Court on May 27, 1935, when the decision invalidating the codes was handed down, Mr...
...and as soch interpretation is" fundament*: The decisions of the court* on economic and social questions depend upon their economic and socisl philosophy . . ." Notwithstanding the fsct thst the question of constitutions...
...To put it in colloquial language, it is as if the President had said: "Yes, IVe been soaking you good and plenty...
...They will not consider or understand the backgrounds of the tragedy or make allowance for the intense resentment felt by his opponents because of the arbitrary regime Long had set up...
...Roosevelt finally selected Roy W. Howard, publisher of the powerful Scripps-Howard chain of newspapers, who supported him and his New Deal through thick and thin...
...The elevator operators, chauffeurs and watchmen, together with other hundreds of thousands of workers, are the majority...
...A few years ago the Democrats set up a corporation to collect party funds.* The recent report of the Republican National Committee refers to the United Republican Finance Company of New York City which was set up for the same purpose...
...THE LOUISIANA TRAGEDY THE assassination of Huey Long, no matter how violently we may disagree with his view and his rule over Louisiana, is condemned by every Socialist...
...So it happens that our international trouble adjuster, Secretary of State Cordell Hull, is busy dodging brickbats from all three outstanding dictatorships of Europe...
...But they would also save $2,250,000 by eliminating salary appropriations for vacancies in the city's service, which is another way of keeping the salaries of many civil servants low...
...The more we go into this the more promising does it appear...
...Unemployment ass been reduced—not so much as tat President seems to claim, aad ess...
...The "phonographic" theory of the Judges' function — judges do not "legislate" but merely "declare" and apply pre-existing principles,, is disavowed...
...They would cut elevator operators down to $12 a week...
...The cases are selected because the editor believes them to be essential to an understanding of our constitutional history and its system...
...Contrary to general acceptance Roosevelt's promise to leave big business alone for a while and not harass them with objectionable legislation at the next session of Congress was not conceived as casually as it appeared to be...
...Measured by the volume of production, industry now stands about half-way between the low point reached in the spring of 1933 and the peak of 1928-29 from which it had so rapidly declined...
...December 8, 1908: "Every time they (the jadget) interpret contract, property, vested rights, due process of ls...
...If pro-Long hate is fanned by the tragic deed of Weiss it will be countered by anti-Long partisans...
...Insiders know that the cancelation of those oil contracts was chiefly to pour oil on the troubled waters that exist between the United States and Italy...
...When a big shot registers his wants it can be recorded and indexed and a duplicate sent to the other party corporation...
...Later each corporation might well agree to a code set of prices for the legislation each big shot wants...
...United States (1935), ending the NRA codes...
...Without that, unernpigment will again begin to grow with the continued displacement of labor by improved machinery...
...This is the capitalist-banker idea of how to run a city...
...The fact that the Scripps-Howard chain is a strong competitor of William Randolph Hearst may...
...He was distinctively the judicial exponent of Federalist economic and political theory...
...Will this vast majority vote with the minority of big shots or for their class with the Socialist Party...
...When the President says thst his basic program "has now reached substantial completion," he makes it pretty clear that tht tat thing which is most vitally asi urgently needed by the working class is not merely postponed pi after the "breathing spell...
...the issues with which they are concerned are issues on which it is practically impossible for thinking men to be impersonal, especially men with the background of professional and political activity that brings them to the Court...
...But even this, thoogh of a permanent nature, and wtfi worth having, does not go to tat root of the evil...
...It so happens that the American-Italian trade agreement expired a few...
...Mussolini can never prove it, but there is good reason to believe that President Roosevelt has started out to invoke some very, very subtle economic sanctions against the Duce...
...In the plain sense of the words, a "breathing spell" signifies relief from some evil or some danger...
...The working people, toe—e| would be folly to deny ic — hn» fared better in the last two y^J than they were faring for tan* years before...
...But that is how the man in the street has understood him, and his reactionary opponents will see to it that the impression is not easily effaced Of course the fact is that industry has not suffered and is not suffering under the New Deal...
...Among the historic questions around which the respective opinions revolve are the power of judicial review, freedom for interstate commerce, impairment of the obligation of contracts, extension of the slave power (the Dred Scott case), the federal power over money, preservation of the line between the nation and states, price fixing and due process, federal regulation of child labor, minimum wages, state licensing of private business, mortgage moratoria, etc...
...Long before Congress adjourned Roosevelt's political advisers urged upon him the necessity of doing two things: (1) to make full and satisfactory explanation about his legislative maneuvers, and (2)» to placate, appease and conciliate disgruntled captains of industry, commerce and finance, who felt aggrieved by his insistence on the passage of the "death sentence" to utility holding companies, the banking bill, the higher taxes on the rich, the Wagner Labor Bill, the Guffey Coal Bill and the Social Security Bill...
...Dictatorship is the road to madifes* which more men than the dictator travels...
...His role in the Court it s conspicuous example of what President Theodore Roosevelt had is mind in his message to Congress...
