The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1934-01-19
LET PROFITEERS BEWARE

TWO things are necessary to make the new
- deal a paSsable success. One is enthusi-
astic support Of the ideals Of Mr. Roosevelt
and his more forward-looking advisers. The
President needs encouragement In the face
Of the subterranean mutterings and double
crossings Of the pirates and profteers who
have reluctantly given lip loyalty TO his pro-
gram. The second necessity is frank analysis
OF apparent defects in the new deal which will
facilitate revision before it is TOO late. The
best comment Of this sort which have read
is an article by John T. Flynn on 1.-THE New
Partnership" in Common Sense.
After expressing his admiration for the per-
sonal ideslisn of our President and the gen.
eral aspirations Of the economic planners, he
examines into how far the NRA measures up
to the conceptions embodied in the planning
proposals of even Professor Tugwell of the
brain trust" There is no more competent
writer on American economic and financial
conditions that Mr.. Flynn so We may take
his criticisms with appropriate seriousness.
Mr.. Flynn finds that the great danger IN
the NRA, as at present conceived and admin
istered, is its failure to curb profits to such
a degree as is necessary to assure adequate
purchasing power and sufficient consumption
to get the capitaliStic system on its feet again
It was the fact that too great proportion
OF the social income was drained OIL IN
profits at the expense Of workers and farmers,
before 1929 which led us into the collapse Of
that year. Mr.. Flynn fears that unless such
far-reaching revisions are made in the NRA
as practice and experience require the best
we can expect is the delay Of sweeping bust
ness collapse which will inevitably lead to
worse disintegration of capitalism than took
place after 1929.
The fair-minded opponents OF economic
planning. from George Soule to Rextord G.
Tugwell, had in mind plan which would be
the result of the collaboration of all economic
groups and would comprehend a control of
wages interest, production, prices labor con-
ditons. industrial operations and profits
1.-THE NRA provides for a type Of planning
which is solely the product of the employer
claaS and merely allows labor and the con-
surner to protest-with no assurance that their
protests will have much weight
If we are to have true social co-partner-
ship. the plan can not be allowed overwhelm-
ingly to favor either employer or worker 1t
must be something which will allow all Of us
to sink or swim together with something like
a parity Of power and influence.
The consumer%tne largest of all groups
are in an even weaker position than labor.
They are unorganized and woefully made
quately represented.
Very important and ominous indeed is the
fact that there is no provision whatever for
the systematic control Of prof1teering.
Hence, when the employers forget their
contrite spirit and reform resolutions of the
dark days from 1929 to 1888, we may have
period of price skyrocketing which will wreck
the whole MIRA program.
LAS this development goes forward you will
see the workers blessed on the one hand with
a small raise in pay and on the other hand
relieved Of 1t by boost in price somewhat
larger"
Most fundamentally the trouble with the
NRA is that it savors of the old-fashioned
scarcity economy" and aims to solve our eco
nomic problems by curbing production rather
than by stimulating consumption:
1T moves on the problem from the wrong
direction. 1t proceeds upon the theory that
we must curtail production instead Of expand
ing consumption. 1t still is under the dominion
Of that false and dangerous notion that we grow
too much wheat and cotton and make too many
shoes and too much clothing and too many
homes for this country-that, in short, we are
a nation suffocated under a mountain of
plenty.
1--WE do not produce enough houses for our
millions Of workers. to live in. They must exist
in the cast-off novels Of other men. We do not
produce enough suits OF clothes for half our
male population In 1e29-our biggest year
we turned out twenty million suits Of clothes
In a nation that needed fifty millions. Most Of
our people use the cast-of clothing Of other
men. We don't make enough shirts or shoes or
anything else that we need
There is only one problem that we have
to deal with I concede that it is big enough
that Is how TO make houses and clothes and
shoes and food for all our people and make at
the same time the income with which they
can buy these things. And this Is precisely
what is not being done"