The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1934-05-21
Oh arg es Wall Street
Monopoly Domination
in Bitter Attack
MASS MISERY CROWS
Builds Super Trusts,
brushes ''SmaII Man,
BY SEYMOUR WALDMAN,
Daily Worker Washington Burens

Daily Worker Washington Bureaa
WASHINGTON, May 90
The National Recovery Re-
view Board, appointed in
March by President Roose-
welt, tonight reported official
ly to him that the National
Recovery Act has doomed the
small business man, raised the cost
Of living much faster than wages,
ard Systematically intrenched monop-
olies.
In addition, Clarence barrow.
Chairman, and his former law part
ner, w. o. Thompson, a member Of
the board, signed a special and
supplementary report" which de-
scribed the MIRA. code set-up as
"regimented organization for ex-
ploitation" and declared that mo
nopoly sustained by Government" Is
"the trend in the MIRA" They
concluded:
THE choice is between monop-
oily sustained by government.
which is clearly the trend in the
National Recovery Administration;
and planned economy, which de-
mands sOcialiZed ownership and
control, since only by collective
ownership can the inevitable con-
fiict Of separately owned units for
the market be eliminated in favor
of MANNED production"
'There is no hope for the small
business or for complete recovery
in America in enforced restriction
upon production for the purpose
Of maintaining higher prices.
THE hope for the American peO-
pie, including the small business
man, not to be overwhelmed by
their own abundance, lies in the
planned use of American re-
sources following specialization.
To give the sanction on Govern
ment to sustain profits is not
planned economy, but a regi-
mented organization. The N.R.A.
is at present in the stage of con-
f1ict of interest; but In proportion
as the authority of Government
sanctions reguIatiO by in
dustrial combinations, the newt
able tendency is toward monopoly,
with elimination of the small busi-
ness"
''While under the codes the cost
of living increases" the FIVE Board
members stated, wages have not
risen accordingly. The prices
charged for some articles the poor
should have, as much as the rich,
have been in some instances pro-
hibitory. According to the bulle-
tins Of the Department of Labor,
taking the average cost of all foods
in 1913 as 100, their cost in April
1888, was 80 and In April 1884, It
was 107. Fifty-one cities showed
in this year an advance In food
prices Of from 10 10 n percent.
Rent, fuel, light, house furnishings
and other items showed at the end
Of the year, after the codes had
begun to operate, q marked up
ward tendency"
The main board report, signed
by five Of the six members, I'M
realistically recommended ga return
to the antitrust laws for the pur-
pose Of restoring competition "a
one of the great needs of the
times" despite its pronouncemeni
that "all competition is savage, wolf
ish and relentless, and can b
nothing else"
Hold Up Publication
In a tither ever since the receipA
of the reports two weeks ago, the
Roosevelt Administration held up
the publication of them until N.R.A-
Administrator General Hugh 8.
johnson and some lesser lights
could prepare, for simultaneous
publication, hysterical attacks on
the supplementary report.
Responsible MIRA. officials, in
hastily called weekend press con-
ferenres, followed this line Of at
tack by launching red scare, the
maneuver chosen to snlokescreen
the Administration retreat. They
asserted that this report starts Out
on basis of Communism and COLI
lectivism when 1t was supposed I'd
study the small businessman"
General Johnson, who has made
no secret of the fact that the Com
munist Party has been the only
basic critic of the NR.A., and has
pointed out the anti-labor and
monopolistic characteristics Of II