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Show News Review of Current Events the World Over Norris Urges Congress to Curb Supreme Court Oratory Ora-tory on Lincoln Day Death of Charles Curtis Long Newspaper Tax Invalid. By EDWARD W. PICKARD Western Newspaper Union. SPEAKING In advocacy of the administration's ad-ministration's substitute farm bill, Senator Norris, the Independent Independ-ent Republican from Nebraska, scathingly attacked the Supreme court's AAA decision and urged congress to use Its right to curb the court's power, lie argued that the 6 to 3 decision Itself It-self was unconstl-t unconstl-t u 1 1 o n al by the court's own reason-Ins reason-Ins and shouted "It cannot stand." Senator "The regulation of Norris agricultural production, pro-duction, they say is unconstitutional unconstitu-tional because not mentioned In the Constitution," Norris asserted. "Nowhere "No-where Id that great document Is there a syllable, a word, or a sentence sen-tence giving to any court the right to declare an act of congress unconstitutional. uncon-stitutional. Hence, when the court Indulges In that pastime It Is itself it-self violating the Constitution according ac-cording to its own words." Norris quoted from the majority opinion of the Suprsme court holding hold-ing that the regulation and control con-trol of agricultural production was a local affair reserved to the states and beyond the power of congres. Under that decision, he declared, not ' only the pending bill but "a large portion por-tion of the laws which congress has passed during the j lust hundred years are absolutely unconstitutional." unconstitu-tional." Of the later decision ordering return re-turn of processing taxes to the processors, proc-essors, the senator said Secretary ' Wallace perhaps was too severe In . calling it the greatest legalized steal in history, and added : "But it Is a gift, the greatest gift since God made salvation free." Norris urged that congress pass a law requiring unanimous decisions by the Supreme court to overrule the acts of the legislative branch of the government. LINCOLN day was the .occasion for a flood of oratory, largely by IfcpuW"-'"11 Opponet.j oi eric New Deal Herbert Hoover spoke at Hand, Ore., on the "State of me Union," which he said was a state of confusion In thought, government, gov-ernment, economic life, and the ideals of liberty. "The New Deal," said the former President, "has been a veritable fountain of fear. The day after the New Deal was given life at the election of 1932 began the great fear which created the hank panic of March 4. The stock boom today is not from confidence con-fidence in the future; it is partly from fear of inflation." In Greensboro, N. C, Senator Dickinson of Iowa warmly defended defend-ed the Supreme court as "the only remaining guardian of the liberty of the people," and inveighed against what he said was the New Deal's "planned economy" and its "attempted bribery of the states" through the Invalidated AAA and Its proposed substitute, the soil conservation measure. Senator Vandenberg of Michigan was a speaker in New York city, and like his fellow Republicans he fiercely assailed the administration, terming it the "third party now in' power." Among the few leading Democrats Demo-crats heard was Secretary Wallace, who, in Indianapolis, defended the administration. Referring to the Constitution, he declared that "most of us" thought the agriculture adjustment ad-justment act was valid, and "some of us, Including three justices of the Supreme court, think so still." He continued concerning the new farm bill: "If it was the proper function of the federal government In wartime to encourage farmers to plow up land which should never have been plowed then It seems to cie no less the federal government's proper function to encourage the return of that land to grass and trees." piIARLKS CURTIS, former Vice President of the United States and before that representative and senator from Kansas, died suddenly tf U n w. . vx u ca i l uiseuse at the Washington home of his brother-in-law and sis-r, sis-r, Mr. and Mrs. Edward E. Can n. He was seventy-six years old, and was the first man of Indian In-dian blood ever to preside over the senate. Ue was one quarter tvaw Indian, In-dian, his grand- Charles mother having been Curtis Princess Julie of that tribe who married a French voyageur. In his boyhood Curtis was a jockey, and later a reporter. Having studied law, he became a prosecutor at the age of twenty-four In Shawnee county, Kansas, and was elected to congress In 1S02. He was made senator In 1907, was defeated In 1912, and