ROOSEVELT LEGISLATION

Greymouth Evening Star, 9 November 1935, Page 7

ROOSEVELT LEGISLATION

ADVERSE COURT RULING CONGRESS EXCEEDS POWERS [BY CABLE —PRESS ASSN. —COPYRIGHT.] BALTIMORE, November 7, The Holding Company Act, which is designed to give to ( the Government power for the sweeping reorganisation of the utility holding company industry, has been held to be invalid in its entirety bv Federal District Judge William Coleman. The Judge has instructed the trustees of the American States Public Service Company to treat the Act as invalid, and as of no effect. Judge Coleman said that Congress had flagrantly exceeded its lawful power in enacting this measure, by which the elimination of most of the holding companies in the country’s vast utilities network was sought. Tile matter probably will go now to the Supreme Court of the United States. LATER. President Roosevelt’s New Deal received another rude shock -with the declaration to-day by a Judge of the Lower Federal Court that the Public Utility Measure for company control, passed by Congress last session, after so much travail, so many investigations, and so much relentless pressure by. the President upon the legislators, was unconstitutional since Congress, by its enactment has flagrantly exceeded its lawful power under the Commerce Clause of the Constitution. The measure had been considered one of the keynotes of Mr Roosevelt’s programme of basic reform. In contradiction to the Recovery Act, it will still have to -undergo a Supreme Court test, but the effect of the Lower Court’s decision is unmistakable, sipce once again it has thrown a pall of unconstitutionality upon the Roosevelt machinery for the righting of American economic evils. The prices of the utilities stocks holding companies soared upon the exchanges with the announcement of the “good” news of the decision and the Administration suffered another defeat which even' if it proves only temporary is too reminiscent of the N.R.A. disaster to be anything hut demoralising.

TRADE WITH CANADA MR KING’S “HOLIDAY” VISIT. WASHINGTON, November 7. Although it is fairly well established that the purpose of the visit of Mr MacKenzie King, the Canadian Premier, who arrived here to-day, is to begin discussions with President Roosevelt to-morrow on the question of a Canadian-American trade agreement, considerable interest was aroused here by the Prime Minister s disclaimer that his Washington visithad any other reason than that of affording him a holiday.’ He had originally planned to take that holiday in London, blit he had changed his plans, since he did not wish to go from the heat of his own political campaign to the heat of another. The journalists,have commented on the statement by Mr; MacKenzie King which was made in an interview. They freely declared it to be an astute politician’s deliberate effort to soften the- apprehensions in London over the possibility that Canada’s huge wheat reserve might figure in the reciprocity negotiations with America. British interests, it is reported, desire Canada to release at least one hundred million bushels of this wheat to the world markets- in order to lower the commodity prices, and thereby to relieve the Bank of England of the necessity of buying more gold with which to meet the demands on it for increased note circulation. The point remains that Mr MacKenzie King is interested in “unshackling Canada’s export trade.” Reciprocity with America will not be easy, since both countries are producers of identical articles of commerce, on which both want major tariff concessions. The Prime Minister will probably proceed to London after his Washington visit in the interests of the “unshackling” mentioned.

, AUSTRALIAN’S ESTIMATE. NEW YORK, November 7. Interviewed by the Australian Assisted Press? Hyttan, who is an Australian who has nearly completed visits to America and Canada, said that ho was satisfied at having been present at the American scene during one of the most interesting transaction periods. Economically, the United States now appeared to be definitely on the upward movement from the depression. He found that commentators hardly agreed on the exact cause of the improvement, and it was hard to assign the exact role that has been played by the New Deal. It had probably helped it m ■some respects. The improvement was still hidden and was imperfectly understood. One of the remarkable features of America’s present situation was the part played by the beliefs or the fears concerning America’s future or Europe’s future that were •felt by Europeans themselves. Either many persons in the city of Londdn felt that America’s recovery from the depression was fully assured, or their fears of the Italo-Ethiopian situation were so acute that much European capital had poured into the United States, with a result exactly contrary to America’s best interests economically. Americans, he said, undoubtedly would wish to keep the sterlingdollar ratio on the status quo, but the continuous influx of gold must, tend to bring the value of the dollar up. What effect that would have on the course of America’s recovery, or what new monetary steps it might compel the American Government to take, was one of the things that would bear close watching in the near future. Mr Hyttan is leaving for Australia by the Maunganui. SYDNEY, November 8. The Hytten mentioned in the New York message, is Professor T. Hytten, economic adviser to the Bank of New South Wales, and one of Australia’s representatives to the League of Nations.