Evening star., 1934-05-06
BY MARK SULLIVAN.

President Roosevelt's letter abou
i railroad wages. 1t is doubtful i
many people read the letter il
full excepting, of course, those more
or less directly interested. The public
generally, as is usual, looked at the
headlines and let it go at that.
Now the headlines I happened to
see over Mr.. Roosevelt's railroad wage
letter pictured it as something radi.
cal. The reason for that I think was
that Mr.. Roosevelt had recently come
back from his vacation, and there
was much talk that he was going to
go to the left; that is, go farther
toward radicalism.
But the truth is, Mr. Roosevelt S
railroad wage letter was not radical
at all; it was conservative. 1t was
precisely the view that would have
been taken by any average business
man, or by anybody familiar with ac-
cepted economic theory.
The letter was about the plea of
railroad labor for a raise in pay. Rail-
road labor had some two years ago
voluntarily accepted 10 per cent cut
in their basic wage rate, and now
they were asking restoration of the
cut.
Need More Work.
What these railroad men need, Mr..
Roosevelt said, in effect, is not higher
wages but more work. Their real
trouble, he said, was not the low
wage rate, but the fewness of the
number of hours they had work. I
quote him:
The 10 per cent deduction
has not been the major cause of
their suffering; furloughs, part-time
employment have been more
important factors. An increase in
wages will help men now at work.
but it will be of considerably less
advantage to the employees as a
whole"
And so Mr.. Roosevelt recommended
that there be no increase in the wage
rate, but that the railroads should
devote any increased earnings to the
rehabilitation of their properties, bet
ter service and additional employ
ment.' All of which can be summed
up as Mr.. Roosevelt saying, in effect:
''A4Ae oAAA OoA 4dDCl IlCcuS lS IlOL
higher wage rate, but more work, more
hours per week. What is needed. Mr.
Roosevelt said in effect, is that the
railroads should have more business,
and inferentially he said they would
be likely to get more business by
being able to give service at rates
reasonably low.
Mr.. Roosevelt did not say in so
many words that after the railroads
get more business, they should be
able to increase the wage rate. But
that was obviously in Mr. Roosevelt's
mind, and that is accepted economic
theory.
N. r. A. and A. A. A. Views Reverse.
But turn now to several other as
poets of the new deal. In N. R. A.,
in A. A. A., and in other quarters,
the theory is just the opposite of
what Mr.. Roosevelt laid down for
railroading. About the railroads Mr..
Roosevelt says, in effect: I'VE want
more railroading." But A. A. A. says,
in effect: I'VE want less cotton, and
less wheat, and less corn, and less
pigs" incidentally less corn and
less cotton and less of other farm
crops makes less railroading)
AS for N. r. A., it proceeds upon a
theory directly the opposite of what
Mr.. Roosevelt laid down for the rail-
roads. The fundamental doctrine of
N. R. A, invented by Gen. Hugh
johnson Cor at least primarily propa-
gandized by the GeneraD is: Raise
wages first and then hope for in
creased volume of business. This
theory of Gen. Johnson-that the
way to end business depression is to
begin by increasing wages and there
by make goods more expensive-this
theory is now pretty seriously dis
believed in many quarters. But it
continues to be the fundamental
principle of N. R. A.
In yet another way, N. R. A. runs
counter to accepted economic theory.
In several N. r. A. codes-"believe it
or mott is provided that no new
man can enter a line of business,
such as glass manufacturing and
number of others, without first get
ting the consent of those already in
the business. If the new man is am
bilious enough, and daring enough
to set up his business without get
ting the consent of his competitors,
he is a law-breaker, criminal.
If that N R. A. rule had been in
effect since the beginning of America,
we should have had very different
country. If the inventor of the auto
,,,Nbi1a hoI Oh1inoI 10
consent of all the carriage manufac-
turers and bicycle manufacturers, the
automobile would have been long
time coming.
"Crazy Economics"
Due to the differences between
President Roosevelt's theory about
railroad wages and Gen. Johnson's
N. R. A. theory about industry, and
the A. A. A. theory about reducing
the quantity of crops raised on farms
due to these differences and to 9TH
er conditions-the whole picture of
Washington constitutes what Mr..
Walter Lippmann calls the economy
of Bedlam," which is Shakespearean
English for "crazy economics
A list could be made of some 20
or more activities going on at Wash
ington which would show that some
point east while some point west.
In case after case, one activity can
GELS the other, the purpose of one
organization is directly counter to the
purpose of the other.
Just now there is beginning an
effort to bring these contrasting prin-
ciples and irreconciable institutions
into some sort of consistency If the
effort is vigorously made and suffi-
GENTLY sustained, it may bring some
sort of order. But it will involve the
scrapping of some policies hitherto
regarded as important.
Whenever Mr.. Roosevelt acts SIM
ply and spontaneously of his own inl-
tiative. as he did in the case of rail-
road wages. he usually follows the
lines that the average man would
recognize as common sense, which is
the same as accepted economic theory
what would be called orthodox eco
nomics. Mr.. Roosevelt, when speak
ing naturally and in offhand actions,