two years later was again elected senator. He was elected Vice President on the ticket headed head-ed by Herbert Hoover, and was renominated re-nominated for that position In 1932. Mr. Curtis was greatly liked by his associates in Washington and his death caused genuine grief. President Roosevelt said: "I am deeply distressed to learn of the sudden passing of my old friend, Charles Curtis. Whether they knew him as a senator, as the Vice President of the United States, or as the man he was In his own right, his legion of friends will remember re-member him, always affectionately, and will mourn his passing." Vice President Garner said: "I was always fond of him. I was associated with him In the house and senate. He was a fine man and a good friend." Funeral services for Mr. Curtis and the interment were in Topeka, Kan. ONCE again the Supreme court of the United States comes to the rescue of a free press. Unanimously Unan-imously the nine Justices ruled that the Louisiana law Imposing a punitive puni-tive tax on the advertising of the principal newspapers of that state ts unconstitutional. The law was passed by a legislature controlled by the late Senator Huey Long. The court said of it: "It Is bad because, In the light of Its history and of Its present setting, It" is seen to be a deliberate and calculated device In the guise of a tax to limit the circulation of Information to which the public Is entitled In virtue of the constitutional constitu-tional guarantee. "A free press stands as one of the great interpreters between-the government and the people. To allow al-low It to be fettered Is to fetter ourselves. "In view of the persistent search for new subjects of taxation, It Is not without significance that, with the single exception of the Louisiana Loui-siana statute, so far as wo. nnottt -uei, no state during the 150 years of our national existence has undertaken to impose a tax like that now In question. . "The form in which the tax Is imposed is in itself suspicious. It is not measured or limited by the volume of advertisements. It is measured alone by the extent of the circulation of the publication in which the advertisements are carried, car-ried, with the plain purpose of penalizing pe-nalizing the publishers and curtailing curtail-ing the circulation of a selected group of newspapers." DRESIDENT WILLIAM L. RAN-A RAN-A SOM of the American Bar association, asso-ciation, with headquarters in Chicago, Chi-cago, announced thnt Non-tnn n I 1 i u J Baker, former secretary sec-retary of war, has accepted the chairmanship chair-manship of the association's as-sociation's special committee on cooperation co-operation between the press, radio and bar against publicity pub-licity Interfering with fair trial of judicial and quasi- N. D Baker JWi'C,al P r 0 c e e d" ings. The creation of this special committee com-mittee to define standards to be recommended to lawyers, newspapers newspa-pers and radio broadcasters In the matter of publicity as to court trials, said the announcement, Is an outcome of the Incidents arising In the course of the Bruno Haupt- mann trial and various proceedings before government boards and bodies, bod-ies, "and It is hoped that such standards can be made effective through rules of court or through legislation." A CCOEDING to the London Daily Herald, a secret decree providing provid-ing for expulsion of all Jews from Germany as rapidly as possible has been prepared by Nazi leaders and laid before Chancellor Hitler for his signature. " The paper said the decree provided for the confiscation confisca-tion of all property of expelled Jews. This story may not be trne, hut there is no doubt that Hitler and his associates are determined to extirpate ex-tirpate all the organizations and groups which they consider In opposition op-position to the Nazi regime, and Hitler himself has declared the Jews are to blame for nil the troubles trou-bles of the reich In recent years. Scores of Catholic youth leaders have been arrested, charged with co-operation with illegal Communist groups, and It Is predicted their organizations or-ganizations will be dissolved. Tlie campaign is carried on with great secrecy. It was announced In Berlin Ber-lin that district governors henceforth hence-forth would take orders from the Gestapo, the secret state police. LETTERS have been sent by President Kuusevelt to the heads of the Latin-American governments gov-ernments inviting them to participate partici-pate In a pan-American conference, probably In Washington, the purpose pur-pose of which will be to organize the peace machinery of the western hemisphere. Our