Evening star., 1934-12-18
NEW DEAL CRITICS
HIT BY R|CHBERG
Declares Business Owes
"Every Willing Worker"
a Decent Job.

Finance, industry and business have
profound moral responsibility" 20
assure every willing worker decent
job, Donald R. Richberg declared last
night in an address before the WASH
ington Board of Trade, broadcast over
Nationwide radio hook-up. Rich
berg, executive director Of the Ma
tional Emergency Council, was de-
scribed by another speaker as "the
high priest of the New Deal"
Past failures to meet this obliga-
ton constitute a disgrace to our CIV
ilization," Richberg said. He warned
against creation of a false prosperity
based on pre-depression economic
standards; defended the National Re-
covery Administration; emphatically
stated Uncle Sam has not gone into
the Santa Claus business" and
charged spokesmen for those who
benefit most" from reckless, preda-
tory business practices with attempt
ing to confuse the issue by aligning
themselves with Communists in the
contention that there is no halfway
house between ruthless competition
and State socialism"
The administration has charted a
middle course, based on the voluntary
cooperation of the people, Richberg
asserted.
Raps New Deal Critics.
Hitting at New Deal critics who
profess alarm at allegedly 'pink"
leanings, he said:
1T is not necessary to be a social
ist, to feel sense of social responsible
ity. 1t is not necessary to be Com
munist to accept community obliga-
tions. You may believe in private
rights of property, as I do; you may
believe in private enterprise, as I do;
and yet you may feel, as I do, that
there is a profound moral RESPONSE
bility upon those who together own all
the private properties and conduct all
the private enterprises Of the Nation
to make sure that every willing worker
in the Nation has an opportunity to
support himself and his dependents
by self-respecting labor"
Preservation Of constitutional lib
critics and democratic institutions
hinges upon the fulfllment of that re-
sponsibility, he declared.
It is because of a default Of this
1H1icot of hox
walked the streets for years seeking in
vain for work, living only by private
charity and public doles," said Rich
berg, adding, And SO it is necessary
now to establish more orderly methods
of production and distribution and
employment under which new and
lasting safeguards may be provided. "
Praises Work of N. r. A.
He ridiculed the idea that recovery
could come without great economic
changes, and pictured the N. r. A.
as making a lasting contribution
toward the change from an era of
ruthless competition to one of CO.
operation and planned progress.
He characterized as "short-sighted"
I4lC dooCl I4Oil tAldL IIlC w. ~ "A. IldSo
retarded recovery, but conceded that
some fair practice provisions may have
been unwise, and that limitations upon
hours and wages and disputes arising
out of section IA of the recovery act
may have retarded industrial progress
in some cases.
Turning to q discussion Of the bill
lions of dollars being poured out by
the Government toward relief and
recovery, Richberg said the Govern
ment has no intention of establishing
monopoly on playing Santa Claus, +"
but expects private interests to con-
trl butte.
1T is not playing Santa Claus for
the Government to raise money from
taxation, or by borrowing, to feed
the hungry and to help put people
back to work." he said. But it would
be just playing Santa Claus merely
to relieve distress and to fill empty
stockings without undertaking at the
same time to do everything within
the power of the Government to
bring about the permanent re-em-
ployment of idle workers in produc-
tive enterprises"
The Federal housing act Is not q
housing act at all, but banking act,
J. Howard Ardrey, deputy admins
traitor of the F. H. A., declared in q
speech following Richberg.
He said the law can be made To
serve the mortgage banks of the coun-
try in the same way the Federal Re-
serve act serves the commercial banks
Among its benefits to borrowers the
act docs away with all this gyp busi-
ness of charging commissions, Ardrey
said.
Thirteen Washington banks, rep
resenting SO per cent of the total re-
sources of banks here, already have
applied and been approved as eligible
to function under title 2, which in
corporates the mutual insurance plan
he stated. He said several other banks
probably will join as soon as their d.
rectors can act.
He said the District has led the rest
of the country III its modernization
campaign under title 1 Of the housing
act and predicted equal progress under