Evening star., 1934-05-27
BY WILLIAM HARD.

n Dssres reports On ,I,iI';, ths VA
4 4 First of all there's Mr.. Dar-
row himself and his sudden
advocacy of "socialized industry" and
the allowing and all-doing state.
I have had the happy high honor of
knowing Mr.. Darrow for some 80
years And if there is anything that
makes his hair bristle and his flesh
creep and his blood boil it's a gov
ernment-any government.
Governments issue orders to do
this and not to do that. That's what
they're for. They tell people. And
MIR. Darrow is just simply absolutely
against being told. And he has spent
virtually all of his professional legal
life trying to prevent other people
from getting told.
Conversion Is Indicative.
Mr.. Darrow is this countrys most
rampant individualist. Perhaps he is
doing penance and has decided to
recommend the form of government
that would make him most miserable.
But no! There is a more serious
explanation. Business people who
have been trying to make. racket
out of our American economic system
should be startled and warned, I
think, by Mr.. Darrow's conversion to
socialism. If their behavior can make
Socialist out of Mr.. Darrow it could
perhaps in the end make a Socialist
out of anybody. Possibly the United
States Chamber of Commerce should
make clinical study of Mr.. Dar-
rows case and present report to its
members advising them just what
they had better do to escape the
wrath to come.
And then there's Gen. johnson, the
N. r. AS commander in chief. The
Darrow reports tend to make him out
to be a great friend and accomplice
Of predatory big business men. And
I myself long ago began. without
WEAKNESS to my readers-to
point out what seemed to me to be
the unwarranted rice-f1xing oppor-
tunities given to large business inter-
ests in certain of the codes. But
now let's not be demagogues.
Has Gen. Johnson handed out
these protection" favors only
to the top ranks of our business COM
munity? Certainly not. Let's take
the retail codes.
Fought Price Fixing.
Who demanded price protection"
In retailing? Was it that monu-
mental merchandising institution,
Macy & Co. of New York CITY?
Quite to the contrary. It was Macy
& Co., leading merchandising outfit,
that led the fight against all price
fixing in retailing And it was the
great maH order houses that also pro-
tested against price fixing in retail
ing. And who howled to get it?
Why, the great mass of little retail
ers all over the country. They de-
sired and demanded it in order to
save themselves, as they believed,
from destructive price cutting" by
their big competitors, such as Macy
& Co. and the great mail order
houses and the great chains" In
the retail codes the fight was pre-
ciSely between big interests wanting
no price protection and little inter-
ests multitudinously requiring and
requesting 1t. And Gen. Johnson's
decision was dominantly on the side
of the little interests. If you go into
a drug store today and cannot get a
"cut price" on a proprietary medi-
cine, it Is the little retailers that
have put that situation upon you.
All Types Sought Control.
So If we are going to denounce the
big business men for price control,
let's denounce the little business men
for it, too. Let's go all around the
circle and distribute our condemna-
tions with an even hand. The fact
Is that all types and classes of busi-
ness men, big and little, manufac-
turers and middle men and retailers,
have in almost all cases aspired to
price control of some sort in their
codes. In so far as Gen. johnson
has yielded to those aspirations, he
has yielded as much to the little fell
lows at to big fellows.
Consider the hog-nose-ring industry.
In this industry, I believe, there are
in total six manufacturers who are
engaged in fabricating rings to go into
the noses of hogs. They have between
them, understand, a hundred or so
of employees. And are they fleeing
from the tyrannies of the N. R. A.?
Not bit. They resolutely insist upon
being given a code, and they resolutely
insist upon being given price protec-
ton"
So I think, in justice, Mr.. Darrow
should issue another supplementary
report and should assail Gen. johnson
as the indiscriminate friend and ac-
complice both of big price protection
lists and of little ones. The true fight,
really, here Is not between big and lit
tie, but between the general principle
of price protection and the general
principle Of price freedom. Why not
forget the idea that every little fellow
is right and every big fellow is wrong
and look at the issue fairly and square,
ly as it actually is? Why not look at
1t as a problem which Gen. johnson
started to solve by giving some measure
Of price control to just about every
body?
In other words, if I may put it flip
PANTY, why accuse Gen. johnson OF
being wrong only part of the time?
Why not make q good job Of it and
accuse him Of being wrong all the
time?
Richberg Defends Self.
And then there's Donald Richberg,
chief counsel of the N. R. A. He has
been very particularly concerned with
the steel code. Mr.. Darrow, who is q
very old friend of Mr.. Richberg's, saw
agely attacks the "price-fixing" provi-
sions of the steel code. Mr.. Richberg
thereupon has to defend himself. He
savagely does so. You might think