One more casualty of the recent polar storm that hit Texas: the Dallas Historical Society's archives

 The foundation of my research for my project to write the biography of Congressman Hatton W. Sumners of Dallas (1875-1962) is his papers that reside in the archives of the Dallas Historical Society in its headquarters building, the Hall of State at Fair Park in Dallas.

But I have a sad tale about my archive, and potentially the Sumners Papers. The archivists had been reopening for one researcher at a time, and I had an appointment for yesterday! BUT the recent polar weather that inflicted itself on essentially all the State of Texas also specifically harmed the Hall of State. The building had just completed a wonderful restoration and upgrading but suffered massive damage when the fire suppression system piping froze and ruptured (the system was supposed to be protected by heaters but the state’s grid, ERCOT, turned off the electricity). As a result, the Hall of State flooded, including the subbasement in which Sumners’s papers are housed. The building is closed. 

Impressive rescue operations at the Hall of State are underway:  recenthttps://www.dallasnews.com/arts-entertainment/visual-arts/2021/02/26/a-stab-in-the-heart-storm-damage-at-fair-parks-hall-of-state-put-rare-artifacts-in-peril/

No word yet specifically on the Sumners Papers....I’m hoping for the best....

Charles Warren on the bankruptcy power under the Constitution

Research continues on my bankruptcy history project. I decided to take a look back at Charles Warren's Bankruptcy in United States History (1935). At the end, he notes the Supreme Court's invalidation of the Frazier-Lemke Act (farmer bankruptcy) on 5th Amendment grounds in the Radford case and the Court's affirmation of Section 77 (railroad reorganization) as well within the bankruptcy power under the Constitution in the Chicago, R.I. & P. Ry. Co. decision. 

Quoting from the latter:

"The fundamental and radically progressive nature of these extensions becomes apparent upon their mere statement; but all have been judicially approved or accepted as falling within the power conferred by the bankruptcy clause of the Constitution. Taken altogether, they demonstrate in a very striking way the capacity of the bankruptcy clause to meet new conditions as they have been disclosed as a result of the tremendous growth of business and development of human activities from 1800 to the present day. And these acts, far-reaching though they be, have not gone beyond the limit of congressional power; but rather have constituted extensions into a field whose boundaries may not yet be fully revealed."

CONTINENTAL ILLINOIS NATIONAL BANK & TRUST CO. v. CHICAGO, ROCK ISLAND & PACIFIC RY. CO., 294 U.S. 648, 671 (1935).