Evening star., 1934-02-27
son Cites 100000 Employed as MIRA. Credit


g Here.
been criticized on the following
grounds:
First. That too much was promised
for 1t and that it failed to fulfill the
promise-indeed that it accomplished
nothing.
Second. That its effect to increase
wages increased prices faster than
consumers income increased and thus
retarded recovery.
Third. That the methods used were
those Of ballyhoo and propaganda.
Deliberate Invention"
Now some of these charges raise
questions of pure fact-and some raise
questions Of conjecture and opinion.
Let us speak first Of fact and Of the
often repeated statement that the
Blue Eagle delivered less than was
promised or him. 1 propose to prove
to you from the record that this
charge Is pure invention-in other
words that 1t is one Of those deliberate
misrepresentation designed and in
tended to hurt and hamper N. r. A.
and for no other purposes-in other
words. a fraud on the public. Let us
look at the record because happily all
of these things were made of record.
On June 6, 1933-10 days before
the passage of the act-I held
press conference at which said, ac-
cording to the record: I'VE must put
a lot of men back to work quickly at
more than subsistence wages" I was
asked, Can you do that with this
bill?" The answer was, 1T is a
gamble, but we believe we can" AS
to title II of the bill public works.,
which was then being prepared for
in N r. A. l said. One billion of
expenditures will put one million men
to work and it is hoped that by Oc-
tober title II will be operating at the
rate Of one billion dollars-one mil
lion men. AS it turned out. N. R. A.
was not charged with responsibility
for title II. A different plan and
policy was adopted for which We have
no responsibility. What 1 am re-
spOnSible for is title l, and OF this
the record shows I said: Title I,
however. is more important and it is
estimated that three million men can
be put to work under this title
2,750,00O Employed.
That was the promise made Last
Fall after the Presidents re-employ-
ment agreement was in full effect we
took census with the cooperation
of the Census Bureau. and had the
results tabulated by them. This CAL
culation on the most conservative
basis showed a unemployment under
codes ana agreements at that time
of 2750.000 and an increased pay
roll of $4,000 100000 as a result OF
codes and agreements. My own belief
Is that the actual figure of re-employ-
ment was more than 100000. The
net of all that Is to say that our stark
estimate made on June in an un-
known field of the effect Of title II
was on the least favorable basis about
90 per cent accurate so that, when
any man says that extravagant prom
lseS were made for the Blue Eagle,
and not fulfilled. he simply has no
regard for the facts. Since these facts
are available to everybody, l can only
conclude this is a deliberate attempt
to deprive the public of the benefits
OF N. R. A. by misrepresentation.
The second similar statement Is
that n. R. A. has increased prices
faster than purchasing power and so
has done more harm than good and
might better never have been done at
all. Before going into actual figures
on this. here is a point Of tremendous
importance that these persons over
look. II yesterday approximately
5000, 900 people were out of work and
tomorrow they are put on steady sub
sistence wages, and If in the mean
time the cost OF living has gone up
per cent. are those people better
or worse off than if nothing at all
had been done for them? If l have
no money to buy a beefsteak dinner
does it make much difference to me
whether it costs 81 or sl.O5? / say
and I think these 100000 re-em-
ployed will all agree-that will take
the 81 and buy liver and bacon with
it. The claim of this criticism-even
before We consider its truths cruel.
cynical. buncombe
But like the statement about ex-
travagant promises, this comment is
also simply untrue. AS l have shown
with few exceptions, the codes and
unemployment agreements did not &c
into effect until September, 1893. The
National Industrial Conference Board
index on the cost of living for Sep
tember was 77.9 per cent. At the end
of December it was 773 per cent, at
the end Of January IT'S per cent, and
preliminary estimates for the end of
February 77.8 per cent. In the mean
time the N. r. A. increase in payrolls
was $4,000, 100000 In other words,
with the cost of living stationary,
N. r. A. re-employed 100000 people
twho were without jobs before), and
added s3,000.000.000 to the annual
wherewithal of workers to live. 1t
must be remembered. too, that all this
happened during downward cycle of
production when, without N. R. A..
we would probably have had a fresh
deluge Of unemployment. That, as
have said before, was why we hurried.
Gold, Hard Facts"
Now these are the cold. hard facts
of this N. r. A. job, and of these
underhanded. tricky and dishonest
criticisms of N. R. A. I ask you-can
you beat it? And do you blame this
istratjon-extended to the limit
of physical and nervous capacity to do
something to relieve this hour of crisis
and distress-do you blame the ad-
ministration of NJ R. A. for contesting
and resenting it?
Let's come to the third criticism of
the Blue Eagle and of these results
that they were achieved by propa-
ganda and ballyhoo. OF course, that
charge is tied up with the other two.
Ballyhoo is false promise. false incite-
ment, false salesmanship.
But, as I have shown, there was
nothing false about the representations
of N. r. A. We delivered what we
promised and what we delivered was
all to the good for American workers
of all classes. What then is this talk
of ballyhoo? I'll tell you what it is
1t is that some of these enemies OF
higher wages and shorter hours object