Foreign Affairs

Southland Times, Issue 25342, 22 July 1935, Page 9

Foreign Affairs

NEW NEW DEAL ISSUES IN THE UNITED STATES PREPARING FOR THE ELECTION (By Criticus.) The astonishing spectacle of an almost complete recasting of the New Deal to fit the constitutional requirements deduced from the Supreme Court’s anti-N.R.A. verdict, must be making the American scene incomprehensible to foreigners. The explanation is the American system. In determining the boundaries between National and State action, the Judiciary is authoritative. So, faced with a blockade on the Federal Authorities’ encroachment on State rights,, the New Dealers are loyally moving in reverse gear. The first recast measure on the list is a midget N.R.A. A speedy passage was soon indicated by the House’s acquiescence. It is hardly correct to give the Bill the high-sounding tag of the mighty agency axed by the Supreme Court. For all that is retained of N.R.A. is the research organization. Till next April, the statisticians will.be given authority to gamer data on individual life divorced from the protective shelter of the Blue Eagle. The task has an added interest in that factfinding has hitherto been a minor occupation in N.R.A. Months after the major Codes were adopted the American Statistical Association was impelled modestly to suggest -that the Government body ought to require financial reports from the codified industries which had received permission to limit output or control prices! Nation In Favour. Sharp criticism has been directed at the President for throwing over all N.R.A, controls. A poll taken of the Nation’s newspapers shows four-fifths in favour of the Supreme Court’s ruling. But it is the general feeling that

some of the codified fair practices were not only worth saving, but would have been validated by the Judiciary as Government Sanctions. In line with the type of criticism which dubbed President Roosevelt’s challenge to Ihe Supreme Court “unsportsmanlike and petulant,” the Herald Tribune rebuked him as a spoiled child for not doing any serious salvage work. That the initial challenge was unsportsmanlike has been amply refuted by historical references. After a Supreme Court reverse, both Lincoln and Theodore Roosevelt used much stronger language against the judical branch of the Government than the President used. He was no more “unsportsmanlike” than they. All three partners in the Federal Government are constantly striving for predominance. Most often the two contenders are Congress and the President, but in a crisis no President has accepted meekly an adverse ruling from the Supreme Court. Accordingly Mi- Roosevelt described the recast N.R.A. as “stop-gap” legislation. The terminology conveyed the impression of more designs in prospect after he had surveyed and studied the stricken battleground. First of all, however, he has to surmount the constitutional obstacle. He has prepared the nation for an issue at the Presidential election next year over a revision of the Constitution which would make possible a New Deal under Federal Auspices. Both Liberals and Labour combine in urging the President immediately to start the crusade, but the former are a little troubled in their enthusiasm. Increased Security. They have never been able to make up their minds whether Mr Roosevelt is trying to save capitalism or transform it. If he is merely bent on a saving operation, then they wonder whether he might not use any new authority he gained for the Federal Government as a Fascist wedge. Such is the burden of the present comment in the Liberal journals. They are always complaining that the President has never defined his objectives except in the vague utilitarian manner which he adopted in the recent Press conference when he said that the New Deal was intended to “try to increase the security and the happiness of a large number of people in all occupations of life and in all parts of the country.” Organized Labour is under no such misgivings as the Liberals. Not only do they want the N.R.A. back, but they also want to see more power given to the Federal authority. Such reforms are necessary in their view for fomenting the unionization of American Labour. Mi- Hoover and his Republican friends are going forward to meet the issue raised by Mr Roosevelt. But they are trying to meet it in their own way. To the former President the issue is whether the United States is to have a European form of Government. The remark is indicative of the election atmosphere in which all public questions are now enshrouded. It is true that the President himself led the way in such dramatization, but all that appears to be in his mind is a re-writing of the commerce provision in the Constitution which will give the Federal Government the same powers over trade on a national scale now enjoyed by Canada. Search For An Issue. Yet Constitution amending as a political football would be as reverberating as was the League of Nations fifteen years ago. The nature of alignment is defying even the most experienced commentators. It could not be a strictly party cleavage. For some weeks the almost fanatical Statesrighters of the Democratic South remained stonily silent. Republican followers of Alexander Hamilton on their part will not easily shake off their traditional allegiance to a stronger National Government than the Supreme Court envisages. Now that the New Deal has been returned to a straighter and 'narrower path they are a party in search of an issue. Mr Roosevelt is too clever a tactician to allow them to rephrase his issue in the Hoover manner. Possibly the forces of natural recovery under the new competitive conditions may take him to re-election without the necessity of having to reevoke The Federal versus States Rights . controversy.