A ROOSEVELT REVERSE.

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Issue 185, 23 August 1937, Page 4

A ROOSEVELT REVERSE.

The Congress of the United States, as reported by cable to-day, has adjourned from an exceptionally long sitting that leaves President Roosevelt's prestige, and probably his popularity also, a good deal weakened. He has failed badly in getting the Seiiate to accept his plan for what he has called the 'Teformation" of the Supreme Court and, coincidentally with that failure, important measures to enable him to carry his "New DealM policy further have been shelved. It has, however, been almost entirely upon the Supreme Coui;t legislation that this very serious senatorial revolt has taken place, nor did some modification of its original form have any effegt upon the opposition to it which had developed. In either shape it was recognised and denounced as an insidious undermining of the Constitution that is held in sucli sacrosanct revei;ence by all good American citizens. It has 'been along this line that the main attack upon it has been led, though at the- same time there have been those who have assailed it as an attempt on the part of the present President to arrogate to himself further dictatorial powers that are not in keeping with democratic government. Caught thus between two fires, Mr Roosevelt has undeniably met with a very signal defeat, from >frhich he will have very great difficulty in recovpring anything like his fdrmer dominating influence even with respect to the social betterment legislation he had in view. The reverse Mr Roosevelt has thus suffered has. been com"" pared with that which overtook Mr Woodrow Wilson, another Democrat President, when he made his country's adherence to the Covenant of the League of Nations a crucial question. Apart from the relative importance of the question at issue, President Roosevelt's failure is really much more marked. Mr Wilson, in a Senate whose membership showed a small majority in favour of the other party, failed only by quite a few votes to secure the two-third's majority required to carry his point. As the result of last year's general elections Mr Roosevelt had in the Senate a Democrat following of 75 out of a total membership of 96, so that as far as numbers went it looked as if he sho'uld have no trouble in getting his measure through, seeing that it called for only a bare majority. However, as matters have turned out it has been from members of his own party that he has met with the niost determined and effective opposition, the result being a yo-to-20 rejection of even his modihed Bill. For once the issue has been fought out almost entirely on a question of the principle involved and altogether irrespective of party allegiance. And, iT we are to judge by press reports and comment, the decision of the Senate fully reflects popular feeling and opinion, a fact that does not bode very well for Mr Roosevelt's future. It may be said that the opposition thus developed did not altogether mean that it was directed against the proposal to bring about some reform in the constitution of the Supreme Court, which, among its other functions, has the last say in the interpretation of the Constitution. The President's complaint was that on the then existing bench there was an overruling majority, even if only of one, which refused to recognise the fundamental changes that had taken place since the Constitution was franred over a century and a-half ago and insisted on giving it a rigid literal interpretation that was not at all suitable to altered conditions. Thusihe saw some of his most cherished plans for national economic reorganisation and sochi improvement negatived. . There were a very great number who were in entire sympathy'with the President in this disappointment, but were yet not prepared to adopt the means he proposed for obviating recurrences of this position. Their insistence was on bringing about the needed reform in the manner provided by the Constitution, that is, by amending the Constitution itself, a very lengthy process which President Roosevelt, in what he consider the country's interests, could not very well await. However, as events have incidentally turned out, he has been able to make a change in the personnel of the Court that gives a bare majority on the bench likely to approach any further required interpretation of the Constitution in the more "liberal" spirit he desires. Thus possibly, once the present senatorial and popular excitement dies down he may yet be enabled to carry the measures that have for the time being gone by the board along with the Supreme Court Bill.