Evening star., 1934-01-28
ADMINISTRATION NOT RED.
BUTRAINBOW, SAYS WRITER
Has Heard of Moscow, Yes, but Also of
Many Other Towns in Effort to
Bring Recovery.

pay roll in industry is tagging behind
total employment and tagging behind
total production and tagging behind
prices, and therefore presumably tagging
behind profits. Moreover, this lag un-
der the N. R. A. during the last few
months of 1888 was not diminished. It
was increased.
Relying on these statistics, Mr.. Kelly
is convinced that the N. r. A. is headed
almost anywhere rather than toward
Moscow an da pro-proletarian state.
His views, for a different reason, are
shared by John P. Frey. one of the
most eminent officials of the American
Federation of Labor
Mr.. Frey observes that the "collec-
tive bargaining. clause of the national
industrial recovery act is rapidly be-
coming what lawyers call "brutum
fulmen" and what laymen call noisy
dud." He says:
"As a result of the N. R. A. codes.
the employers side of industry has been
organized much more thoroughly and
compactly than ever before. If, under
the codes, there were an equivalent con-
dltion for labor, We would have today
a 100 per cent labor organization in all
industries covered by the codes. 1t is,
nevertheless, unfortunately true that
there has not yet been any actual
perceptible increase in the practice OF
collective bargaining"
In other words, according to Mr. Frey,
and as Mr.. Myron c. Taylor and Mr..
w. w. Atterbury seem shreWdly to
suspect, capital has been getting more
out of the N. r. A. than labor. The
N. R. A. is undoubtedly doing a lot Of
governmentalizing. But governmental
izing can be either, as in Russia. for
the prime benefit of soviets of workers
or. as in Italy, for the prime benefit
Of chambers of employers In the eyes
of Mr.. Frey, and of Mr.. Kelly. and of
Senators Dickinson Borah and Nye.
and OF host nov of new rising
critics. it is not a bit toward Moscow
that the N. r. A. is tending. 1t is to-
ward Rome.
Has Key to White House.
And the administration has vet other
destinations. too. Consider. for in
stance, the case Of Prof. George Fred
erick Warren. who has a chair at
Cornell University. a desk in the Com
merce Department and a latch-key to
the White House. When observed in
a photograph, Mr.. Warren is likely to
be savage and ruthless and arrogant.
When observed in life he is always
gentle, kindly. low-voiced, unassuming.
confident of his charts. and graphs. and
lines, and curves. but respectful and
even deferential to the opinions Of
others. 1t is no wonder that the Presi-
dent is fond of him. and he certainly
has been the Presidents central none
tarv counselor.
He counSelS adjustments and readjust-
ments Of the currency. He counsels
them at shorter intervals than seemed
advisable to Scion of Athens. Solon,
however. would find nothing philoSophi-
cally strange in Prof, Warren's monetary
maneuvres. Governments in distress
have adjusted and readiusted their cur
rencieS rightly or wrongly ever since
the beginning of governmental time.
The new note among us is the gov
dUstry Of production. of distribution. Of
sale. as shadowed forth darkly but
aspiringly in the N. R. A. What does
Prof. Warren think of it?
He Is thoroughly. finally against It.
In the present emergency, indeed. he is
considerably tolerant of it: but. as
permanent proposition. as an abiding
principle of a reorganized society, he
is against it completely.
In an amusing passage In his book
on Prices" he pours out jocular scorn
on lust about all governmental indus
trlal-management control
Not a Red-a Rainbow.
He says that it will necessitate "in-
Vulnerable administrators and commit
tees" He says that these administra-
tors and committees. starting out to af-
feet the prices Of individual commodi-
ties, will be obliged in the end Ito regu-
late nearly every human action. even to
deciding whether eggs may be served on
toast or whether the two must be
served separately as was ordered by
the United States Food Administration
during the Great War"
He similarly attacks "all efforts
permanently to curtail production" He
says that they proceed under the child
ish assumption that. if each of us pro-
duces less, each of us can have more"
He maintains. in conclusion. that gov
ernmental industrial bureaucrats en-
gender governmental political despots
He evidences a strong dislike for despots.
He assails relationships" He lauds and
glorifles free enterprise
Why. the mans rugged individual
ist." His spiritual home is neither in
Russia nor in Italy. but in the still
relatively unregulated economic life Of
France or Britain. Yet place is found
for him, and a large and influential
place, in the very vitals of the new
deal.
So there you are! "All aboard" cries
the administration. "for the London
Moscow-Paris- Rome express. Passengers
put of at the points of their prefer
ences. Return tickets with Hugh John
son for New York. Uptown, or with
Frances Perkins for New York, East
Side"
Now what can the rival Republican
tourist agency do against a train like
that? 1t certainly will have to think
about it more comprehensively than iust
to call its color red. It's not a red.
It's rainbow.
(CopyriEht, 1q34)