The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1934-02-20

Harry Elmer Barnes Ph. D, the crisis which
faces the NRA with respect to collective bargaining
and union labor.
NTE now are entering the period when the
w new deal will be subjected to the real
test of it's adequacy. Neither its handling of
immediate emergencies, when ardently sup
ported by the public, nor superficial monetary
tinkering, however wise in itself, will be able to
demonstrate the success Of the Roosevelt
policies.
The acid testtwilI come over the ability of the
new deal to insure sufficient increase of mass
| purchasing power in the face Of every kind of
| treachery from stupid and recalcitrant vested
| interests.
This marked and stable increase of mass pur-
chasing power, which is necessary to perpetuate
capitalism, can be brought about either by state
| SIN or by voluntary agreement between
capital and labor. The latter is the only method
which can be tried under the new deal as it has
been revealed to date. It ought to be truiSrn
by this time that an increase of mass purchasing
power through voluntary arrangements will only
be possible if labor is given the right to bargain
freely with capital.
Section IA of the national industrial recovery
act seems explicitly to give workers the right to
organize and bargain collectively through repre-
SentativeS of their own choosing . free from
interference, restraint or coercion Of employer"
AS usual however the proof of the pudding will
be in the eating. We can place no confidence in
any rhetorical gestures made while the devil of
corporate greed was deathly sick back in the
spring of 1888.
| Z VEN the administration itself slipped badly
L. when it allowed the merit clause to be in
serted in the automobile code.
The actual execution of Section IA today is
| calculated to give rise to the greatest concern
on the part of liberals and to produce ecstasy
in the camps of both Fascists and Communists
The national labor board seems to be in
state Of relative collapse; pratica industrialists
who have learned nothing since 1929 are in con-
troll of the execution of the code; and there is
a definite defiance of the government with re-
spect to Section IA in representative industries
throughout the country.
This desperate situation has been described
admirably by Paul Anderson and William Man
! gold inn the Nation and New Republic Mr.. An
| dersOn points out that the United States
supreme court thus far has made better rec
ord for itself than the national labor board with
respect to the fufllment Of the new deal.
while the highest legal tribunal, by a ma
| jority of one, was demonstrating it's right of
survival, the highest industrial tribunal was add
ing to the evidence that it should either be dras-
| tically reorganized or completely abolished
Nothing in the progress Of the recovery pro-
gram has been more disappointing and de-
moralizing than the collapse of the national Ia
! Dor board. Set up as the supreme arbiter of
disputes between labor and capital, it has de-
generated into an object of employers contempt
and employees despair Buried under a growing
mountain of compls ints, it busters and does vir-
tually nothing
TT was futile against Ford at Edgewater, and
l. pathetic against National Steel at Werton.
1t meets, only to adjourn for the ridiculous rea-
son that the industrial members don't show up.
Even Louis KRISTEN, the most devoted of them,
| is missing. Its chairman, Senator Wagner, is
away on Capitol Hill, leading the fight against
ratification of the Presidents st. Lawrence wa
terway treaty. It's most diligent officer, DR..
William Leiserson, has resigned as secretary and
gone over to the petroleum labor board, appar-
emily in search of action. AS thousands of au-
tomobile workers are reported discharged for
| joining the union General johnson removes the
limitation on working hours in that industry"
! If these facts do not arouse realistic friends
of the new deal to the seriousness of the situa-
ton, then there is little hope indeed of saving
the present economic order.
If the plutocratS can blandly get away with
| overt defiance of the most crucial section in the
whole recovery act at the very outset of its ap-
plication what can We expect many months
hence, when the first rebels have gained in pres
| tige and power and their rebellion and treason
have been initiated by those who today are more
| tinnid or hypocritica?
Unless the administration acts decisively now
it will find it much more difficult to unseat the
plutocratS from their citadels of victory at
later date.