Show G washington many times in these columns I 1 have had occasion to write in praise of great leader senator joe rob masses passes on inson of arkansas the democratic leader in the senate his cent tent 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 in joe robinson s death the nation is the loser because he fought i the good fight but senator robinsons sudden death a few days ago has precipe bated a political condition of gravest importance although none of us who knew him nor those with whom he was as associated in an official capacity could have foreseen his sudden death I 1 think it is proper to say that the passing of joe robin son may have more far reaching in fluence upon his country count rys s history than all of his long and distill career in public life that is to say fate possibly has turned in this instance to the role it some times plays the role of master strategist the question may be asked why does the death of one man become so important the answer is simple joe robin son was the field marshal for the roosevelt administration barly he was the field marshal in the greatest legislative battle to reach the floors of congress since the days of slavery and this corn com aided 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 addition al justices of his own choosing to membership in the supreme court of the united states he leaned upon the arkansas senator for many other things as well but it seems to be the consensus of opinion that mr roosevelt s 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 if the president fails falls to obtain congressional approval for this plan which would give the president domination over the court system of the country he will have lost control of the legisla live branch of the government for the remainder of his term few presidents have been able to carry on successfully without the co operation of the legislative branch it is too early of course to say whether the death of senator robin son means defeat for the court pack ing ng program nevertheless most of the astute political observers in washington indeed many of the president presidents s own party in the senate believe that the passing of the democratic leader was a fatal blow to the president presidents s power in congress this results from the fact that hat joe robinson was able to mold together many groups and cliques and hold them by the sheer power of his lovable personality in a ca desive workable unit the country never will know how well and faithfully joe robinson fought 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 capacity but on many occasions I 1 have reason to believe he fought for those prin caples because he believed he should either fight as a member of his party or retire further he knew that if he would retire he would not have the opportunity nor the influence to persuade the radi rad cal wing of 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 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 re ported and the observations I 1 have made above it be court bill comes perfectly doomed plain that t the he president is in a position where he can lose the pres ent court battle with ease in fact there are many observers who be lieve 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 re gards the court legislation the president got off to a very bad start when the original bill to add six new justices to the supreme court was presented the original reasons he gave for demanding the new power he sought were shattered within a few days after the draft of the bill reached the capitol he lie was forced to abandon them mr roosevelt Hoo 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 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 relations act and the social security taxes then came the resignation of justice van devanter justice van devanter was one of the men ehorn mr roosevelt had in mind as unwilling and unlikely to see social legislation through the same samer glasses as mr roosevelt saw the situation in the country 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 wem not backward in promoting the name of the democratic leader senator robinson but mr roosevelt thus far has failed to fill the vacancy and this failure has been interpreted by the opposition among the ther president presidents s own party as an unwillingness to select anyone but a radical for the highest court in any event those opposed to the court bill contend that the president presidents s delay constitutes only another reason why he should accept I 1 the inevitable defeat of the court revision program when it became apparent that the original bill for six new justices could not be passed because the democratic dominated senate judiciary committee reported the bill with a scathing denunciation the ther late senator robinson astutely offered a substitute bill in the nature of a compromise this substitute bore the authorship 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 they will fight it as long as they would have fought the original because it will give the chief executive control of the supreme court just as the earlier one would have done president roosevelt vetoed a little known and little discussed bill the other day it was star route known a as H R bill vetoed AW an act to provide for the renewal of star route 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 to 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 mails the service that dates back to the stagecoach days of america and the service from which originated the postal department s famous phrase the mails must go through the star route is the only means by which a good many thousand persons are able to receive mails on anything like a modern basis because this service reaches the out of the way inland towns where railroads are not yet and possibly never will be in operation I 1 watched this legislation go through the house without dissenting v vote ote I 1 saw senator mckellar democrat of tenne tennessee asee attack the bill in vicious language and then I 1 saw the senate pass it by a vote of S nearly two to one ft in addition I 1 know that the rep aa of these little known carriers little known except to those whom they directly serve had tried for a number of years to obtain a basis of pay that will let them live they finally were able to convince postmaster general farley that unless they were paid more money the number that would go broke in carrying out their contracts would be amazingly large I 1 have not the slightest doubt that this group ought to be paid more money for the work they do because their present basis of compensation is shamefully low so low that it if they were members of a labor union they would all go on strike no change has been made in the basis of compensation or in the method of contracting for this service since it was organized in 1845 except in minor ways three quarters of a century or more is a long long time the president presidents s action in vetoing this legislation therefore is very difficult to understand his hi action is made the more inconsistent many persons believe because the additional cost to the government would be insufficient to maintain tain the smallest unit of the hundred new deal agencies which the president has created a western newspaper union |