...I'nion Smashing in Sacrament*" "Union-smashing in Sacraments —The Truth About the Criminal Syndicalism Trial," by Herbert Stlow, has just been published by fat National Sacramento Appeal Committee as its official pamphlet This committee has been set up kf the Socialist Party and nine other organizations to handle Nomas Mini's appeal against a 14-rtsr sentence...
...Also his suspicions must have been aroused...
...The employing class hag gg more benefit than has the workisg class...
...now I'm going to let up on you for a while—but only for a while...
...It does not differ from the view of running a corporation...
...Its full implications cannot be known until the Court has passed on more of the statutes . . ." er.rtcted by the New Deal...
...Samuel S. White, Manager the San Fratcisco Joint Board «f the I.L.G.W.U...
...The President has now blasted that hope...
...ird a member ef the S.E.C...
...And those still uneraptoy«f have been receiving more assist, ance than before...
...There has been a considerable revival in the last two years...
...liberty, they necessarily enact into law parts of a system of social philosophy...
...Nobathing Spell" in Our' Fight for Thirty-Hour Week By Algernon Lee PRESIDENT ROOSEVELT was hardly wise in adopting as his own Mr...
...What they had in the back of their minds was this: Supreme Court decisions this Fall may make new reform legislation imperative from a New Deal viewpoint...
...of the California Socialist Party, wrote a preface calliaf on workers and enemies of reaction to support the appea kostmittee...
...The Common Council, after mild objections from a non-partisan member, unanimously approved a resolution by Alderman Carl P. Dietz, Socialist, directing the Common Council's judiciary committee, headed by Alderman Leonard K. Place, Socialist, to remove the ordinance from its pigeonhole and report to the Council...
...He knew that his amazing dictatorship made his life a stake in factional hates that extended to every village arid crossroad throughout the state...
...There were several applicants for personal interviews and statements along this line...
...The Italian dictator is apparently in a hurry to buy materials which may not be barred by the neutrality resolution...
...Germany: It is fairly safe to assume that Secretary Hull does not intend to offer any kind of an apology to the Nazi Government...
...The chief exception is the so-called Security Program...
...Informal talks about the treaty were started months ago, but nothing ever happened...
...Solow spent four months «• Sacramento during the trial- ^ pamphlet includes an illunrinaUtf study of the economics of Cnfifo*nia agriculture ,the history •» struggles of the exploited rnigratory farm workers to Off*8* unions, and the perse<rBtioriW which they have been »selects* Copies of the pamphlet by »¦ from the National Stuaaasssto Appeal Committee, Room W, « Union Square, N. Y, C...
...The best that Germany can expect is an expression of "deep regret" over the language used by Magistrate Brodsky accompanying the dismissal of charges against the five participants in tearing down the "flag of piracy" of the German liner Bremen...
...The leveltj real wages, which had been falltag disastrously, has been slightly rsa> ed...
...EvenJ these forces are seldom full* in consciousness...
...Both minority and majority have votes to cast in November...
...SAVING THE CITY MONEY THE Citizens' Budget Commission, an organization of "public-spirited" bankers, real estate operators and other big capitalists, is eager to save the tax payers of New York a lot of money, and its experts contend that $ 13,638.490 can be cut from the budget in a single year...
...Italy: It was a bold stroke of Haile Selassie to turn over half of his Empire to American oil interests, but it was also a bold stroke of Secretary Hull to compel the immediate cancelation of those contracts...
...My excuse is that while it eame from the President's Hyde Park hide-out, it had its inception in Washington...
...The fight for the TOrtf-Bour Week must not flag...
...too little in ft that is basic and lasting...
...4,500,000 for "readjustment" of the wages of elevator operators, telephone girls, chauffeurs and other workers...
...This very thesis is propounded by no one more unequivocally than by Judge Benjamin N. Cordoza, now a member of the Court, in bis "Nature of the Judicial Process," published while he was distinguished associate justice of the New York State Court of Appeal* Acknowledging the vital pa/t played in the judicial process^}that "empire of sub-conscious Joyalties" of which each judge^s a subject, Cardoso wrote: M "t have spoken of the »>rces of which judges avowedly avail to shape the form and consent of their judgments...
...Trouble With All Three Dictatorships—Germany, Italy and Russia d^UR government's official adjuster of international troubles, Secretary of State Cordell Hull, has his hands full with trying to adjust controversial matters to an/ pease wounded feelings of one or another of the three most prominent dictatorships in Europe: Germany, Italy and Russia...
...an additional $3,750,090 is found in proposed "reduction of wage scales for mechanical labor" to "approach more nearly prevailing rates in private employ...
...Very few of the Congressmen are as progressive as Representative Amlie, but in the main they agree with his statement...
...volume appears at a time * of relatively high current interest in the Supreme Court and when this tribunal promises to become a major political issue...
...Caught in a highly embarrassing situation, the State Department donned its softest diplomatic gloves, as study of the case convinced officials here fhat the Federal Government is powerless to take any punitive action...
