The Waterbury Democrat., 1934-03-05

10 OO HOW IS 10 get more peCpIe to work. Your self-governing groups are not here to devise in- genious plans to circumvent the purposes of the act. You are here in q patriotic spirit to effect these purposes. With few excep- tions industry will give whole hearted compliance. It is only in the case of rare exceptions where industrial self-governmenf may fail that the government itself must and will hundeg the law move firmly and promptly to pre- vent failure.
 Experience Must Guide
 Under the code system you and are aware that experience must be the guide for the work ing out of difficulties and the prevention of abuses. For ex- ample. you on code authorities are your industrial brothers keeper and especially are you the keep of your small industrial brother. We must set up every safeguard against erasing the small operator from the economic scene. Many years ago anti-trust laws were passed and one of the primary reasons for their enact ment was the protection of the little fellow against the big fell low. We do not want to main- tain that condition. The essential provisions of the codes should check or reverse competitive methods by which the, small business man was or is being squeezed out.
 These same antitrust laws must continue in their major pur- pose of retaining competition only where the laws h ave pre- vented the cooperation to elim- mate things like child labor and sweat shops. starvation wages and other unfair practices that there is justification in modify ing them.
 Empoycs Are Upheld
 One more subject call to your attention. The law itself has pro- vided for free choice of their own representatives by employees. Those two words free choice"> mean just what they say. It is obvious that the government It. self not only has the right but also the duty to see, first, that employees may make choice and, secondly, that on the making of 1t they shall be wholly free.
 ask that the letter and the spirit of free choice be accorded to its workers by every corpora tion in the United States.
 We have been seeking experi- ence in our first eight months of code making; for that same req son we have been tolerant of certain misunderstandings even when they resulted in evasions of the spirit if not the letter of the Jaw. Now we are moving into a period of administration when that which Is law must be made certain and the letter and the spirit must be fulfilled. We can- not tolerate actions which are clearly monopolistic, which wink at unfair trade practices, which fail to give to labor free choice of their representatives or which are otherwise hostile to the pub- lie interest.
 In a word, we cannot tolerate abuses of economic power abuses against employers or abuses against the consuming public, whether they persist either with the aid of codes or despite their prohibitions. This does not mean that we can at once make perfect many hun dred codes covering the major trades and industries or the na-
 
 mark of perfection in a day or month. It does mean that we have arrived at the time for taking stock for correcting mani fest errors, for roofing out dem- onstrated evils.
 Own Choice Was Made
 Ono year ago were suffering and shrinking under economic pressures so intolerabie that col- lapse was at hand. We had arr rived at the day to make our choice. We made that choice. The American people resspond- ed to the call for action with eager enlistment-enlist in the struggle against ruthless self seeking greed and economic anarchy. We undertook by law ful, constitutional processes to reorgapiZe disintegrating sys- tenn of production and exchenge.
 The methods and details of that reorganization may and will change from year to year but 1t is very certain that the Ameri- can people understand that the purpose of the reorganization was not only to bring back pros- perity. It was far deeper than that. The reorganization must be permanent for all the rest of our lives in that never again will we permit the social conditions which allowed the vast sections of our population to exist in an un-American way, which allow a male-distribution of wealth and of power.
 The willingness of all elements to enter into the spirit of the new deal becomes more and not less evident as it, goes on. As an example, I have just received a telegram from MT. Francis M. Law, the president of the Ameri- can Bankers association. In 1t he said: "On this your first an- niversary please allow me in be- half of the country's banks to ex- press our full confidence and our sincere desire to cooperate In your courageous effort to bring about recovery. The banking structure of the country is sound and liquid and banks have never been in stronger po- sition to function effectively. Conditions have improved to the point where it Is no longer nec- essary for banks to be super- liquid. There Is a definite call now for banks not to extend loose credits or to make improp- CT loans but for & most sympa- thetic attitude toward legitimate credit needs and for a recogni- ton of responsibility for their proper and vital part in the pro- gram of recovery"
 Think back exactly one year ago today. You know where the banks stood at that time; you know where your business stood. That telegram Is a living illus tration of the progress we have made. Let us consolidate our