Show 1 i y ff J jiin in t erpito erp C arif feba feB 0 ja washington many times in these columns I 1 have had occasion to write in praise of 1 great deader Leader senator joe rob hob passes on inson of t arkansas tho the democratic leader in the senate his magnificent qualities his capacity as a statesman and the regard with which he was held by republicans and democrats alike were such that further praise from this pen would be of little value suffice it to say that la JM joe Robin robinsons song death the nation is the loser beca because be fought tho the good fight but senator robinsons sudden death a few days ago has precipitated a political politic a condition of gravest importance although none of us who knew him nor those with whom he was associated in an official capacity could have foreseen his 8 udden sudden death I 1 think it Is proper to say that the passing of joe robin robina son may have more far reaching influence upon his count rys history than all of his long and distinguished career in public life that is to say fate possibly has turned in this instance to therole the role it sometimes plays the role of master strategist the answer is simple joe robinson was the field beld marshal for the roosevelt administration particularly he was the field marshal in the greatest legislative battle to reach the floors of congress since tle the days of slavery and this coincided with the daring adventure of an epochal administration president roosevelt leaned upon senator robinson to put through the senate a bill that would permit the chief executive to appoint additional justices of his own choosing to membership in the supreme court of the united states he leaned upon the arkansas senator tor for many other things as well but it t seems to be the consensus of opinion that mr Roosevel ts administration may well stand or fall by the success or failure of his program to reorganize the judiciary of the united states it seems further that it if the president fails to obtain congressional approval for this plan which would give the president domination over the court system of 0 the country he will have lost control of the legislative 16 branch of the government for the remainder of his term few presidents have been able to carry on successfully without the co cooper oper aaion of the legislative branch it is too early of course to say whether the death of senator robinson means defeat of the court packing program nevertheless most of the astute political observers in wa washington shin agton indeed many of the presidents own party in the senate believe that the passing of the democratic leader was a fatal blow to the presidents power in congress this results from the tact fact that joe Robin robinson soa was able to mold together many groups and cliques and alid hold them by the sheer power of his lovable personality in a cohesive workable unit the country countr never will know how vell and faithfully joe robinson fought tor for the president and his policies I 1 have said in these columns heretofore and I 1 repeat that I 1 do not believe senator robinson favored all of the new deal policies in his heart he was progressive but he had sound ideas he stood by the president and the new deal with courage and dapa capacity city but on mary occasions I 1 have reason to believe he fought for those principles because he believed he should either fight as a member of his party or retire further he knew that it tie he would retire he would not have the opportunity nor the influence to persuade the radical wing it f the new dealers to propose reasonable policies in other words the late democratic leader was attempting to be a leader in fact as well as in naffie name and many are the indications where he was able to pull the theorists and the radical new dealers back from the brink of political destruction in view of the facts I 1 have reported and the observations I 1 have made above ll it be court r utu bill jsn c canies conies 0 m e a perfectly doomed plain that thai t h e president Is in a position where he can lose the present ent court battle with ease case in fact there are many observers who believe the court legislation will have to be abandoned and that congress will be quickly overwhelmed by that annual desire of representatives and senators to conclude their work and adjourn let us review the situation as regards the court legislation the president got oft off to 1 a very bad start when the original 1 bill to add six new justices to the supreme court was presented the original reasons tie he gave for demanding the new power he sought were shattered within a few days after the draft of the bill reached the capitol ile he was forced to abat abandon idon them nir mr noo roosevelt sevelt then came forward with a second set of reasons namely that the supreme court as at present constituted could not and would not hold some ol of his social legislation constitutional that set of reasons was knocked into a cocked hat when the supreme court upheld the washington state minimum wage law the wagner labor rela eions act and the social security taxes then came the resignation of justice van devanter justice van devanter was one of the men mr roosevelt had in mind as unwilling and unlikely to see social legislation through the same glasses as mr air roosevelt saw the tha situation in the country tho the van devanter resignation gave the president an opportunity to appoint a new member to the court it also gave the senate an opportunity to burst forth with expressions of its own ideas concerning the type of man who should succeed justice van devanter and the senators were not backward in promoting the name of the democratic leader senator robinson but mr roosevelt thus tar far has tailed failed to fill the vacancy and this failure has been interpreted by the opposition among the tha presidents own party as an unwillingness 1 to select anyone but a radical for the highest court in any event those opposed to the court bill contend that the presidents delay constitutes only another reason why he should accept the inevitable defeat of the court revision program when it became apparent that the original bill for six new justices could not be passed be because caust the democratic dominated senate judiciary committee reported the bill with a scathing denunciation the late senator robinson astutely offered a substitute bill in the nature of a compromise this substitute bore the authorship ot of senators logan of kentucky and hatch of new mexico even the substitute which provided for one additional judge a year until the supreme court numbered eleven members has received the same bitter criticism that characterized the first measure many members of the senate say them the will fight it as long as they would have faught the original because it will give the chief executive control of the supreme court just as the earlier one would have done frankly the substitute appears to be losing ground because in the house of representatives the other day chairman of the house judiciary committee a texas democrat announced that if the senate should pass the bill and if it reached his committee it would never be reported to the house mr is a long time member of the house and a highly respected one he dominates his committee there were few who believed that after the ch airmans declaration the supreme court bill ever could reach the floor of the house there Is yet another phase of t this his picture I 1 refer to the line of cleavage that has been drawn within the democratic party on account of the court legislation it was this about which spoke but wh which ch tit ht never mentioned directly in his Is speech he talked about splitting ng the democratic party and that v was as near as he ever got to saying that if the president forces the court bill through congress which he might yet be able to do there will result a democratic party and a new deal party president Roose roosebelt vetoed a little known and little discussed bill the other day it was star route known as H R hill bill vetoed an act to provide tor for the renewal of star contracts at four year intervals the title of course will mean little to most of those who read these lines but this was a bill intended to do justice tc those underprivileged classes about which mr roosevelt has often spoken in his fireside chats over the radio the men who would have benefited by this piece of legislation were the star route carriers of the malls mails the service that dates b L ck to the stagecoach days of america and the service from which originated the postal departments famous phrase the mails must go throb through gh the star route is the only means by which a good many thousand persons are aole to receive mails on anything like a modern basis because this service reaches the out of the way inland towns where railroads are nut not yet and possibly never will be in operation I 1 watched this legislation go through the house without dissenting vote I 1 saw senator mckehar democrat of tennessee attack the bill in vicious language and then I 1 the senate pass it by a vote of nearly two to one in addition I 1 know the representatives of these little known carriers little known except to those whom they directly serve had tried tor for a number of years ears to obtain a basis of pay that will let tem lve live they finally were able to con convince vitice postmaster general rei jeral parley farley that unless they were paid more money the number that would go broke in carrying out thair con tracts would be amazingly large C we Wei tem ien anion |