The Waterbury Democrat., 1934-03-05
Full Text of President MIRA Message

On the other hand, the critic is patriotic whether he be a bugi- ness man. a worker, a farmer or q politician if he sayg, 'I don't like the methods you are using to solve the problem; believe 1t would be far better if we were to use the following alternate metbod," and thereupon outlines for the benefit ofs his neighbor and his government a helpful proposal.
 In this great evolution through which we are passing, the aver- age American is doing splendid service by coming back at the captious critic and saying to him, Well, old man. and what do you suggest ?" One thing is very cer- tain, we are not going back either to the old conditions or to the old methods.
 Must Protect Consumer
 And now to be more specific in regard to NRA itself You have set up representative gov ernment in industry. You art carrying 1t on without violation of the constitutional or the par- liamentary system to which the United States has been accus- toned. Your industrial groups are composed of two parts-la. bor and management; and the government is a participant in this organization in order to carry out this mandate of the law. "to promote organization in industry for the purpose of cooperative action in trade groups and to in- duce and maintain united action of labor and management under adequate government sanction and supervision" Somebody. of course. must strike the equitable balance between conflicting in- terests and especially must pro- tect the third group-the con- sumer-and that word "con- suber" means the whole Ameri- can people.
 That group has also been in Washington, invited to come here and to make known publicly any complaint as to the effects of any of the codes. am sure 1t will hearten you to know that the great majority of the complaints were directed not at the codes but at errors and ammissions in what has been done under codes. The great bulk of complaint or criticism of the Recovery Act does not go to the act itself or to its basic principles, but rather to the details of method. In this we should feel encouraged and heartened that we are on the right track and can go forward.
 In working out the balance on 8 national scale, of which have spoken before, we can list cer- tain immediate objectives. spoke last une of the fact that wage increases will eventually raise costs but asked that man. agement give first consideration to increasing the purchasing pow CT of the public. said, "that is good economics and good busi- ness. The aim of this whole ef- fort is to restore our rich do- mestic market by raising it's vast consuming capacity" Complaint has been made of 8 few indus- tries and of some companies that have now followed this sug- gestion, and evidence brought forward shows that in some cases these complaints are justified. What is said was true in June and 1t is true now. The first task of industry today, as it was then, is to create consuming power.
 rak hA bulk of the market for Ameri- can industry Is among the 90 per cent of our people who live on wages and salaries and only 10 per cent of that market is among people who live on profits alone. No one Is opposed to sensible and reasonable profits, but the moral ity of the case Is that 6 great Seg- ment of our people are in actual distress and that as between profits and humanity afterwards and humanity first and profits afterwards we have no room for hesitation. With millions still un- employed the power of our people to purchase and use the products of industry is still greatly cur tailed. It can be increased and sustained only by striving for the lowest schedule of prices on which higher wages and increas- ing employment can be main- tained.
 Therefore, I give to industry today this challenge: It Is the immediate task of industry to re- employ more people at purchas- ing wages and to do 1t now. Only thus can we continue recovery and restore the balance we seek. It is worth while keeping in the front of our heads the thought that the people in this country whose incomes are less than $2,- 900 q ye...' buy more than two- thirds of all the goods sold here. It is logical that if the total amount that goes In wages to this group of human beings is stead fly increased merchants, employ CTS and investors will in the long run get more income from the increased volume of sales.
 I want to speak for a moment directly to the public. In my initial statement of policy. said:
 Finally. this law Is chal- lenge to our whole people. There is no power in America that can force against the public will such lction as we require. But there IS no group in America that can withstand the force of an aroused public opinion. This great CO., operation can succeed only if those who bravely go forward to restore jobs have aggressive pub- lie support and those who lag are made ot feel the full weight of public disapproval."
 You all know what happened. We gave out the blue eagle as a symbol of cooperation. It's dis play in 6 shop or factory win dow, or upon a garment. or prod uct, or delivery wagon. inform ed you that the firm with which you were dealing was doing its part in this great national CO., operation to defeat depression. For the first time-so far as knowr-all of the people in this country were given 6 part in making a law effective.
 This is a law for the public benefit. Obviously an employer who pays blue eagle or code wages cannot compete with an employer who does not. It is therefore common sense for the consuminR public in their own