The Washington times., 1934-03-05

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 certain, we
are not going back either to the
old conditions or to the old
methods.
And now to be more specific in
regard to N.R.A. itself, You have
set up representative government
in industry.
You are carrying it on without
violation Of the constitutional or
the parliamentary system to which
the United States has been accuS-
toned.
Whole People Of U. S.
Your industrial groups are COM
posed Of two partS-labor and
management; and the Govern
ment is a participant in this or
ganizatoin in order to carry out
this mandate of the law, Ito pro-
mote organization in industry for
the purpose of cooperative action
in trade groups and to induce and
united action of labor
and management under adequate
government sanction and super
vision.
Somebody, of course, must
strike the equitable balance be-
tween conflicting interests and
must protect the third
group-the consumer-and that
word consumer" means the
whole American people.
X X
In working out the balance on
national scale, of which have
spoken before, we can list certain
immediate objectives.
I spoke last June of the fact
that wage increases will event.
ually raise costs but 1 asked that
management give first considera-
ton to increasing the purchasing
power of the public.
I said,
"That is good economics and
good business. The aim of this
whole effort is to restore our
rich domestic market by raising
its vast consuming capacity"
Complaint has been made of a
few industries and of some COM
panies that they have not followed
this suggestion, and evidence
brought forward shows that in
some cases these complaints are
justified. What I said was true
in June and it is true now. The
first task of industry today, as it
was then, is to create consuming
power.
Millions Still Idle
We must remember that the
bulk of the market for American
industry is among the 80 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
of the case is that a
great segment of our people are
in actual distress and that as be-
tween profits first and humanity
and humanity first
and profits afterwards we have
no room for hesitation.
With millions still unemployed
the power of our people to pur-
chase and use the products of
industry is still greatly curtailed.
It can be increased and sus-
tained only by striving for the
lowest schedule of prices on which
higher wages and increasing en-
ployment can be maintained.
Therefore. I give to industry
today this challenge:
It is the immediate task of in
duStry to re-employ more people
at purchasing wages and to do
it now. Only this can we con-
tinue recovery and restore the
balance we seek.
Bulk of Buyers
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 a year 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
lily increased merchants, employ
ers 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, I said:
Finally, this law is a chal-
lenge to our whole people.
There is no power in America
that can force against the pub
lie will such action as we re-
quire. But there is no group
in America that can Withstand
the force. Of an aroused public
opinion. This great cOOpera-
tiOn can succeed only if those
who bravely go forward to re-
store jobs have aggressive pub
lie support and those who lag
are made to feel the full
weight Of public diSapproval."
All Given Chance
You all know what happened.
HHR. a