The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1934-03-21
Official Admits
,Johnson's TENT Ten
Offer Will Cut W ages

that, but how many employers will
do it."
That question of how many en-
ployers will do it is now being an
swered by the two Committees of
twelve each selected by the Con-
gress Of Industry to finally settle
on how to carry out the re-shaping
Of the N. r. A. In the first place.
they are standing pat against any
general adoption of the plan. To
that the Administration has agreed.
for Johnson told the industrialists
beforehand that he didn't mean to
suggest that the ten and ten" plan
should be adopted generally.
For general increase in wages
would cost the employers money in
those cases where they do not de-
crease production-and they don't
want to decrease production land
profits except in slack seasons.
1t is known, however, that many
employers have agreed to adopt the
Johnson plan-on two conditions:
that they shall have absolute
authority to carry on "open-price"
systems through the N. R. A. Code
Authorities; and that the n. r. A.
Code Authorities be given absolute
authority to enforce compliance
with the codes. AS this series has
explained, "open-price" systems are
pure price-fixing devices; Code
Authorities administering them
would use them to skyrocket prices
at the expense of small business in
terests as well as the masses of
consumers. This and the placing of
absolute authority in the Code
Authorities are vital points in the
Swope-Johnson plan for further
fascination of America.
The real purpose behind the ten
and ten" program is to increase the
production of capital goods. The
Johnson program wolld stimulate,
as no other current proposal would
the institution Of new labor saving
machinery. New machinery? Yes.
new machinery-new capital goods.
Demands for doing something" for
capital goods industries were con-
sistently and loudly voiced during
the Congress of Industry. So now,
to meet them, we are to have an
effort toward stimulation by means
of increasing hourly wages, stagger-
ing hours so that weekly wages will
be decreased, and stimulating labor
saving machinery that will throw
still more workers out Of jobs. Thus
the Congress of Industry answered"
the unemployment problem, indicst-
ing once more the urgency Of work
ers' redoubling their fight for real
unemployment insurance.
Right in line with the new set-up
of the N. r. A. is the bill which
Chairman Wagner Of the National
Labor Board has introduced in Con-
gress to enlarge the Board and make
it a permanent compulsory arbitra-
ton agency.
Later, when the strike wave rolls
high, the Council of American In
duStry'' proposed by Morgan's man,
Gerard Swope, and the drillmaster
Of the N. R. A, General johnson,
may be galvanized into action for
outright open terror against all in
dependent class unionism. Until the
American fascists are ready to
"crack down" the National Labor
Board will be their most active
agent in thwarting the workers de-
mands with combination of scab-
herding and demagogy.
1t is not a mere coincidence that
Gerard Swope is a director of the
Italian Super-Power Corporation as
well as central figure in the N. r.
A. He and his cohorts are pointing
the N. r. A. deliberately, con-
sciously, in the direction of the
cooperative state of fascist Italy.
Only the sharpest, most immediate,
continuous mass opposition will
forestall them.