State department .says the meeting will endeavor to provide means for adjusting International Inter-national disputes by peaceful means. The conference may bring up the Monroe Doctrine for a new definition through multilateral endorsement, en-dorsement, ELMER B. OTIARA, Democratic state chairman of Michigan and former clerk of Wayne county, which Includes Detroit; State Sen- k j ator A. J. ilkow-ski ilkow-ski and 1G others of lesser prominence were convicted in Detroit of having attempted to steal the 1934 election. Eight defendants In the recount case, which had been on trial for nearly 12 weeks, were acqult- Elmer B.O-Hara fen(5antg previously had pleaded guilty, thus bringing to 20 the number facing sentence for their part In the vote recount conspiracy. con-spiracy. For O'Hara the verdict came as the culmination of a series of calamities calam-ities In a brief political career. Last November a jury In Macomb county, adjacent to Wayne, found him guilty of bribery In a drainage transaction 1 In connection with real estate deals he had made before 1932, when he entered en-tered politics and was elected Wayne county clerk. He aw.aits sentence under that conviction. After conviction con-viction he was removed from office. Ip the- recount case O'Hara was found guilty on three counts, permitting per-mitting others to alter ballots, conspiring con-spiring to permit others to alter ballots, and conspiring to permit others to conduct the recount In an : unlawful manner and change the 1 result of the November, 1934, elec- tion by putting Democrats In office instead of the Republicans elected. ACTION against John J. Raskob, former chairman of the Democratic Demo-cratic national committee when Al Smith was the Presidential nom inee, and who is now president of the American Liberty Lib-erty league, has been begun by the government for an alleged deficiency of $1,026,310 on his 1929 Income taxes. The claim was filed In nn - .a.rnnt . to the petition re- cently filed against Pierre S. du Pont J- J- Raskb two days before Al Smith in Washington Wash-ington had bitterly assailed the New Deal. In the petition, which Raskob Ras-kob described as "New Deal persecution," perse-cution," Mr. du Pont was alleged to have understated his 1929 income by $2,S!)".S32 and an additional tax of SG17.31G was asked. In the amended amend-ed petition accusing Mr. Raskob, it was alleged that he and the industrialist in-dustrialist engaged in "fictitious" sales of securities, one to the other, to a total of about $30,000,000 for the purpose of showing losses. '1PHE British government looks -- with disfavor on the proposal, made by Lloyd George and others, that such discontented nations as Germany and Italy he pacified by a redistribution of colonies and mandated man-dated territories. James H. Thomas, Thom-as, colonial secretary, told the house of commons flatly that "British "Brit-ish colonies could not be made the subject of. barter in any world conference" con-ference" and that Great Britain Is not going to hand over any colonies or mandates to other countries. The house applauded his statement and adopted this resolution: "This house is opposed to the transfer to any other lands of British Brit-ish colonies or mandated territories, for the welfare, protection, and enlightened en-lightened government of whose peoples peo-ples the British nation holds an honorable trust." T EADERS In congress hope for '' an early adjournment, by May 1 at the latest, and therefore they pushed the new farm bill forward, trying to get It through both houses without much delay. In their desire to get away from the Capital, they already had decided to let the proposed pro-posed permanent neutrality legislation legis-lation go by the board. The farm bill as rewritten by the senate agriculture committee is based on the soil erosion prevention preven-tion scheme. Some Democrats Joined with many Republicans In opposing the measure, one of hem being Senator Walsh of Massachusetts. Massachu-setts. Chairman Doughton of the house ways and means committee said he expected definite word from the White House or treasury soon on the amount and kind of taxes that might be proposed to finance the new farm program. Speaker Byrns said he could see no reason why the tax measure should not emerge from the committee com-mittee by the end of February. He and Douglas Insisted they had' no advance Information on what the administration might propose. pro-pose. Jinny congressmen who are usually well Informed said they looked for a recommendation for levies to raise more than S."00,000,-000, S."00,000,-000, perhaps through excise taxes. |