Riot of Oratory

Although the Chief Executive has demanded that the Constitution be interpreted according to the New Deal's way of thinking, there is little likelihood of Congress doing anything rash about it until the President gives the signal. Off the calendar, however, does not mean out of mind. Any mention of the Constitution has become a trigger to set off a discharge of senatorial oratory. Last week an unreconstructed Democrat carelessly pulled the trigger.

The Senate was considering a bill appropriating $50,000,000 for crop, feed and seed loans to farmers. Senator after Sena tor was rising to put in good word, to make a friendly gesture towards his constituents, when Carter Glass of Virginia rose with a sly light in his sharp old eye.

"Mr. President, as pertinent to this particular subject, I ask unanimous consent that the clerk read an interesting relic of real constitutional government.

And I ask that he do it deliberately so that the Senate may hear it read."

Chief Clerk Crockett intoned:

"I return herewith without my approval House Bill No. 10203, entitled 'An act to enable the Commissioner of Agriculture to make a special distribution of seeds in the drought-stricken counties of Texas. . . .' "I can find no warrant for such an appropriation in the Constitution and I do not believe that the power and duty of the general Government ought to be ex tended to the relief of individual suffering which is in no manner properly related to the public service or benefit. A prevalent tendency to disregard the limited mission of this power and duty should, I think, be steadfastly resisted to the end that the lesson should be constantly enforced that though the people support the Government, the Government should not support the people. . .

"Federal aid in such cases encourages the expectation of paternal care on the part of the Government. . . .

"GROVER CLEVELAND"* Hardly had the words left the Clerk's mouth when Senator Bailey of North Carolina cried: "Mr. President, a sufficient answer to the message from former President Cleveland is the statement that he was President in horse-&-buggy days. . . ."

Senator Joe Robinson ejaculated: "I repudiate the implication . . . that the Constitution of my country and yours renders the national Government power less to relieve distress. . . . There is prac tically no limitation on the appropriating power of Congress except that which is imposed by conscience and a sense of duty. ... I would hide my face in shame if I held that there is no power save that possessed by those who are helpless to face the storm and peril."

Thunderous applause broke from the galleries. After aroused New Dealers had unbosomed themselves for ten minutes, unreconstructed Mr. Glass again got to his feet. "Mr. President, I distinctly stated when asking to have the message of a great Democratic President read . . . that it was 'a relic of constitutional government.' ... I merely desire to indicate now that I am not one of the Senators who is proud of the fact that some people in Virginia want to make a pawnshop out of the Treasury of the U. S. . . . Mr. President, I had not purposed to raise a riot of oratory. . . ."

But Alben W. Barkley of Kentucky was already on his feet. "I think," he cried, "no man has a greater admiration or respect for James Madison than I have. . . . However, while Madison was President he vetoed an act of Congress appropriating money to improve rivers and harbors. . . . Mr. President, had the Madisonian view been maintained from that day to the present time there would not be a lock or a dam on any river in the U. S. . . ."

"Mr. President," said impish Oldster Glass, "I think Mr. Cleveland's reputation and that of James Madison will survive both the condemnation and praise which we have heard here today."

Thereupon the Senate, without a roll call, voted $50,000,000 worth of seed for deserving constituents. Year ago Franklin Roosevelt vetoed a similar bill because there were other funds available for such loans, but last week, after Senatorial elucidation of the Constitutional issue, it took him only two days to make up his mind and sign.

* The Senate tittered derisively when it heard that the seed bill vetoed by Cleveland appro priated only $10,000. Fifty years ago this month the veto was easily sustained in the House.

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