Evening star., 1933-06-17
President Roosevelt Explains
Industrial Control Program
Two Stages in Re-
covery Task, He
Declares in State
ment After Sign
ing Measure.

TINE statement released yesterday
by President Roosevelt, soon after
the signing Of the industrial con
trol-public works measure fol-
lows:
The law I have just signed was
passed to put people back to work-to
let them buy more Of the products OF
farms and factories and start our bust
ness at living rate again. This task
is in two stages-flrst, to get many
hundreds of thousands Of the unem-
ployed back on the pay roll by snowfall,
and second, to plan for better future
for the longer pull. While we shall not
neglect the second, the first stage is an
emergency job. It has the right OF
way.
The second part Of the act gives
employment by vast program OF public
works. Our studies show that we should
be able to hire many men at once and
to step up to about a million new Jobs
by October /. and a much greater num-
Der later We must put at the head
of our list those works which are fully
ready to start now. Our first purpose
is to create employment as fast as we
car, but we should not pour money
into improved projects.
We have worked out our plan for
action. Some of it will start tomor-
row. I am making available 100000
600 for State roads under regulations
which I have just signed and am
told that the States will get this work
under way at once. have also just
released over 5000, 900 900 for the Navy
to start building ships under the Lon
don treaty.
In nv inaugural I laid down the
simple proposition that nobody Is going
to starve in this country. 1t seems to
me to be equally plain that no busi-
ness which depends for existence on
paying less than living wages to It's
workers has any right to continue In
this country. BY business" I mean the
whole of commerce as well as the whole
of industry; by workers I mean all
workers-the white collar class as we'll
as the men in overalls; and by living
wages I mean more than bare sub
sistence level mean the wages OF
decent living.
Certainty Of Change.
Throughout industry the change
from starvation wages and starvation
employment to living wages and sus-
tanned employment can, In large part,
be made by an industrial covenant to
which all employers shall subscribe. It
is greatly to their interest to do this
because decent living, widely spread
among our 125, 900 600 people eventually
means the opening up to industry OF
the richest market which the world has
known. It is the only way to utilize the
so-called excess capacity of our In
dustrial plants. This is the principle
that makes this one OF the most i'm
portant laws that ever came from Con-
gress because, before the passage OF
this act, no such industrial covenant
was possible.
On this idea the first part Of the
act proposes to our industry q great
spontaneous cooperation to put millions
Of men back in their regular jobs TINS
Summer. The idea is simply Tor en-
ployers to hire more men to do the
existing work by reducing the work
hours of each mans week and at the
same time paying living wage for the
shorter week
No employer and no group Of less
than all employers in a single trade
could do this alone and continue to
live in business competition. But II all
employers in each trade now band
themselves faithfully in these modern
guilds-without exception-and agree
to act together and at once. none Will be
hurt and millions Of workers, SO long
deprived of the right to earn Their
bread in the sweat of their labor. can
raise their heads again. The challenge
of this law IS whether we can sink
selfish interest and present solid front
against a common peril.
1t is a challenge to industry which
has long insisted that. given the right
to ect in unison, it could do much for
the general good which has hitherto
been unlawful. From today 1t has that
right.
Many good men voted this new char
ter with misgivings. 1 do not share
these doubts had part in the great
cooperation Of 1917 and 1918 and 1t is
my faith that we can count on our
industry once more to join in our
general purpose to lift this new threat
and to do 1t without taking any ad-
vantage Of the public trust which has
this day been reposed without stint in
the good faith and high purpose OF
American business.
But industry is challenged in another
way It is not only the slackers within
trade groups who may stand in the
path OF our common purpose. In q
sense these groups compete with each
other, and no single industry, and no
separate cluster of industries, can do
this Job alone for exactly the same
reason that no single employer can do
1t alone. In other words. We can imag-
inc such thing es Stacker industry.
This law is also challenge to labor.
Workers, too. are here given q new
chatter Of rights long sought and hith-
erto denied But they know that the
first move expected by the Nation is q
great cooperation Of all employers, by
one single mass action, to improve the
case of workers on a scale never at
tempted In any nation. Industries can
do this only if they have the support
Of the whole public, and especially OF
their own workers. This Is not q law
TO foment discord and it will not be
executed as such. This is time for
mutual confidence and help and we can
safely rely on the sense of fair play
among all Americans to assure every
industry which now moves forward
promptly In this united drive against
depression that its workers will be with
it to a man.
New Government Controls.
1t is, further. a challenge to admin
istration. We are relaxing some OF
the safeguards Of the antitrust laws.
: L. N<L atVNU