The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1933-10-24
TUESDAY. OCT. q. 1893.
THE RETAIL CODE

NONE of the parties in the long and bitter
dispute over the NRA retail code is
pleased entirely with the code as finally signed
by the President. But it was impossible for
the administration to satisfy the conflicting
interests. Those conflicts are real-as be-
tween the large merchant and small the chain
store and the independent the merchant and
the manufacturer the city and the rural COM
munities. the seller and the buyer.
Inevitably the resulting code is a compro-
mise. On the surface it appears to be about
as fair a compromise as could have been
worked out. If not. time will demonstrate it's
unfairness
And that is the important thing about this
code, which its sundry critics should be fair
enough to recognize. 1t is quite definitely an
experiment. 1t is put forward as a temporary
expedient for three months. On or before
Feb. l a representative and responsible COM
mittee will report on its operation and submit
recommendations for changes.
Had the President accepted the original
code provision banning sales for less than cost
plus 10 per cent it would have put a heavy
load on consumers before their purchasing
have destroyed just competition. On the other
hand, if the President had subjected rural
stores to the same code provisions as the
larger establishments, it doubtless would have
killed many small businesses almost over
night-four years of depression already have
driven 100000 small merchants out of business.
Such practical considerations explain in
large part the code compromise which now
merely prohibits retail sale at less than in
voice cost plus a portion Of wages paid by the
retailer except in the case of bona f1de clear
ances perishable merchandise, damaged goods
and discontinued lines. Likewise, it explains
the exemption from the code of stores en-
ploying fewer than five persons in towns of
$500 population and less.
Clearly the NRA could have produced
better code if its sole task had been to wipe
out Embellishments and inefhciences in our
wasteful distributing system, thus protecting
the consumer by encouraging only the most
efficient form Of retailing. But the immediate
practical problem was not SO simple-to have
bankrupted thousands of stores and to have
thrown their employees on the streets would
not have solved the problem of unemployment
and increased purchasing power.
This retail code and its paradoxes are
typical in greater or lesser degree of virtually
all of the problems inherent in administra-
ton of the new DEAL whether represented in
a single code or in the general effort to keep
wage increases and price increases balancing
each other 1t is the same conflict which is
constantly occurring between the NRA and
AAA. and between the interests Of producers
and consumers within both the NFSA and AAA
Stated another way, 1t is the inevitable
conflict between the needs of long-range plan
ming or basic reform versus emergency de-
mands.
Those who take the trouble to understand
the vast compleMty of the administrators
problems will not be inclined to hunt Tor
petty inconsistencies and imperfections IN the
provisional retail code.