Evening star., 1933-09-17
BY WILLIAM HARD.

The revolution at Washington pro-
| ceedS apace; and 1t is bound to proceed
faster and faster. or fail.
The constitutionality of the national
| industrial recovery act has to be tested
| in the courts all the way up to the
| United States Supreme Court. This
becomes clearer and clearer as the num-
ber of industrialists objecting to the
provisions Of N. r. A. Codes or signing
those provisions and then evading and
violating them, becomes larger and
larger.
Some day law case involving those
objections or evasions and violations
must be carried to the lands supreme
tribunal. From the point of view OF
the administration the sooner this de-
velopment occurs, the better.
This Is because the asserted constitu-
tionality OF the national industrial re-
covery act is based in large part upon
the alleged existence of a national social
emergency. The milk control law of
/ New York State, sanctioning the fixing
of prices for milk, was declared con-
stitutional this year by the higher courts
of New York State in accompaniment to
the following declaration:
THE power thus to regulate private
business can be invoked Cnly under spe-
cial circumstances"
x
| At the present moment there is a gen.
eral acceptance throughout this country
! of the proposition that special circum-
stances" exist This conviction is COM
monty shared by lawyers and judges as
well as by laymen. 1t is obviously to the
advantage Of the administration to test
| the national industrial recovery act in
the courts before this conviction is in
any way weakened by the passage of
time or by the development of new cir
| cumStanceS. 1t is reasonably expected,
accordingly. that the President himself
will soon provoke a test If the indus
trialists themselves do not provoke it.
He is all the more likely to adopt this
course because of the multitudincus
prevelance in industrial circles of the
astute gentlemen whom Gen johnson
OF the N. r. A. denounces as "chiselers"
and "gyppers." Thees gentlemen are af-
! fluentlv represented in Washington by
| expensive lobbyists Never has the town
been fuller of lawyers and non-lawyers
collecting large fees from corporations
whom they engage to save them from
the wrath to come and whom they in
struct as to how to worship it through
codes and then dodge it through loop
holes
Some industrialists who have signed
codes are openly boasting that their
signatures will impose upon them in
fact neither a larger number of en-
ployes nor an enlarged total paw roll
This IS in fiat contradiction to the ma
tlonal recovery acts primary purpose
which is to increase employment and
purchasing power
Other industrialists are equally openly
asserting-among their confidants-that
they are able to meet all the extra ex-
pense of their N. R. A. codes by extra
prices which will not only keep their
profits where they were. but push them
up to new high level. This again is
In fiat contradiction to the Presidents
announced policy Of keeping prices down
to correspondence with the actual
new costs of the N. r. A. wages-and-
hours requirements.
The N. r. A. authorities have fulmi-
mated against these surreptitious
thWarters OF the Presidents policies and
purposes. but they have not yet afflicted
them with any notable number of the
larger fines and long prison sentences
which the national industrial recovery
act so plentifullv and invitingly pro-
vldes In the lobbies of the Washington
hotels, accordingly. among eminent in
dustrlaiists and their satellites, there is
now frequently heard the view that the
N. r. A. authorities are perfectly willing
to threaten but are perfectly afraid to
strike.
The removal of that impression is
absolutely essential to the success of the
N. r. A. adventure: and it is thereupon
conndentlv believed in administration
quarters that the removal will happen.
Ihe national industrial recovery act
Is now perceived to be in one respect
just like any other act of Congress. It
cannot be enforced simply by parades.
IL cannot be enforced simply by ora
tor1cal sentences. It has to be enforced
also by penal ones That is undoubt-
edlv coming stage of N. r. A. pro-
cedure
simultaneously with that deveIopment
comes the possibility of subiecting ali
industrialists to a governmental licens-
ing system. Section "A of the ma
t1ona! industrial recovery act contains
complete provisions for such a system.
ihose provisions enable the admins
tratlon to deal geruinelv and effectively
with cases such as that of Henry Ford
and with cases such as that of the
recalcitrant element in the bituminous
coal industry.
Gen. Johnson of the N. r. A. stated
this week that Mr. Ford Is bound by
the automobile code. whether he signs
it or not. Some of the principal authors
OF the national industrial recovery act
disagree with the general on this point.
They think that Mr. Ford is not ade-
onately technically bound by the code
till he signs 1t or till the President BY
a special manifesto imposes the code
On the whole automobile industry and
Issues Licenses under it to all automo-
bile manufacturers.
In anv case even If the general Is
correct in his Interpretation of the law.
and even if Mr. Ford is now in law and
in fact bound bv the code. the problem
Of compelling him to obey it is, in pres
ent circumstances, difficult.
The provisions for compelling unli-
censed manufacturers to obey p. code
are week They are fc,lrd in Section 3