National Affairs: Talons' Slip

Talon's Slip

Warring on chiselers, General Johnson last week summoned more than 100 cleaners, pressers, dyers to Washington for public hearings on charges of code violations, planned to conduct the sessions himself to give the U. S. a spectacular demonstration that the Blue Eagle has claws.

Same day in Tampa, Federal Judge Alexander Akerman handed down a decision that clipped the Eagle's talons. Several cleaners and dyers joined in asking a court order to restrain Samuel Bazemore of St. Petersburg, Fla. from advertising prices in what is known in the South as "pressing clubs," lower than those in force in that trade area. The Judge refused the order because: 1) only the Federal District Attorney has authority to appeal to the courts for enforcement of the Recovery Act; 2) Samuel Bazemore was admittedly not engaged in interstate commerce and Congress therefore had no constitutional authority to regulate his business; 3) if Congress claims such authority by reason of a "national emergency," that is a pernicious doctrine which would upset the Constitution and lead directly to anarchy and despotism.

Donald Richberg, eaglophile counsel of the NRA, promptly pooh-poohed this blunt setback: "The judge's remarks on the alleged unconstitutionality of the Recovery Act itself obviously do not carry any legal weight, since they were expressive of the jurist's personal view and did not constitute a ruling on a point of law."