New Blows at the New Deal By two more judgements,
not equal in force, different American Courts have dealt further blows at the greater Roosevelt experiments. By the now usual majority of six to three the Supreme Court has invalidated the Guffey Coal Act, which was designed to bring order into the appalling chaos of the bituminous coal industry, by regulation of labour and prices. The majority found that the extension of governmental power conferred by the Act was " an intolerable and unconstitutional inter- ferenee with personal liberty and private property." The labour provisions, it was laid down, had already been disposed of by the judgement which destroyed the .N.R.A. a year ago. The Court did not pronounce upon the price-fixing clauses of the Act, but condemned the 15 per cent. levy on sales of coal by firms not adhering to the law as being a penalty and not a tax. The second adverse judgement comes not from the Federal Supreme Court but from the Court of Appeals in the District of Columbia. It shakes the huge structure of the Resettle- ment Administration by which very many enterprises, especially the creation of new farms and model rural communities, are being financed out of the President's Relief Fund of nearly 1,000 millions sterling. Politically these judgements will hardly injure Mr. Roosevelt, for the voters will tend to regard them simply as an opposition move.
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