Evening star., 1934-02-27
full text of Hugh S. john
/ sons speech before critics Of
the N. r. A, today follows:

the N. r. A. today follows:
L The national recovery act is
an attempt to spread employ
ment, increase wages, cut out unfair
and destructive trade and industrial
practice and make definite the rights
of labor 1t recognized that this
could be done only by voluntary con-
sent of action among employers. It
was a new and unprecedented pro-
posal. 1t created for us the job Of
trying to get more than 10000
employers to do something that many
of them believed was sacrificial of
their own interests and to do 1t to-
gether and at about the same time.
1t was freely predicted as an i'm
possible task.
In taking this job I knew that 1t
was bound to raise such conflict Of
opinion that the administrator could
not avoid assaults Of great and pow
erful interests on many acts Of ad-
ministration and on every personal
ground that could be invented. At the
very outset 1 predicted precisely what
has happened-to the extent of saying
that taking the job was exactly like
a man mounting the guillotine on a
bet that the ak would not work.
1t did not require much brains to
foresee that, and anyway. it is a
small matter. I mention it here be-
cause this is an open roundup for
criticism and I think it necessary to
draw a sharp line between the kind
of iciS is ho1y,f1,l ShnIld
be encouraged, welcomed and acted
upon, and the kind that is wholly
unwarranted. highly obstructive and
against which I have contested with
all the strength I have.
Open to Critics.
When a man has asserted that any
provision of a code or any act under
it works hardship. or an injustice. or
produces a bad result, or operates
against the economic principles OF the
Presidents program, or contrary to
any statutory provision or any pro-
nouncement of the Presidents policy,
or that some official is unjust, 1ncom-
petent, inefficient or unfair, or when
the criticism is of method or Or
ganization, and in every one OF these
cases, where facts and not epithetS
are presented, and especially where
a suggestion of improvement is made.
the doors of N. R. A. are wide open to
such an assertion and we Will go more
than halfway to meet it.
Indeed the assertion that we have
ever done anything else is absurd and
that is a statement which I can
prove to anybodys satisfaction. All
that you need to do is to consider
the organization and method OF
N. R. A From the very first day
and the very first plan Tor It's Or
ganization the effort was to put in
all controlling positions through which
the codes must strain, men OF every
possible shade of opinion-from those
who were popularity considered ex-
treme on the radical side to men
who were thought to be conservative.
We created a board Of industrial
lists to pass on the codes from that
viewpoint and-leSt it be thought that
N. R. A. itself was industrial minded
the Secretary of Commerce was
asked to name them. But, to get
completely opposite point OF view. we
created a board of labor leaders
also to pass on the codes and SINH
larly. lest it be thought that N. r. A.
should influence this selection. we
asked the Secretary Of Labor to
appoint the board On my personal
staff. with access to everything that
passes the control office, 1 selected
an industrial assistant. but I also
selected a labor assistant-one Of the
outstanding leaders of the labor move
ment in this country.
Projecting Consumers.
There was complaint that the con-
Sumers interest might be overlooked
in the shuttle Now. while We think
that every person and thing in this
country-every factory, store, rail-
road or other Enterprises a con-
sumner and therefore that the real
consumers representative is the Presi-
dent himself, We nevertheless recog-
nized the necessity for a channel Of
complaint and criticism and there
fore set up a consumers board. the
function of which is to pass on all
codes from that point of view.
Even in our staff and service de-
partments, such as the legal and re-
search and planning departments, We
similarly sought to secure leaders of
economic and political thought from
both sides of the argument to keep
every policy and action, broad. f1ex-
ible and constantly informed by every
shade of opinion
This idea has attended every act
of N r. A. At all hearings there
sit representatives appointed by all
three OF these boards OF directly
conflicting interest
Not a code or order comes across
my desk that is not accompanied by
the reports of all these advisory in
terests. While some one must make
an ultimate decision. no such deci-
sion is ever made without extraordi-
ing points Of view.
Public Hearings Decisive.
In addition to all this. there is not
a single important action taken by
N. r. A. that is not the result of
public hearing In those hearings
every person-from Communist to
conservative-who asserts any inter-
est in the subject matter is in
vited to get up and make any criti-
cism. comment or suggestion that
may occur to him and never has any
one been denied. curtailed, or silenced
1t all goes into the record and is
considered when action is taken.
Also it has been our invariable
practice whenever a responsible and
effective proponent Of any adverse
point of view has presented specific
criticism of method and personnel to
give that person complete access to
anything we do or have here; to in
vite that person to join this organiza-
tion himself (or to nominate some
one to join it, and show us how we
can improve our performance. This
has been done in many cases and will
continue to be our practice. Our lat
est effort in this direction is the ap-