Evening star., 1934-07-05
N.R.A. SHOWDOWN
IS AIM OF bORAH
Senator Seeks to Reveal
Incompatibility With
Antitrust Laws.
BY MARK SULLIVAN.

Senator Borah has q hrm hold on
one fact and principle. N. r. A. and
the antitrust law cannot exist at the
same time. One or the other must 80
Senator Borah sees this ana proposes
to make the country see 1t. He Will,
he said in his radio address in The
Stars National Radio Forum last
night, present this issue TO the people
during the Summer and Fall. With
grim sublety he says he will report
progress about the middle Of October. u
The middle OF October Is just before
the congressional elections in which
the whole House OF Representatives
and a third Of the Senate WILL be
chosen.
For himself, Senator Borah believes
in the antitrust law. He Will show
the country that 1t cannot have both
the antitrust law and N. r. A. HIS
hope Is that when ne forces the
"show down." just before the con-
gressionaI elections, the people will
agree with him and elect a Congress
which will preserve the antitrust law
and drop the N. r. A. The issue and
the time are well chosen, because
either the Congress to be elected this
Fall must renew N. r. A. or else N. r.
A. will cease to exist. The statute
creating N. R. A. expires June l6 next.
Senator Borah hopes that, by making
q series Of speeches as an individual
and not within any party, ne can
bring about the election OF Congress
which will not renew N. r. A.
Fail TO See Incompatibility.
The new dealers either do not see
the absolute incompatibinty OF N. X.
A. and the antitrust law, or else they
hope TO get by by not paying mucn
attention to the contradiction. Most
of them say, and all imply, that they
are for both the antitrust law and
also for N. R. A. The impossibiIity OF
this position. or the evasiveness OF II.
Is what Senator Borah proposes 10
show to the country.
The contradiction appears striking
ly within the body Of the N r. A. stat
ute. When the measure was tlrst IN
troduced in Congress Senator Boran
saw the trend Of 1t and brought about
the insertion OF an amendment wnlcn
read:
Provided that - codes shall not
permit monopolies or monopolistic
practices"
Then. the main body of the act
went ahead with its original and
essential purpose. which was and Is to
permit agreements in restraint OF
trade.
Failure Of the public to understand
the issue is due to lack of knowledge
that the antitrust law forbids two
things which are quite different from
each other. The antitrust law for
bids monopoly" which Is one thing.
1t also forbids agreements in re-
straint Of trade" Conceivably mon
opoly' in the strict sense might be
barred and still leave something Of
N. r. A. But N. r. A. cannot exist
at the same time as the law against
agreements in restraint of trade"
Every N. r. A. code Is primarily,
fundamentally and inescapably an
agreement in restraint of trade" In
many codes the members of an in
dustry agree with each other not to
increase their plants. They agree with
each other not to permit a newcomer
to enter the business without their
consent. They agree upon prices, or
at least upon minimum prices. ALI
the essential details of practically
every code are agreements in restraint
OF trade. Practically every code is
thus violation Of the antitrust law.
When this condition became ap-
parent, after N. r. A. got under way,
Gen. johnson and President Roosevelt
took the position that somehow or
other both the antitrust law and N.
r. A. could be preserved. It was q
complaint about N. r. A. neutralizing
the antitrust law that caused Presi-
dent Roosevelt to appoint the commits
sion headed by Mr.. Clarence Darrow.
Identical Bids Offered.
Again. very recently. the same
contradiction came to the front in
connection with bids on Government
contracts. President Roosevelt tried
to meet it by an action which
amounted to trying to ride both the
antitrust law and N. r. A., even
though the two horses 60 In opposite
directions. In bidding on Govern
ment contracts it turned out that
many corporations submitted ident-
ical bids. When the Government
made fretfm inquiry about this, the
corporations replied that the N. r.
A. codes forbid them to take con-
tracts below q fixed minimum price.
Consequently all submitted the same
minimum price. This was clearly q
violation Of the antitrust law. To
preserve the law and at the same
time go through the form OF pre-
serving N. r. A. President RooSe-
velt issued an executive order to the
effect that bidders could submit bids
within a range Of is per cent below
the minimum fixed In the various
codes.
Actually. however, the contradic-
tion between N. r. A. and the anti.
trust law cannot be overcome. One
or the other must cease to exist.
There will be. Of course, much in
terest in the degree Of success Sen.
ator Borah may have with his lone
Persons familiar with
American politics since two genera
tions ago, when trust" and anti
trust" became an issue. say there
never has been q time when the
American public would fail to vote
"anti-trust" once the issue was
plainly put before them.