United States, does not appear 16 have been. specifically included in the Constitution, for it was early in its history that the Supreme Court decided that it had such powers, a decision which has never been upset and which now has behind it the authority of long) standing. So much is this the case that it is doubtful whether it would not actually "require a Constitutional amendment to deprive the' Supreme Court of the powers with which It vested Itself so many years ago, Tt is clear now that, when the President embarked upon his schemes to rescue the nation from the slough of despond, while he had very definite and clear cut ideas of the objective he had in view, neither he nor his advisers were all clear as to the best path to pursue towards it. Either that or they failed to perceive the stern uncompromising rock. of the Supreme Court which impeded their rath, or fancied that its implacability would be moderated in view of the special circumstances with which the Administration was. faced. It is a matter for some sur~ prise that the constitutional lawyers. amongst the President's advisers were not more closely apprised of the danger, but it is possible that even they were more obsessed with the importance of the task before them than impressed by the technical diffeulties they had to face. Be that as it may the fact ultimately emerges that when the President! came forward with his plan for the reform of the Supreme Court it had already assumed the complexion of an afterthought and a belated attempt to make the tribunal mora amenable to the wishes of the administration, Reform of the: Supreme Court was not part. of] the original New Deal programme. Had the Court done what was pected of it no such proposition, it! fs perfectly safe to venture, would have ever been mooted. The President would, perhaps, have been on surer ground had he or his advisers been gifted with suM™cient foresight to have proceeded with the reform of the Court prior to the introduction of the legislation which ultimately gave rise to so much. controversy. That he did not do,_ though there is little reason to doubt that if, when first flushed with success at the polls, he had. embarked upon such a course he would have succeeded in making! his point, But the timing was wrong, and when at last President Roosevelt came forward with his reform scheme the impression treated was that as an afterthought he was seeking to bend the Supreme Court to his will, and thus. render more potent the powerful support he had in both houses of! Congress, There are those who claimed, and not without some. justification, that with the support} he had President Roosevelt was very much in the position of a dictator. He would have been had it not been for the nine judges who occupied the bench of the Supreme Court.
Logically there does not seem to have been much wrong with the President's attitude. The Court had been changed some seven or eight times; its membership had been increased or decreased in the past as occasion seemed to warrant,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.