Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1934-04-02
RECOVERY IS SEEN
STARTEDBY SLOAN
General Motors President
Declares Momentum Is
IRRESISTIBLE"
BY the Associated Press.

BY the Associated Press.
NEW YORK, April 2-Industrial
recovery. in the opinion Of Alfred P.
Sloan. jr., president of the General
Motors Corporation, is now under way
with Irresistible force
In his pamphlet report for 1888,
written about the middle of March
and made public today, Sloan dated
the business upsWing as beginning in
the Summer Of 1882.
There appeared then" he said,
'indications of improvement through
out the country during the intervening
time"
He added that recovery might be
accelerated or retarded by government
tai influences. but that the general
trend would transcend such factors.
Errors Held Certain
UNLESS upset by some unusual cir
cumstances, improvement will con-
tinue," Sloan wrote The rate of i'm
provenent may be accelerated or re-
tarded by injecting into the picture
abnormal influences, but the general
trend will not be affected for the rea-
son that an industrial recovery, like
an industrial depression is, in a prac-
tical sense of the word. an irresistible
force"
Surveying the N. R. A. Sloan de-
clared it was only natural that er-
rors of policy and fact are bound to
develop and can only be corrected
through the process of evolution"
He said there were three ''vitally
important" considerations in the
N. r. A. set-up.
First, he declared. its labor pro-
visions must be clarified "or there is
the certainty of industrial strife the
equal of which this country has not
yet seem
Advocates Open Shop.
He added that there appeared "to
be looming the Specter of the greatest
monopoly that ever existed in any
country in the world-the closed
shop" Sloan pleaded for preServa-
ton of the open-shop principle.
If price-flxing, or any similar trend
toward elimination of competition, be
permitted, Sloan said, industries af-
fected must be governed so a premium
is not placed upon inefficiency
Third. Sloan warned that a drastic
shortening of the work week would
not solve the unemployment problem
An immediate radical adjustment
he said, lis bound to exert a highly
def1ationary influence"
Industrial Structure Intricate.
Recognizing the relatively short
space of time during which the ma
tional recovery act has been in opera
ton" he stated, 1T is manifestly i'm
possible to draw any definite conclu-
sionS either as to its possibilities in
the direction of a constructive in
strumentality toward a better eco
nomic and industrial order, or as to
the form which it might ultimately
take.
The industrial structure of the
United States has been built over a
period exceeding 100 years. through
an infinite number of adjustments
and compromises, and now represents
most intricate and involved struc-
ture. To reconstruct this structure
IN major degree within the short pc
Rod of a few months is, to say the
least, a hazardous undertaking and,
even recognizing what all who have
been in close touch with the program
appreciate, that the highest possible
motives of honesty of purpose and
fairness prevail in its administration,
it is only natural that errors of policy
and fact are bound to develop, and
ran OplV he norrectad tbro,,ub tho
process of evolution.
Clarifying Held Needed.
"Whatever evolution may bring
about with respect to the national
recovery act, one thing is absolutely
certain-its labor provisions, contained
in section IA, must. be clarified, or
there is certainty of industrial strife,
the equal of which this country has
not yet seen, and just at a time when
there is foundation for hope of re-
covery from the economic depres-
sion.
Every fair minded person should
be in favor, from social and economic
standpoint, of a minimum wage; of
the elimination of child labor; of a
gradual shortening of the hours of
labor. Unfortunately, behind all this
as the result of an Interpretation
which attemps to carry the weight
Of an edict of law, appears to be
looming the specter of the greatest
monopoly that ever existed in any
country in the world-the closed shop