Evening star., 1935-01-07
R|CHBERG HOLDS
UNIONS ARE VITAL
Tells Town Hall Adequate
Organization Necessary
to Recovery.

Adequate organization Of labor,
free from any control by the con-
flicting interests of management, is
necessary if the national recovery
program is to succeed, Donald Rich
berg, director of the National
Emergency Council. told a capacity
gathering at the Town Hall meet
ing last night in the Shoreham
Hotel.
1t is necessary, he said, that the
collective bargaining power of labor
be increased if the recovery program
is to achieve its aims. Establishment
of a sound policy of labor relations
between employer and employe, Rich
berg said, is vital to any real and
lasting recovery"
There are" he declared, some
employers and some groups Of en-
ployes who are unwilling to enter
into any form of cooperative action,
but the great mass of employers and
employees are sick and tired of in
dustrial warfare and are entirely
willing to meet on common ground"
Warns Against Coercion.
No groups will play greater part
in the economic future Of America,
Richberg said, than these groups Of
employers and employees who are will
ing to make sacrifices to reconcile
their conflicting views and pull in
harmony for industrial recovery He
issued a vigorous warning, however,
against the use of force or coercion
by either group to achieve its aims.
THE employer" he said, who seeks
to force or coerce labor and to gain
control by such fraudulent methods,
whether he knows it or not. is work.
ing toward a Fascist economy-a po-
litical control of industry in behalf
of the property interests.
"The worker who seeks by force and
violence to compel his fellow worker
to accept the discipline of a labor
organization to which he does not care
to belong, whether he knows it or not,
is working toward Communist
economy-a political control of indus
try by labor interests"
Champions Section ia.
Richberg proved a stout champion
OF the discussed section Ia of
the recovery act. He asserted that sit
was recognized as one of the most i'm
portant requirements of the recovery
act to protect workers in freedom of
their association for mutual aid and
for the creation of an adequate power
of collective bargaining"
1T is my earnest conviction" he
said, that there is nothing more
necessary to the improvement of our
Industrial system and the maintenance
of a balanced economy than the
adequate organization of labor, free
from any control by representatives
of the competing economic interests of
ownership and management.
Richberg voiced the opinion that
historians of the future would recog-
nize the pettiness of many of the
witticiSms of the New Deal critics.
The emergency laws of today, he said,
need only the effect of time to attain
"the majesty of noble institutions. I"
Results of the recovery program, he
said. are to be found in the effects Of
the program as whole rather than
in the theoretical effects of isolated
portions of the program.
Humorously Raps Critics.
Referring to the tribulations of the
biblical Job. Richberg humorously
commented on the intellectual tribu-
lations of many CT the critics of N.
R. A. and the New Deal, describing
them as members of the Job Founda-
ton for Economic Research"
They have largely, he said, over
looked the real achievements of the
recovery program, among which he
listed the restoration of a banking
system which two years ago was Gin
a state of collapse" the rehabilitation
of agriculture Ito remarkable de-
gree" the restoration Of basic COM
modify prices, additional and i'm
proved employment, the saving Of
more than 100000 homes from FORE
closure, the rescue Of thousands Of
businesses through the medium of
r. F. c. loans, the granting of relief
to the needy and the furnishing of
"self-respecting employment" to more
than 100000 men through p. w. A.
and c. C. c.
At the conclusion of his address,
Richberg was "heckled" rather mildly
by panel of six questioners COM
posed of Senator Adams of Colorado,
Representative Edith Nourse Rogers
Of Massachusetts,, Mordecai Ezekiel,
Agriculture Department economist;
Everett S. Lyon, executive secretary
Of the Brookings Institute; Leon Hen
derSon Of N. R. A. and Elliott Thurs.
ton of the Washington Post.
Agrees With Critic.
Mrs. Rogers, taking issue with N.
r. A. codes which set up wage dis
ordinations in favor Of men against
women, evoked from Richberg the
statement that he. personally, did not
believe in discrimination of this char