Evening star., 1933-08-19
All Other States and Canada.
M.mher Of the Associated Press.
Only the Beginning.

These are crowded days. Far INTO
the night Gen. johnson and the steel
men wrestle with code that may write
history in its effect on industrial Amer
lea, and In the early hours Of morning
announce an agreement. But to emerge
from one battle is, for Gen. Johnson,
only to enter another The smoke OF
conflict for these many days past has
been rising from the clash of opponents
in automobile, coal and oil industries.
There is talk of the early application OF
the mailed fist to soma or all Of them.
But after the mailed nS has struck,
what then? And the steel, oil, automo-
bile and coal codes are only four. There
have been to date some twelve hun
dred codes submitted to the N. R. A.
by as many industries or lines of busi-
ness. The codes come In so fast that
the workers at the N. R. A. have diff
Guilty keeping them filed, much less
keeping abreast of the task of examining
them for the defects that most of the
original proposals seem to contain.
But even the furious pace of the codi-
fers is not fast enough to outdistance
the new set of complications that has
risen after the codes have been signed.
Cotton mills in a North Carolina
County are closed-shelves loaded Town.
The mills say that the processing tax
on cotton of 40 cents a poulsd, i'm
posed by the Agricultural Adjustment
Administration, plus the increased cost
of labor and shortened schedule of
working hours under the National Re
covery Administration, means a higher
cost for cotton goods than the public
will pay. The A. A. A. counters with
the statement that it may call a hear
ing at which representatives of the tex
tile industry will be required to testify
as to their cost under oath, and de-
termine whether the textile industry
can, as alleged, make handsome profits
under both processing tax and N. r. A
code, or whether piled up goods on
shelves resulted from the greed of
manufacturers and gross overproduc-
ton to get in under the wire by sweat
ing labor before the code and tax took
effect. If the cotton mill people are
right, where stands thG N. R. A? If
the cotton people cannot justify their
claims, where stand the laborers,
thrown out of work?
There has been talk of ultinatumS
and Of setting time limits and of max
ing everything shipshape in the code
signing world by the dawn of Labor
day. But after Labor day-what then?
1t will be dangerous to continue en-
phasizing the N R. A. campaign as a
quick, short effort, soon over, that can
60 over the top" like Liberty loan
drive. The N. R: A. campaign is some
thing infinitely more complex than
Liberty loan campaign. 1t marks a
revolutionary change in philosophy of
government, that cannot be put over"
in a day or in year. The process of
readjustment to the new deal must be
slow. If the impression is permitted
to be emphasized that after Labor day
the N. r. A. codes will be in full effect
and working smoothly, then the au-
thorities must be prepared to counter
the forces of disillusionment, in addi-
ton to their other difficulties.
Agreement and acceptance of code
is one small step. Giving the code a
fair test to demonstrate its effective
ness is another step. Finding out why
1t fails is another. There are long
miles ahead for a coded Nation still.