The daily times. [volume] (Wilson, N.C.) 1902-1936, 1919-05-12
GEORGE PEEK
THE CHAIRMAN
Commerce Board Issues State.
ment. Says it is Inconceiv-
able r. r. Administration


Peek, chairman of the department
of commences industrial board,
which was dissolved last week af-
ter e long controversy with the rail-
road administration concerning steel
prices, declared in a statement to-
night that the public would demand
an explanation of the, wrecking, ap-
parently on the obstinacy of single
individual of a plan to make an i'm
. mediate reduction in the cost of
tional value
81 can only conjecture an expla-
nation said Mr.. Peek. Through
out the battling controversy the
board has found itself checked by
forces IN opposition which it could
neither understand, reason with.
no overcome, but which grew in
strength until they rendeed further
progress impossible and forced alb
andcnment of the plan.
''In the ordinary the plan has
been approved almost unanimously
| by business men and associates and
| by editorial and press comments
| the country over, in practice the
plan has been proved by the order
! books of steel producers and tine
| buying revival which Immediately
| followed the announcement of steel
| prices and ceased Immediately upon
| the railroad administration S
| rejection of those prices.
cit is inconceivable that the rail-
road Administrations substantial
| objection alone was sufficient to
| justify the abandonment of a pol
| icy of such importance. Nor to-
ward the end has the director gen.
eral been alone in thwarting the
purpose of the board. The secre-
tary of the treasury has taken a
stand in direct contradiction with
his message to the President urg-
attorney general has rendered an
opinion that the pjlan of the board
contravenes the Sherman act but the
facts assumed as the basis that op:n-
ion are so inconsistent with the
actual course of conduct of the
board as to render the opinion in
applicable, yet it has emen used as
basis for the abandonment OF
the boards plan.
In all this opposition the board
has sought in vain for substan
tial reason. 1t has urged the rail
road administration, first, to aiC
it by one single fact, or agreement
to arrive at lower price for steel, ant
second to name price which th
railroad administration would con
slider fair. The railroad administra
tion's only answer has been that tn
steel price announced by the boar
is ''too high" If too high means tha
the Railroad administration ca
force lover prices, by smashing in
dustry, smashing labor smashin
= the public interest, and THROWN
: most powerful and lowest cost pro
- ducers, the. board agrees that tn
r price is too high But it was pre-
n cisely these results the board We
n set up to prevent and the cas-
stands proved that lower prices wit
out these results are impossible
n, Still the Railroad administratio
p persists and announces specifical
10 that its only view of a low pri,
O. is one that shall by inherent a
Is tractiveness, induce buying not
,e the railroad administration alo1
of but also by the old railroad corpo
ations who are so ably representt
in the administration by the Dire
tor General himself and by Messl
ay Lovett and Walters, who have hea
nd ed the opposition to the board
en- "That the administration wou
"a commit itself against the pub
ne interest merely to support the ancie
as and diseredited railroad slogan, 1T
public be damned" is unthfnkab
Yet after all it is the administratic
not the Director-Genera1 alone, W
had power to thwart the board
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