The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1935-05-18
HOOVER TOSSED
OUT CODES PUT
IN BY COOLIDGE
Agreements Held Unfair
and MonOpOIiStiC by
Californian.
BY JOHN I. FLYNN
Times Special Writer


NEW YORK, May 1S.-Mr Her.
bert Hoover sits up in his tomb
long enough to call out hoarsely
through the gratings to Congress
to scrap the NRA.
That ought TO have the effect of
breathing a little life into the
NRA. But there was one thing
he said about which I can offer a
little testimony. Exactly such
schemes" he told a reporter. TO
avoid competition were rejected by
my administration I happened
to be an observer when at least
one such incident took place
1t forms a more or less COM
pletely forgotten chapter OF buSi-
ness history but Is interesting in
view Of all that has happened.
Most Americans, I am sure. Will
be surprised TO hear that under
the beneficent reign of the late
Calvin Coolidge about forty codes
of practice were set up.
Adoption of Codes Urged
For years business men had
been campaigning for the suSpen-
sion of the antitrust laws and the
right to what they called self
rule in industry. About 1925. the
trade relations committee of the
United States Chamber of Com
merce took a definite step. Trade
associations were ENCOURAGED to
adopt codes of practice to control
unfair competition.
The Federal Trade Commission
supervised these codes. They were
submitted to the Attorney General.
who rules that if they merely
eliminated unfair practices thew
would be considered all right. Mr..
Hoover was Secretary of Com
merce at the time. 1 understand
he looked on these movement with
some dismay Shortly after he be-
came President, he decided to
scrap the codes.
/ watched the whole movement
Tor some time and then went to
Washington to see Atty. Gen Will
liam Mitchell The Attorney Cen
eral Informed me that Mr.. Hoover
had decided to put an end to the
Coolidge codes of practice because
1t was impossible to police them.
Agreements Held Unsound
The trades adopted agreements
which on their face outlaWed certain
manlfestly unfair competitive meth
DDS. But in practice it was found
that under cover of these agree
ments they used the authorized uni
w to fix prices and control produce
ton. The President. he said. con-
sidered the scheme monopolistic.
unsound and illegal.
L certainly hold no brief for Mr..
Hoover or for his economic states
manship. But it is simply fair to
say that he did junk this first ex-
pertinent in rudimentary NRA.
Of course these codes made no
provision for labor. The present
codes do because the NRA system
was set up in 1888 as a result of
the Black and Connery bills to fix
minimum wages and maximum
hours. 1t was passed, in fact. to kill
those two bills But long before it
was passed the original code pro-
pOnents had incorporated the idea
of maximum hours and minimum
wages in their plan.
NRA Already Conceived
The object was obvious. Labor
sweaters were injuring those en-
ployers who would not pay starva-
ton wages. Such wages were looked
upon as a form of unfair practice.
When the President was inaugu-
rated a committee Of the Chamber
of Commerce had the whole plan Of
an NRA-not called by that name
worked out. save for Section IA
(Which has proved futile).
One group of 1913 business men
called on Mr. Hoover to adopt such
a plan and he refused it.
But President Roosevelt fell for it.
It has not worked so we'll and these
gentlemen are now trying to dodge
their responsibility.
Copyright. 1885. NEA Service. Inc)