Evening star., 1935-02-10
BY MARK SULLIVAN.

fore him. It was an official
document of N. r. A. Having read
the document, Judge Akerman said:
"A perusal of this remarkable docu-
ment would cause any citizen to Won
der whether he is still living under
and is protected by the Constitution
Of the United States, or whether he
is in the country of Stain, Mus
solini or a Hitler. The pic
ture presented is enough to shock
the sensibilities of a person trained
in the belief that we are living under
a constitutional government where
the citizen is governed by laws and
not by men"
To understand the judges indigna-
tion, and the document. read the
story that led up to it. Most stories
about lawsuits are so intricate as to
make understanding by laymen diff
ficult. This one is so simple that the
average reader can follow it. AS
given here, the account is taken from
the opinion of Judge Akerman as
printed in the Tampa Tribune of
January "a.
Copy of Charges Refused.
In Tampa. Table Supply Stores,
Inc. retails food and groceries. To
Tampa came an agent of N. R. A.
He made secret investigation of the
company, procured some afidavitS
making charges, and forwarded the
charges to regional compliance
board" of N. r. A., located at At
lanta. Ga, some 500 miles away. The
Compliance Board summoned the
company to appear. The company
appeared through representative.
The company asked N. R. A. for a
copy of the charges against it. This
N. R. A. refused. The company asked
the names of the witnesses who had
signed affidavits supporting the
charges. This, too. N. R. A. refused
AS 1t was put, later, by Judge
Akerman when he received the pro-
ceeding: THE Regional Compliance
Council (of N. r. Al proceeded to
try the case on affldavits, the names
Of the makers of such affidavits and
the contents thereof being concealed
from the (defendant). After this
mockery of a trial, the following
order was made (by N. R. A. against
the defendant"
The order made by N. R. A. re-
quired Table Supply Stores to sign
q statement. This appears to be a
standard printed form, with blanks.
The statement was ingenious. 1t
consisted of a confession, accom-
panied by promises for the future.
Among the promises which N. r. A.
demanded that Table Supply Stores
sign were these:
Being deSirous of cooperating
with N. R. A. and of removing
ell ground of complaint Table
Supply Stores. Inc. certifies and
agrees to do the following things:
Provided Audit of Books.
81. It agrees to permit a full ex-
animation of its books by an inde-
pendent auditor to be nominated by
the State director (of N. R. Al. It
agrees to pay all the expenses of said
auditor.
%. 1t agrees to install in all of its
stores an adequate system for keeping
OF time records of its employees.
a. 1t certifies and agrees that it
will in the future comply with the
letter and spirit of all of the pro-
visions of the code of fair competi-
tion for the retail food grocery trade.
TABLE SUPPLY STORES, INC.
'By:
"Signed.
"This. ...... day Of 1884.
witness:
Unless Table Supply Stores signed
this document, N. R. A would
quote the official NJ r. A order:
I'm the event that the respondent
fails to sign and return to this Office
the certificate of compliance on or
before January S, 1885, we recon-
mend that the respondents Blue
Eagle be removed and the case be re-
ferred to the litigation division [of
N. r. Al for further action"
Threat Appears Frequently.
That is portentous threat. The
last phrase of it, "be referred to the
litigation division for further action"
appears frequently in N R. A. docu-
mentS. It is designed to terrify. It
may well terrify, for it means that
the defendant will be taken into the
criminal courts, with all the prestige
of the Government and all the forces
of N. r. AS immense legal staff ar
rayed against such counsel as a small
business man can afford to employ.
Nevertheless, Table Supply Stores
did not sign. AS for going into court,
they beat N. r. A. to it. The COM
pany went before the district Federal
judge and asked for an injunction to
restrain N. r. A. from "inStituting
any criminal prosecution" The COM
pany feared-so it told Judge Aker-
man-that ''the wrath of the entire
executive branch of the United States
Government would be brought down
upon it," So the company asked
Judge Akerman to prevent this.
Judge Akerman listened to the case.
He read all the documents. He was
particularly impressed by an out
standing one among the documents
OF terrorization. 1t was a general
memorandum issued by N. r. A. at
washington, covering the whole
country, headed Procedure to be fol-
lowed in Withdrawing the
Blue Eagle"
Judge Grows Indignant.
1t was of this document that Judge
Akerman used the words quoted
above, "a Stain, Mussolini or a
Hitler" Judge Akerman added that
the document after directing in
minute detail how the star chamber
proceedings shall be held, contains
forms of kilograms to be sent out by
which national, if not international,
boycott will be made effective against
the alleged offender
Judge Akerman was thoroughly in
dignant. He was indignant at the
boycott which is attempted in con-
nection with withdrawing the Blue
Eagle. He was even more indignant at
the threat to haul Table Supply Stores
into criminal court. And he was
scornful at legal trick now at
tempted by N. r. A.
N. r. A., through the Government
lawyers, said in effect that no injunc-
t,a