The Omaha guide., 1934-10-13
FRksCES PERKINS kniLYzES
NRA BEFORE SKEPTICA
AUDIENCE


a frankly skeptical audience at the
54th annual convention Of the Am
erican Federation of Labor assembled
in its fifth day session, Secretary 0
Labor, Frances Perkins launched into
an exhaustive analysis Of the Nation
al Recovery Administration. Despite
that Administrations many shortcom-
i1gs, which she freely admitted, she
found it { good" in that it "is looking
forward continuously to a better life
for every man. woman and child in
America
Ignoring her manuscript for the
most part, Miss Perkins spoke win
Jingly and pe~rsuasively. She appear
cd however, definitely on the defense.
The climax of her speech came when
she spoke on the Governments at
titude toward compulsory trbitratfon
At this point, she read from her man.
uscript stating that it had been "cor-
rected in Washington clearly inn
plying that here she spoke not only
for herself but for President Roose-
welt.
when d~isagreements arise, she
declared, "and the parties concerned
an voluntarily agree to submit the
to arbitration, the machinery
will be available for them to use in
heir own best interest and that of
he public as well, but it should not
at any rate take the form of compul-
ion. At no time should these arbi
tration proceedings take the form of
compulsion from either side"
A burst of applause greeted this
declaration which was accepted as an
assurance from the President that his
recent peace proposal was not meant
as a threat against labor's right to
strike.
Striking at the popular belief that
the nation is in the throes Of a strike
epidemic. Miss Perkins quoted facts
and figures from the year 1919 which
she named is "the last comparable
year of recovery after depression"
In 1919, she pointed out, there were
twice as many strikes beginning each
month as there were during the en-
tire first half of 1894. "No one
thumped his chest about the -'unreason-
ableness of labor in 1919" she add
ed significantly.
EMPLOYMENT and payrolls in the
United States have increased since
last year, Miss Perkins reported and
employers cannot deny that they have
came out of the red into the black
Nevertheless 1--WE still have obstacles
to overcome before we can fully re-
cover from the devasting effects of
the depression which left so much
misery and SO many broken hopes in
is wake"
Miss Perkins said that she was ap-
palled by what has been expected of
the Administration but that she was
not appalled, by the fact that labor
had expected 50 mI1ch- That, she
pointed out, was labor's right as it was
lis duty to point out the defect of the
Administration.
A war movation greeted Miss Per-
kins both at the beginning and close
of her address. The only GOODNESS
shown was when she mentioned Gen.
eral Hugh Johnson. The Generals
name was received in complete sill
ence. Tnasmuch as the friction be-
tween Miss Perkins department and
General J,ohnsoI's osfiod has been
common knowledge, her praise of his
fforts was taken generally as a po-
lie gesture.
The Labor Advisory Committee
came in for strong praise from Secre-
tary Perkins. "In reorganization of
! the NRA labor should continue its
advisory status, : she said. "And only
when labor is represented on the Labor
Relations Board can you have a bal
need board