Evening star., 1934-05-21
The Darrow Reports.

The N. R. A. stands face to face
today with the Darrow Review Board.
The board in its first report to the
President, covering only eight Of the
codes of fair competition set up under
the N. R. A., has proved a severe
critic. In the main its charges are
that the whole system Of fair COM
petition" undertaken under the ma
tional industrial recovery act tends
to monopoly and to the disadvantage
of the little business man and the
consumer. These are the criticisms
In the general report OF the board.
Chairman Clarence C. Darrow and
William o. Thompson have furnished
the President with supplementary
report of their own, in which 1t Is
strongly urged that the country adopt
a"planned economy" which demands
socialized ownership and control, since
only by collective ownership can the
inevitable conflict of separately owned
units for the market be eliminated
IN favor of planned production"
The N. R. A.. through Gen. Hugh
Johnson. its administrator; Donald
r. Richberg. its general counsel. and
several code administrators, has an
swered the Darrow reports. Gen.
johnson has not hesitated to de-
nounce the boards report as super
fetal. Incorporate and inaccurate"
He has recommended to the Presi-
dent that the Darrow board be abol-
ished without more ado, on the
ground that its continuance in op-
Grafton can only hamper the success
full operation of the N. r. A. and
recovery in this country. The reply
of the N. R. A. however, goes beyond
the mere denunciation of Gen. john
son, and categorical replies are made
through the code administrators and
the general counsel to the specific
criticisms of the eight codes under
fire by the Darrow board. Both doc
uments should be read and considered
If the general public is to reach any
conclusion between the two.
The Darrow reports have been pre-
eeded with a vast amount of publicity.
1t has been generally understood that
they would attack the N. R. A. and
allege monopolistic tendencies there
under. They have come up to full
expectation and gone beyond it. The
board was appointed as kind Of
compromise when Senator Borah of
Idaho and Senator Nye of North Da-
kota, progressive Republicans, started
to lay down a barrage against the
N. R. A. in the Senate several months
ago. The personnel of the board was,
it is understood. largely picked by the
North Dakota Senator.
The theory underlying the codes of
fair competition upon which the N.
r. A. is based is declared by the Dar-
row boards majority report to be
merely resounding and illusory
phrase" The report adds that lone
may as we'll dream of making war
ladylike as making competition fair"
In the supplementary report written
by Mr.. Darrow and Mr.. Thompson it
is declared that it is impossible to go
back to unregulated competition and
that therefore the alternative is to
follow the N. r. A., which, the report
maintains. leads only to monopoly
sustained by government" or to adopt
the Darrow plan Of socialized owner
ship and control Mr.. Darrow does
not hold out an alluring prospect to
any one who believes in old American
ideals Of freedom of action. Nor does
his recommendation that industry be
Socialized seem to lend aid to the
small business man of whose interests
the Darrow reports appear to be so
Bolicitous
Just how socialized control of in
dustry will prevent conflicts between
the industries and their component
parts. as Mr.. Darrow claims it will, is
difficult to understand. No matter
which form of control is adopted,
human beings still will operate the
industries and control them. And hu-
man beings so far have acted largely
in their own personal interests