Evening star., 1934-10-28
SOutherner on the New Deal
Continued From First page.)

Continued From First Page.)
ing illustration in our history. We ar,
still shouting for every experiment
coming out of Washington, not because
1t Is good thing, but because it /:
Democratic. The spectacle of the
Solid South waiting for the next Jug
Cling act without the faintest idea as
to what it will be, and then applaud
ing wildly, is a sad thing. have fox
terrier that barks every time the radio
is turned on. and while his enthusiasm
Is admirable, his discrimination is
oeplorable.
Injuries Inflicted.
This particular Southerner is much
more concerned with the welfare of his
people than he is with the political
label attached to Government meas
ures. AS serious and unprejudiced
observer of the something -new-every-
morning, let's-try-it-anyway school of
government, he can not see that sin
gle measure Of the whole recovery
program has helped the South. Some
Of them are gravely injurious to the
J..
Responsibility for the N. R. A. is
still matter Of elaborate research.
The question gives promise of lasting
longer than the N R. A. In any event
1t is certain that this marvel of eco
nomic planning was not born south of
Mason and Dixon's line, and the gen.
tlemen administering 1t do not have
a noticeable Southern accent. On
the contrary. How does it affect us?
The South is becoming industrial.
1t has definite advantages of location,
climate. water and power that slowly
move southwark the center of the
textile industry. In one important
respect the South is at a distinct
disadvantage. That is in the quality
of its factory labor. 1t is relatively
unframed and unskilled. The future
of the South's industry and of the
workers themselves depends on the
gradual improvement of this labor in
Its efficiency and in its wage levels.
The non-political economist knows
that this is slow process. The de-
Velopment Of Southern industry re-
quires wage levels in accordance with
productivity and steady rise in these
wage levels as the education, skill and
training of the workers are improved.
This development was in process in
the years before the era of manage
ment of industry by act of Congress.
1t is unhappily true that some of our
Southern States recognize the fact
that 1t is desirable to let this process
alone in most respects, but failed to
realize that it is equally desirable to
protect two groups that notoriously
throughout history have needed pro-
lection in periods of rapid industrial
ization. These are the woman and
child workers.
Bad Policy.
AS the N. r. A. wobbles along in its
confusion its defenders find it in
creasingly embarrassing to refer to
any phase of it except child labor.
About all that is being said for it
now is that it has reduced child labor.
Every such reference is a direct refiec-
tion on Southern States.
But the essential point is that the
regimentation of Southern industry by
the N. r. A. is very likely to be in
furious. Our industries have all the
opportunities, but also all the prob
lens, of an industrial society rising
de novo from an older economic
regime. To retard and handicap this
development by a lot of hastily de-
vised and undemocratically admins
tered regulations. restrictions and
limitations is bad business Wage diff
ferences between North and South,
due to differences in productivity and
0f fyi 70 oil ir, fha
present stage of industrial develop
ment in the South. Equally vital is
freedom to expand, to experiment and
to improve processes.
If the N. r. A, with its blundering
RECOMMENDATION of hours, wages, costs,
output and processes, ever becomes
permanent part of Federal bureau
cracy, your industries are in for
trouble. N. r. A. is at bottom fascism,
and minorities do not prosper under
fascism. You have long known that
in debates in Congress over such mat
ters as currency and tariffs we have
had the best arguments, but the other
side has had the most votes.
You have not been seriously hurt
by the N. r. A. because you have not
taken it very seriously. You had a
little experience with it in the Harri-
man mills. And some of you had
some experience with it when the
questions of differential wages were
being settled in Washington by the
cracking down system of adjustment
Of differences. And only this month
you have learned that presidential
authority can and will tell you just
exactly what hours per week you may
have in any factory.
You ought also to be able to recall
the Presidents unemployment agree
ment of a year ago. That weird
document required that every en-
ployer, North and South, pay every
worker in industry or trade mini
mum of $l2 to $l4 for a 35 or 40
hour week. How long would Southern
business, already stagnant from de-
preston, have lasted if you had been
forced to live up to it? The only
word I ever had as to its economic
results was a report that after the
colored workers of Georgia heard
about its terms they bought all the
secondhand FordS in the State-on
installment.
Higher Pay Need Recognized.
Nobody recognizes more clearly than
I do the desirability of higher wage
levels in the South. We need higher
wages and what comes from higher
wages-human betterment in comfort,
education, iteracy, ambition and op-
portunity. The best prospect for
higher wages in the South seems to me
to lie in a free and unrestricted de-
velopment of industry, very much
without an N. r. A. Nor Is this any
thinly disguised approval of all the
labor conditions in the South. The
mill owners of our region may as well
reconcile themselves to collective bar
gaining here and now. Labor in the
South is of Anglo-Saxon stock and 1t
is going to organize, with or without
aid from Section Ia The South in
sured just this outcome when 1t united,
very properly, on restricting immigra-
tion.
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