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).