Evening star., 1935-04-02
COERCION UNDER
n. RIA. IS CHARGED
Head of Printing Concern
Says Code Is Dominated
by Big Business.
BY the Associated Press.

BY the Associated Press.
A elf-termed small business man
complained to the Senate Finance
Committee today that big business
had attempted to coerce and intimi-
date him through an N r. A. code
authority.
George S. Tracy, president of the
Perkins Tracy Printing Co. of st.
Paul, Mimi, was the witness, the first
OF the little fellow" group to charge
oppression under the Blue Eagle to
the investigating Senators.
He said the graphic arts code au-
thority, dominated by big business
firms. sought to keep him from get
ting State printing contract on the
charge he bid below cost, though he
was complying with the code wage
and hour provisions.
Smith L. Scoggin, president of the
st. Paul Typographical Union. backed
up Tracy's charge. He contended the
Perkins Tracy Co. was prosecuted"
for employing union labor.
Tracy told the Senators his business
was purely intrastate. He charged
the Code Authority tried to make him
adopt a system of cost accounting
under which he would have continued
to charge depreciation after his ma
chinery was paid for.
Opposed to Price Fixing.
Some one directly concerned as a
competitor, he said. was making an
effort to prejudice his bid. Tracy also
contended the code authority action
apparently was dictated by three big
printing companies which he said had
q monopoly in the Twin Cities.
The witness said he favored the
wage and hour provisions of N. r. A.,
but was opposed to price fixing be-
cause it would give the big companies
an advantage.
Scoggiu said he was opposed to ANY
trade association governing a code. y
He said his organization felt great
injustice" had been done to the Per-
kins-Tracy Co.
The union head testified the COM
pany was using the accounting method
required by the Internal Revenue Bu-
reau for tax purposes.
Senator Clark, Democrat, of Mis-
souri, contended such a cost account
ing system as the code authority de-
manded would have required the small
man to allow as much depreciation on
a secondhand car as the big man did
on new automobile.
Tracy charged "collusion" between
the State compliance director for N.
r. A. and the code representative,
Herman Roe.
Scoggin, pursuing this charge. said
the same parties had failed ito CO.
operate in the enforcement of the
labor provisions of the CODE
Charges Code Violation.
One of Perkins -Tracy's competitors,
he said. had violated the labor pro-
visions of the code and been permitted
to ''f1aunt the protests of the COM
pliance board"
Competitors of Perkins Tracy, Scog-
gin added, pay only so per cent of the
wages paid by that firm
I'VE like N. r. A. and want it to
continue" Scoggin said It's done
great deal of good. but We want to
protest permitting trade associations
from governing the codes"
Scoggin added that under the system
in force, based on volume of business,
four firms in Minneapolis could out
vote all the rest of Minnesota and
North and South Dakota combined in
administration of the code.
With N. r. A. already under heavy
fire in Congress, the Government
meanwhile had sought and obtained
Supreme Court permission to avert an
immediate test of the conStitutionality
of that hub of the recovery program
The court yesterday granted a mo-
ton by the Justice Department to dis
miss its appeal in the Belcher lumber
code case, while move was under
way in the Senate to get decision in
the case as guide to Congress in
enacting legislation to extend the Blue
Eagles life.
Senator Hastings, Republican, of
Delaware, one of the authors of the
Senate move, Immediately hailed the
Governments action as evidence "the
Department of Justice feels it can't
sustain N. r. A.
1t showed, he contended, mo hon
esty of purpose in trying to comply
with the Constitution" and added a
charge that Donald Richberg. N r. A.
chief, is trying to confuse Congress.