HELD INVALID

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXVI, 9 November 1935, Page 7

HELD INVALID

HOLDING COMPANY ACT LAWFUL POWER OF CONGRESS EXCEEDED (Unitad Press Association—By Electric Telegraph—Copyright) BALTIMORE, 7th November. The 1935 Holding Company Act, designed to give the .Government power for a sweeping reorganisation of the utility industry, was held invalid in its entirety by Federal District Judge William Coleman, in’ instructing the trustees of the American States Public Service Company to treat the act a? invalid and of no effect. Judge Coleman said Congress had flagrantly exceeded its lawful power in enacting the measure, by which the elimination of most of the holding companies in the country’s vast utilities network was sought. The matter will probably go to the Supreme Court of the United States. RUDE SHOCK TO “NEW DEAL” i EFFECT OF DECISION BALTIMORE, Bth November. 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 passed by Congress last session after so much travail, so many investigations and so much relentless pressure by the President upon legislators, was unconstitutional, since “Congress by its enactment has flagrantly exceeded its lawful power under the commerce clause of the Constitution.” The measure is considered one of the keystones of President Roosevelt’s programme of basic reform in contradistinction to recovery. It will still have to undeigo the Supreme Court test, but the effect of the Lower Court’s decision is unmistakable, since once again it has thrown the pall of constitutionality upon the Rooseveltian machinery for righting America’s economic evils. Prices of utilities stocks soared upon exchanges, with the announcement of the good news, and the Administration suffered another defeat, which even if only temporary is too reminiscent' of the N.R.A. disaster to be anything but demoralising.