Red Lodge daily news combined with Carbon County news., 1934-09-05
H NRA AND THE AMERICAN PEOPLE

IHE MIA AMI LIE L Az I'LL
When congress established the NRA on June Is, 1888,
It put a two-year term to its operations. More than a year
of that term has passed, and the time to decide the future
of the National Recovery administration Will be at hand
when congress meets once more. What Will the future OF
the NRA be? 1t may be that the generations to come VIII
mark June Is, 1888, in as bright a red and with as large
a letter as we mark the date of the Declaration OF indie
pendence, out of which grew our very nation. Prophets
are not lacking who predict this. But 1t may be that the
generations to come will look back on the NRA as a
strange experiment in government control OF business
which fostered monopoly yet bound the business OF the
country in a mesh of red tape-an experiment which had
for its purpose reform but ended by crushing the great
consuming mass of the people under a vastly increased
cost of living.
The NRA gives the president the power of life and
death over the business of the United States. Through 1t
he is empowered to dictate conditions OF production and
the amounts to be produced, to set wage levels and to fix
prices. He is empowered to set up a sort OF subsidiary
government of the country to administer these prerog-I
atives, a government which we know as the National Re
covery administration and its code authorities. Those
code authorities alone are now costing the country lOI
million dollars annually. In fact the president has the au-
thority to do just about anything he wants, except posi-
bly, to forbid the treasurer of the Monarch Pants company
to pinch his secretary III the leg.
The presidents new prerogatlves are dictatOrlal IN eX-
tent, even if they have not been fully used. AS soon as
the powers were granted all Washingtons set to work writ
ing memoranda on how they should be exercised, until
the scratching Of planning pens made an almost audible
undertone to General Hugh S. Johnson's detonations. But
there was a basic idea, and a good one, however many diff
ferent plans were drawn up. 1t was thought that II all
industry could be induced to pay out more IN wages and
to hire more men in one simultaneous movement of ex-
pansion it would get its bread back upon the waters IN
the shape Of increased consumption Of It's products. Mean
while something would have been done towards solving
the terrible problem of unemployment and lifting the
cloud of depression. What was the outcome OF the ideas
application?
Business and industry we're not wholly convinced by
the bread upon the waters in prospect, and many concerns
were, moreover, still too PROSTATE to feel very cheerful
about suddenly expanded obligations. The president had,
and still has the authority to impose codes on recalcltrant
industries, but it was not desired to make a show OF this
authority. Therefore, to obtain concessions on labor and
hours, the NRA had to offer a substantial return in the
shape of the suspension of the antitrust laws also author
lied in the act. This suspension did not mean merely the
right to root out dirty competitive practices. 1t meant
that industries were to be permitted to fix prices IN order
tc cover the rise in labor costs.
The president has described the NRA as a partnership
between government and business. The congress granted
the president power to sign the contract for a two-year
period only. Never the less it is by now perfectly evident
that the NRA is settling into peTmanency. The recovery
administration itself may go or be so reorganized that
even General Johnson will not recognize his child, but
the administration intends to keep the main powers, to
continue with the same main purposes and methods.
A nation ruled by such a government as has been set up
in the R is attached to the end of a pendulum which,
instead of decreasing its swing on each backward and
forward Journey, swings ever more widely. 1t industry is
permitted to have its way, the country is swung towards
control by monopoly. The natural reaction to this is an
even wider swing towards control by the government.
The end result must be complete surrender to monopoly
or complete control OF all business by the government.
Either can be the fate Of the American nation under the
NRA. We shall avoid one or the other extreme with diff
ficulty unless our government suddenly developes the
ability to hold the pendulum near dead center. 1t might
bind it there with a few more yards OF red tape.
General Thomas D. Thatcher sharply criticised the
r and General Hugh Johnson came back with the re-
ply that Thatcher was obviously a Republican, That's
the first time we ever knew General Johnson to compli-
ment anyone who disagreed with him.
More than one girl has married what she regarded as a
movie hero only to find out afterward that he wasn't even
a good Micky Mouse.
The president doesn't want General Johnson to quit
and no doubt the general is glad that somebody feels that
way about it.
Prof. Tugwell's latest speech indicates that as a Fcrack-
domnnr,, he ism II In the same class with his frinnd Con