Evening star., 1933-01-08
BY WILLIAM HARD.

10 Iarm relleI IN the Congress there
Is now added business relief" This
tends to make the rest of the hairs on
the heads Of Congressman turn white
A powerful committee of delegates
from our basic non-agricultural indus
tries has just met in New York City
and has devised a bill for granting to
at least some forms Of business a few
Of the privileges and immunities al
ready granted to agriculture by con-
gressional action. This bill will soon
be introduced into the Congress by
some daring friend Of business who
may be willing to run the risk Of being
called the head of the business bloc. u
The authoritative gentlemen who
took part in the New York City confer
ence were the following:
Mr.. G. B. Ames, president Of the
American Petroleum Institute.
Mr.. c. E. Bockus, president Of the
National Coal Association (bitumin-
ous).
Mr.. Walter Gordon Merritt, general
counsel of the Anthracite Institute.
Mr.. Wilson Compton, secretaryman-
ager Of the National Lumber Manufac-
turers' Association.
Mr. william Church Osborn, director
of the Phelps-Dodge Copper Corpora
ton.
Representing coal and lumber and oil
and copper, these gentlemen may be
regarded as embcdiments lin some de-
yree) of the legislative aspirations of all
the principal non-agricultural basic in
dustries in the United States. A good
111yV - ffnv1
might be phrased thus:
For 10 years agriculture has been
seeking what 1t calls a parity" with
industry. The agricultural price fixing
bill, now getting debated in the Con-
gress for the benefit of the growers of
wheat and cotton and hogs and to-
bacco. says specifically that its OBJ
jective Is ito aid In restoring the parity
between agriculture and other indus
tries and in correcting the inequalities
between the prices for agricultural and
other commodities" Now the prices
for coal and lumber and copper are as
demoralized as the prices for the COM
modities produced on FARMS and the
price for oil Is often perilously poised on
the points of the bayonetS of the SOL
dierS OF the Governors of Oklahoma
and Texas. We wish accordingly now
TO begin our legislative march toward
securing for basic industrialists a GER
tain amount Of parity" with farmers.
The germ of this grand and auda-
cious thought in the minds Of the basic
industrialists seems to have been de-
rived from contemplation of the Cap
Volstead law. That law now ap-
pears in Title 7, Chapter II, of the
Code of Laws OF the United States. It,
in part, declares:
Persons engaged in the production
OF agricultural products may act to-
gether in associations in collectively
marketing such products. II the Sec
retary Of Agriculture shall have reason
TO believe that any such association
monopolizes trade to such an extent
that the price Of any agricultural prod
uct is unduly enhanced. he shall serve
upon such association a complaint" etc.
In other words. farmers are free to
cooperate in the selling Of their wares,
subject to a check by Federal autlaori-
lies II they cooperate too we'll or too
much. That attractive double edged
principle Of a freedom plus a check is
said to have appealed strongly to the
New York City conferees. The exact
wording OF the proposal which they viii
thereupon submit to the Congress has
not yet been disclosed. The certainty
Is. however, that it will tread meekly
but hopefully in the path Of the prece-
dent established through the legaliZa-
ton of selling combinations among the
ullers of the soil. The basic indus
trtalists declare that their products
come out of the soil, too.
X +
But the New York City conferees are
not the only industrialists engaged in
trying to win the eye of a farmer
relieving Congress. The United Mine
Workers Of America have a bill for the
relief and rescue of themselves and of
their employers in the bituminous coal
industry Of the country. The legislative
author OF this bill In the House of
Representatives is Mr.. Clyde Kelly of
Pennsylvania, one Of the most expert
enced and resolute congressional pro-
moters of social reforms. Hearings on
the bill will start before the House
Committee on Interstate and Foreign
Commerce next Tuesday.
The principle of the bill is precisely
the freedom plus check principle already
set forth. There is to be q Federal
Bituminous Coal Commission. This
commission will license bituminous coal
operators in interstate commerce. The
operators must permit their employees
TO combine in trade unions. They may
thereupon themselves combine In selling
organizations. They may cooperate In
sales as farmers cooperate. II they
then Cooperate excessively and to the
damage of the coal-consuming public,
they may be checked by the Bituminous
Coal Commission and other appropriate
Federal authorities.
This bill has been introduced into the
the Senate it is In the hands of the
Committee on Mines and Mining. That
committee has appointed q subcom-
mittee-consisting of Senators Walsh Of