The Atlantic Bookshelf: A Guide to New Books About Business

THE epoch-making decision of the Supreme Court in the Schechter (NRA) case has reminded us dramatically of a fundamental truth which students of government must never allow themselves to forget:, that every important political problem which arises in the United States resolves itself in the end into a constitutional question. During the past two years the American people have been chiefly concerned to find out, if they could, what ought to be done to meet the challenge of the depression and to prevent the recurrence of similar calamities in the future. From this point on. interest shifts from action to theory, from economics and practical politics to law. It is not enough to ask what ought to be done. We must discover first what may be done under our Constitution as the Court interprets it. And if the field of possible action turns out to be too narrow to lie effective, we shall hear increasingly of the need for constitutional reform. The following review was written before the Supreme Court made its momentous decision.