...Russia: Nothing new has developed lately in the Russian situation except that Ambassador Bullitt left Russia on his vacation and rumors have it that he will not be in a hurry to return...
...whether he be litigant or jodge The great tides and earrent.' which engulf the rest of men, do not turn aside in their essrM, and pass the judges by...
...funds...
...also have had something to do with the selection of Mr...
...Rumors also persist that plans to erect a new American Embassy at Moscow had been held up in anticipation, or fear, of an open break of friendship...
...At the same time, they made no secret of their private impression that the duration of the proposed breathing spell is problematical...
...It contains the opinions in sixteen outstanding cases decided by the Court, ranging from Marbury V. Madison (1803), establishing the power of judicial review, to A. L. A .Schechter Corp...
...The next course in this evolution of the party machine should be the setting up of a "code of fair competition" by which each corporation will allot big shot contributors on a fifty-fifty basis...
...How much of this recovery is due to the Roosevelt legislation is a debatable question...
...I have felt for a long time that the liberal supporters of the President were deluded by false hopes and I am grateful to the President for Jiis clarification of his position...
...Unable to satisfy the complaints by steps against a municipal judge, Administration advisers saw no other "out" than to tender a complete explanation to the Berlin government, that in this country the Federal Government has no authority over municipal magistrates...
...In tab nutter there must be no breathing ^spell...
...A CODE FOR CAPITALIST POLITICS CAPITALIST poltical organization is being patterned after corporation efficiency...
...They propose to save money by reducing the salaries of the useless Aldermen and discharging their useless Sergeants-at-Arms, which is a good proposal...
...said President Roosevelt's signal of a "breathing spell" for business meant "the end of New Deal liberalism...
...By so doing he put himself in the position of admitting— what he surely did not mean tc admit—that his New Deal legislation has been burdensome and also harmful to industry...
...tamly not in due proportion to tfcjj growth of industrial activity M output, but anyhow it has bsaj considerably reduced...
...This handful of aristocrats is a minority...
...While Secretary Hull planned to avoid an outright apology, he privately concedes the German government has ample justification for its official protest...
...and a still further $1,500,000 by suspending the law for mandatory increases in wages of teachers, policemen and firemen...
...bat that it is not included in his future program...
...The industrial capitalists, as distinguished from their financial overlords, if they understood their interests, would not ask for a halt, but for continuance on the same line...
...It was not a spontaneous outburst of generosity...
...Negotiations for a new one hnvp hoorin Our State Department experts got a hint from above to take their own good time in those negotiations of thatj new trade agreement with Italy...
...Last Saturday Representative A m 1 i e, Wisconsin Progressive, chairman of the American Commonwealth Political Federation...
...It can only intensify the hates and make of the dead Senator a martyr in the eyes of the masses who followed him...
...537 pp.- The Vanguard Press...
...We know how the minority will vote...
...Doskow believes "tht most fertile method of constitstional change" lies in the Courtfi ability to distinguish cases...
...That was no doubt far from his meaning...
...However, like Mussolini, ihe Kangfish "lived dangerusly...
...White points out thst tht committee has made a good dm"* in retaining as its attorney Baymond W. Henderson of Bskertfield, State Chairmarf of the Socialist Party, who i* famwus fw ** handling of criminal syra»cs''S* trials and appeals...
...Banker Skinner will be allotted to the Democrats and Magnate Skinnem to the Republicans...
...Without it, unless work relief aad home relief and all kinds of eaterrency relief are kept up indefinitely, misery will again increase...
...Selected, with a Preface and Introductory Notes, by Ambrose Doskow...
...They did not doubt that the President hoped to afford it, that he was planning no important legislation for the January session of Congress, prior to the election...
...Roosevelt's tax message to Congress^ the monetary situation must be settled eventually...
...Beginning of President's Swing to the Right ALMOST all political observers expected President Roosevelt to make a swing to the right some time before the campaign begins...
...Thus the Square Deal of Teddy Roosevelt and the New Deal of Franklin Delano Roosevelt will be merged in an alliance of brotherly love...
...Even the form in which the President announced the "breathing spell" was suggested weeks ago in Washington...
...And what benefit the wort, ing class has obtained is too largely a matter of temporary relief...
...The party that gets the job will hand the index cards to the Congressional brokers while the chiefs of the other party will check the legislation in Congress to be sure that the code of fair competition is lived up to...
...4.50...
...That one thing, wake would go far toward wiping tat unemployment and would in other ways bring untold benefit to tht working people, is the Thn-tj/-Ho»T Week...
...When he makes his contribution he can register the rate he wants for a steel tariff or anything else...
...The facts are that about three weeks ago Italy pointedly asked this government that negotiations be speeded up...
...but there is at any rate no reasonable ground for thinking that this legislation has hampered it or prevented it from going farther...
...This corporation turned in the largest contribution to G.O.P...
Vol. 18 • September 1935 • No. 37
