Evening star., 1934-01-19
INCREASE WAGES,
JOHNSON'S PLEA
N. R. A. Chieftain Also Raps
Borah and Nye in New
York Speech.
By the Associated Press.

BY the Associated Press.
NEW YORK, January 1s.-with
barbed comment and biting phrase,
Hugh s. johnson struck out last night
at congressional critics Of the National
Recovery Administration. He spoke
before the largest crowd ever to attend
a dinner Of National Retail Dry Goods
Association.
Gen. johnson made his speech an
answer to all the critics Of the recov-
cry program, dealing his heaviest blows
at Senators Borah and Nye. and the
Federal Trade Commission. He did not
mention the Senators by name, how
ever
Keep prices down" he said. For
Gods sake keep prices down. That.
and that alone. Is the royal road to
recovery. And that recovery is on its
Net Result Dismal Failure.
Even the actual practice of asking
what industry had done was an eco
nomic Spanish inquisition question or
q Mark Twain version, under modern
Talbots and Bishops Of Beauvais,' Of
the trial of Joan Of Arc. sometimes
lasting a year at terrific expense and
continuous uncertainty. The net re-
suit was failure Of the original purpose
dismal and complete-and, in my
opinion at least, a negative cause OF
the depression Of 1929. There was
and there is-about as much co-opera-
ton between the Federal Trade Com
mission and industry as there Is be-
tween q lion tanner with q black-Snake
whip, a revolver and a strong backed
chair, standing in cage with six great
Jungle cats swapping and snarling on
six star-spangled hassocks-that is their
version of economic planning and in
dustrial self-government. Yet that Is
the condition that these economic genie
want to restore. My respects to them
| because l admire them. but they know
! about as much about industry as i
know about the queer icthyology OF the
great Pacific deep.
Il have said that I think this theory
ruined the country in 1929. l think
( 1 can say without presumption that
I studied the causes of that depres-
/ sion and foresaw it and l believe
/ that the failure of purchasing power
/ to absorb the products OF Industry
began in 1926 and 1927 and that the
system they proposed was respon-
sble for it. If there Is one thing
that We have learned, it is that price
.
whether exploitation or chronological
/ Developments paid for by wage
cutting and unemployment and that
the inevitable resulting descent, by
a downward spiral, into an economic
hell-by cities, by regions, by indus
tries and at last by nations at large
Is due to this contraction OF pur-
chasing power This must be So
not as a matter of conjecture-but by
! certainty. The sum total of national
( income. in last analysis. is wages s.
/ indeed. win go a step further and say
that the total national income Is
wages" of one kind or another-and
that the only way cost is cut-at long
LASTS by wage cuts. 1t is by lower
total wages for human labor that reces-
sions and depressions occur. On the
other hand, the only way to keep pro-
duction up is to keep wages up and thi:
as the preacher in Ecclesiastics say.
is the end Of the whole matter.
Seeks to Protect Wages.
THE net and final result is the de.
Of industrial activity and eventually TIT
cause OF economic collapSe)-the de
struction Of wages
The whole secret of recovery Is t.
maintain the buying power Of worker
everywhere. 1t is just as necessary t
maintain the buying power Of our agri
culture, and we have not done that
But Henry Wallace-and there is NJ
greater exponent OF the new deal-wil
tell you that farm prices for all bu
export surplus commodities go up ane
down precisely with the wages of la
bor.
Normal turnover in this country l.
over eighty billions of dollars and mos
or all of it is wages. In its wildes
dreams Government could not spend
for business activation, more than ter
billions. All it can do Is to prime thu
pump with a pint for the purpose o
producing gallons. In my opinion, thos
gallons are on their way and, II vol
will permit me, felicitate you.
Industry is so accustomed to doint
its thinking in watertight compartment:
with an eye single to immediate ad
vantage of itself that it is difficult Il
get over the habit. even when its owl
welfare. if not its own existence, de-