The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1934-08-24
Liberal Viewpoint
by DIR. HARRY ELMER BARNES

THE press announces on good authority that
Il the steel industry which means essen
TALLY the United States Steep Corporation, seri-
ously is considering the wisdom and strategy
of defying the NFsA by dropping the steel code,
thus escaping the implied necessity OF dealing
with organized labor.
It is thought that If the code as a whole is
repudiated, then there will be no necessity Of
accepting Clause Ia of the NESA which makes
collective bargaining mandatory upon any coded
industry.
Here is clear issue, provided the code &C
tually is discarded between the United states
Steel Corporation and the United States gov
eminent. The outcome Of this showdown ought
to make it pretty evident which rules the coun-
try in 1884.
President Roosevelt recently has reiterated
his contention that the New Deal and the NRA
are no transient and temporizing measures, but
a permanent and pivotal element in our govern
ment and economy so long as he is at the helm.
This proposed action Of the steel industry may
well furnish him with magnificent opportunity
to demonstrate his sincerity in convincing
fashion.
The steel industry already has def1ed the
government in the Weirton case and in other
efforts to substitute company unions for real
labor unions. Apparently emboldened by this
success, the industry seems on the verge Of
throwing overheard the whole notion Of a
planned economy, in order to duck all legal
obligations to deal with unionism of any sort.
TN the first place, this is bad craftsmanship,
l. since the industry has been very happy to
embrace such items in the code as advance
monopolistic tendencies and increase profits It
should be willing to take the bitter with the
sweet.
In the second place. it proves the steel in
dustry incapable of learning anything by eXpe-
rience The collapse Of the American capitalism
Of he N O.
1929, after nearly decade of clear sailing seems
to mean nothing to the steel industry. Nor has
the great depression, from which we have by no
means emerged, taught it anything.
No one asks the rulers to exhibit any
altruism or even any concern for social justice.
But we can demand that they give some evil
dence of enlightened selhshness.
In the third place. this crisis will offer a
definite test of the NF2A and the New Deal.
If the governments stands meekly by and lets
the steel trust sabotage the NRA and the
planned economy, it certainly will deserve to
have little standing in the opinion of the Ameri-
can citizens.
The President may wish before it is over that
he had not so nonchalantly dropped the licensing
power over American corporations last June
the one punitive and disciplinary agency which
he possessed.
THE attitude have set forth need not imply
l. at all any partisanship for labor against
capital 1t simply happens that capital has
been sufficiently avaracious and maladroit to
bring about condition where the interest OF
the public-at least the public which does not
want revolutionary radicalism-is very close to
identical with the interest of American labor.
This does not mean that the public interest
is served by idiotic antics of labor but it GER
tainly does mean that the advantage OF the
overwhelming mass Of American citizens will be
forwarded by assurance Of unrestricted collec-
tive bargaining powers of an absolute type.
The present social order has no chance what
ever of any considerable lease of life unless mass
purchasing power is very notably increased We
have had all the evidence in the world that in
dustry under capitalism can not be trusted to
pay voluntarily the wages which will insure this
necessary purchasing power
For example, between 1923 and 1929 the value
of manufactured goods produced in this country
increased by $10O00,0O0000. But in the same
six years the wage payments to American labor
increased only by $6OO0O000 In these years,
the purchasing power of the farmers actually
fell off.
Not even high power advertising can sell
$40 900, 100000 worth of goods for S600000,000.
Even normal child in the sixth grade in the
public schools ought to be able to grasp this
elemental fact.