TRIAL TECHNIQUE.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVIII, Issue 126, 29 May 1937, Page 14

TRIAL TECHNIQUE.

COURT PLAN METHODS

AN UNORGANISED OPPOSITION

ROPE JUMPING SENATORS.

(By PAUL MALLON.) WASHINGTON, April 10. A vague atmosphere of great hidden power is beginning to he evident in the Senate Committee hearings on the Roosevelt Court programme. It is, puffing out in several little ways. When Professor Moley testified, for instance, his cross-examiner seemed to know everything Moley ever wrote. The questioning showed clearly that someone had done a regular trial job of rehearsing Moley's past. Similarly, a Roosevelt witness, earlier, barked back at critical Senator Connally, reciting the exact page in the Congressional record where long-forgotten things Connally said years ago, in a Senate debate on the confirmation of Chief Justice Hughes, could be found. Obviously, this is not the usual hit-and-miss manner of coilducting senatorial arguments. As Senators have neither the time nor inclination for such painstaking preparation of cases, it seems someone behind them must be telling them some questions to ask and some answers to give. There is. Back-stage evidence indicates the "G"-men have moved in on the Senate and are using some of that skilled technique with which they sent all those gangster kidnappers to gaol without a chance. Taken for Sky-Rides.

The man in charge seems to be the same who planned the perfect Government cases in the Urschel and other kidnappings, Joseph B. Keenan, assistant to the Attorney-General. As everyone knows, Mr. Keenan has never been slow enough to let a writ of habeas corpus or an extradition paper catch up with him. His technique has been to push men into aeroplanes and carry them where he wanted them to go. So far, no Senators have been taken for one of the famous Keenan-Hoover sky-rides, but a few of his Senatorial mouthpieces are beginning to complain privately about being pushed around. For instance, an idler in the Senate lobby has heard a Justice Department agent call a Senator on the telephone and say: "Get that list of Opposition -witnesses out of Senator Burke right away. We must have them." The Senator complained he had tried and failed, but the agent insisted in a manner which few Government officials care to employ against United States Senators., It is a matter of common report within the committee that defence witnesses have been taken to the Justice Department and examined on what they would say. Advance copies of direct testimony by several defence witnesses likewise bore the typographical style of the Justice Department mimeograph machine. There is really reason to believe the Justice Department has been doing little else lately except "trying this case" during the last few weeks.

Safe Gambling. To an outsider, this may not seem to make much difference, but to anyone who knows Senatorial rope-jumping, it means plenty, especially in view of the fact .that the Opposition is unorganised, bi-partisan and unaided. No law firm or groups of law firms in the country can command the resources and power of the Justice * Department. They know, or can find out, everything about everyone. They know what to do with it when they get it. With the Corcoran-Cbhen group handling the down-town of the strategy, and the Justice Department handling the Senators, it is not difficult for observers to find out which side of this Court debate to bet on. With Government officials talking about an economic crisis, with sit-down strikes sweeping the country, with Mussolini making faces at England again—Congress has never been less busy. A Congressman figured up for his own amusement how long the Senate and House had actually been in session during the first seven weeks. He computed the Senate debating time at 35 hours, and the House at 175. There is nothing to do. Important legislation, like the President's governmental reorganisation plan, has not yet gone through the advance committee machinery.

Peace Fight. The real Neutrality Bill will now be written in secret. The Senate having passed one bill and the House another, conferees will get together and draft the final form, which will be different from either. The usual long-drawn-out negotiations are in prospect, with the House and Senate contesting bitterly. No one much cares about what form the bill takes. The administration has been playing down interest in the subject. embarrasses their trade treaty negotiations and. anyway, they do not expect war within a year.*

The proof of the neutrality debate will come in the kind of administration President Roosevelt jihooses to give :.t. He will do about what he pleases, regardless of what develops from the current legislative wrangle over words. The only known occasion in the history of the country when a Senator was speechless was reported the other day. One of those Senators who obtained judgeship nominations for friends about the same time that they decided to support the Court reform programme was stopped by Senator King in the hall. King said pleasantly, "Well, I see you got your judgeship nomination."

The silent glare which the congratulated Senator bestowed in reply would have filled three pages of the congressional record.