Evening star., 1934-02-28
.FEARSN. "A. RUIN
FROM CA|SEL|NG
Consumers Representative
Cites Evasions Shown
in rs States.
Continued From First Page.)

Slty levels were independently ilAcu
He also said the wage scales were de-
manded by the unions.
Burke said that If 1t were left to
him he would employ old and less
efficient help at lower than code
wages. letting the younger ones shift
for themselves.
]. w. Alderman, representing the
American Federation of Full FASH
ioned Hosiery Workers. said N. r. A.
should eliminate from the codes the
lower wages uniformly given to the
South and the differentials between
large and small cities.
Approves Price Accords.
A protest against provisions in some
codes barring employment of persons
for work at home, sewing and the
like, led to possibility that they may
be altered
w. Bruce Philip, counsel for the
National Association of Retail Drug
zists. approved open price agreements
so long as they were carefully admin
istered.
Complaint against delay in approv-
ing a code for the wholesale confec-
tionery industry was registered by Jo-
seph NJ. Weber, member of that indus
try's Code Committee.
A furry was caused as Nelson H.
Nichols, youthful colored lawyer, orig
tnally from Little Rock, charged N.
r. A. with drawing the color line
against him when he sought job
after having served the organization
extensively as speaker.
He introduced letter addressed to
him from Gen. Johnson, which said.
in part:
You know as well as I do that
there are some situations in which
the races can be mixed and some in
which they cannot. The case rin
your letter is one of the latter"
Wants to Make Living.
McGrady, Johnson's labor assistant,
asked Nichols if he would take some
other Job besides a legal one.
I've been to school 20 years and I
don't want to sweep floors" he re-
piled, but I want to make living"
Louis Waldman of New York,
leader Of the Socialist party, said
dIOl OOlllloOll SPCdho "ilia
the words of Roosevelt but his acts
are the acts of Hoover"
Waldman, co-chairman with Nor
man Thomas on the Public Affairs
Committee of the Socialist party, said
the N. r. A. was based on voluntary
action on the part of industry and
that was obviously failure" He
advocated equal representation by
labor on the code authorities instead
of in advisory capacities.
BENJAMIN c. Marsh of Washington,
executive secretary of the Peoples
Lobby, said every administrator should
be obliged to file with the Trade Com
mission under oathas a public docu-
ment a statement of his holdings in
corporations and his other financial
interests.
100 Make Complaints.
Five separate hearings for COM
plants were in full blast today with
100 men and women taking the places
of the more than a score who yester-
day denounced and suggested changes,
dinging at N r. A. barrage OF what
Gen. johnson terms dead cats"
Except in q few conspicuous in
stances, officials held yesterdays ses-
sions had brought forth only the
same dead cats" that had been
thrown before.
From the five rings" yesterday
came such charges as:
N. r. A. was sWindle; 1t was bark
ing up the wrong tree; it was doomed
to failure unless 1t did this or that;
1t was doomed anyhow; 1t was domi-
mated by the most powerful enemies
of labor; 1t showed a strong strain OF
Fascism.
Under the sweeping generalities a
few men and women brought forward
claims of painful hardship and in
Justice, presented with a show of deep
sincerity which drew from the pre-
siding officials promises of quick In
vestigation into the charges.
The sessions had their comedy, too.
One witness was interrupted In q fer
Nd peroration by the presence Of .
lighted cigar in his coat pocket.
johnson Visits Sessions.
Curls Of smoke issued from under
the flap, and from time to time the
critic stopped to clap the burning
part. The other critics waiting their
turn to speak Uttered.
johnson himself went about from
meeting to meeting, timing his visits
to each of the sessions to catch the
known tough ones"
He threw the 20-minute- e-per- witness
rule aside to hear from William Col
Inns, labor organizer for the automo-
bile industry, long complaint Of
conditions in that giant industry.
Should his criticism be substan-
tiated by the documentary evidence
Johnson asked for, leaders Of the in
dustry would be charged with twist
ing their code into a labor-exploiting
perversion Of N. r. AS purpose.
johnson, Collins gently reminded
him, is personally responsible for the
terms of the code, having admittedly
renewed 1t and extended its hours in
keeping with a personal promise to
the motor men without granting labor
. hearing on objections.
The N. r. A. head stepped into
another session in time to grin as
Meyer Parodneck Of the Emergency
Conference Of Consumers OrganiZa-
ton, bitter critic, said what N. r. A.
needed was . cleaning up from the
top down."
He rebuked the witness a minute
later for tndulging in other personali-
ties, but won small retraction, as
Parodneck insisted on characterizing
Johnson's chief lieutenants as indus
try-minded and unsympathetic to the
public interest.
Late last night johnson marched
Into another hall to confront Robert
Minor, spokesman Of the Communist
party. He was early and speakers for
travelling salesmen were just winding
up bitter assault on N. r. A. be-
cause the codes-all but l Of the $40
now in force-uniformly recognize the
existence of the travellers by stating
in the wages and hours provisions,
Excepting outside statesmen"
Claims Aid for 100000.
"Just wait a minute" said johnson,
L. ..,k>