Evening star., 1933-05-28
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industry is permitted to suspend the
limitations of the antitrust act-and
that privilege alone should help much
toward increase of volume of business
at fair prices accompanied by fair wages
for labor.
All that is the may of the bill. But
If any industry is unwilling or unable
to agree upon its own self-discipline
within the area of the broad social
effect. In such exceptional cases the
Government administrator will lay down
code of rules for that industry.
Added Purpose Seen.
The must" has an additional pur-
pose. IT,. within any industry, some
one unit Is unwilling to conform, is
unwilling to cooperate in making and
abiding by rules devised by the in
dustry as a whole, if some individual
corporation or individual cuts prices
or cuts wages or otherwise practices
unfairness, then the recalcitrant will
be compelled by the Government ad-
ministrator to get in line. At that
point the Government administrator
will take the club of power from the
cobwebs behind the door. Probably
this will not often be necessary, pos
sibly never. Throughout the war, with
every industry and plant in the coun-
try under more stringent control than
is now contemplated, there we're only
two occasions when the War Industries
Board felt obliged to use the club.
IISo of tho club iS n0t ipeVit O h1v
necessary But existence Of the club is
essential 1t is essential. not so much
for punishment of the bad as for pro-
lection of the good AS it was put by
Mr. Bernard M. Baruch. administra-
tor of President Wilson's War Indus
tries Board:
Those willing to agree through high
mindedness, those willing to practice a
voluntary self-governing discipline, must
know that the Government has some
control with actual teeth, some dis
ciplinary power to apply to the recalci-
trant or the unwilling"
The function of the man who will
be administrator Of the control of
be. as to nine-tenths of the function
ing. similar to those voluntarily Gre
| ated and voluntarily obeyed Gears
who have become familiar in various
industries. notably Will Hays in the
| movie industry and Judge Kenesaw M.
| Lands in the-shall we say base ball
| industry? To the difference volun-
tarily paid to these heads by their re-
spective industries, adds the power OF
Government. and we have the function
Of the administrator over all industry
| set I'D by the pending bill. On the
one side the administrator Is supposed
| to be sympathetic to business, to un-
/ derstand it and to hold the conviction
control Of any industry can best be
made by those who participate in the
industry. On the other side, the ad-
ministrator has his official existence
only on the assumption that indus
| tries cannot be permitted to agree
upon and practice among themselves
! conditions which include suspension of
| the antitrust law, except by consent
of the Government. To give this con-
! sent where the consent is proper Is
| large part of the function of the
administrator Added to this is the
! power on the part Of the administrator
to REQUIRE what President Roosevelt
calls "the 10 per cent that wishes to
be unfair in any industry" to obev the
regulations laid down by the 80 per
cent who wish to be fair.
Peek Was Associate.
Gen. Johnson's experience, as one OF
the principal administrators Of the war
time control of industries, 1918,
alone is enough to make him (along
with very few who were his associates)
the best equipped man now available
for the war against depression. AS 1t
happens, one of Gen. Johnson's asso-
ciates in the War Industries Board was
| George N. Peek, and Mr.. Peek Is now
the principal administrator of the other
measure already In effect, the farm re-
lief bill, which sets up over ',pgocessors