Evening star., 1935-11-28
BUSINESS DOUBTS
POLITICAL TRUCE
Threatened and Coerced,
1t SHES at 0vertures
by New Deal.
BY DAVID LAWRENCE.


labor cooperation called by George
L. Berry, special co-ordinator ap-
pointed by President Roosevelt.
The significance of this occurrence
Is easily misunderstood, and yet the
incident goes to the root Of the Roose-
welt administration difficulties in get
ting 100000 or more men back to
! work.
Business and industry have been
asked blythe Government to "co-ope-
rate" in one form or another ever
since March, 1888. The biggest ex-
pertinent in cooperation" that
turned out to be coercion. was the
N. r. A.
Why do business and industrial
leaders shun the invitation issued by
Berry? The reason given publicly is
that, despite denials by Berry, his
real intention is to lay the ground
work for the revival of N. r. A.. and
business men insist that the breath
| ing SPELL should be carried out now
and industry given chance to digest
the regulations it already has had
| imposed on it.
Roosevelt Role Shadowy.
| But there's a deeper meaning to
! the reluctance of business men to
accept Berry's summons. They do
; not know whether he speaks for him
self or for Secretary of Commerce
Roper, or for the President or for
Union labor. in whose ranks he holds
a prominent position. This has been
the Roosevelt Administrations mistake
from the start. The President has
not put himself into the picture di-
rectly. in some instances at all, leav-
ing it to be inferred that he is back
of an administrator, but. at the same
time, leaving 1t to be inferred also on
other occasions that the administra-
tor is doing things on his own hook
and probably without presidential
approval
There Is, moreover. distrust of the
fairness of some of these various Gov
ernment bureau and agency heads
that is unfortunately preventing CO.
operation rather than developing it.
Thus. for example one cabinet officer
or one administration spokesman like
Undersecretary Tugwell of the Agri-
cultural Department will, in the same
month, be attacking business and call
ing 1t names, while Roper will be
soothing it with assurances of the
administrations intention to do every
thing in its power to maintain the
capitalistic system.
Honeyed Words Doubted.
1t is matter of great regret that
business and the Roosevelt admins
tration do not get along well to-
! gether. Much Of this arises out of
the spirit Of vndictiveness and gen.
eral speech-making Of a destructive
nature which has been going on in
the last two and half years These
things are not erased overnight by
honeyed words of reinsurance that
from now on business will not be
harassed.
Businessmen. moreover, talk among
themselves about various punitive
measures that, by coincidence or ac-
cident or intent, have been visited
upon them by different agencies of
the Federal Government Many a
prominent man in the business and
financial world who has been out
spoken in his opposition to the New
Deal finds his income tax returns
scrutinized by agents looking for ex-
cuses with which to bring technical
disputes. These business men tell
their associates and others about it.
AS consequence deep-seated feeling
arises that kind of personal Gov
ernment is at work in Washington.
Now it probably is nearer the truth
that, after an era of harsh treatment
due to regulatory legislation, business
men are oversensitive on some of
these points, but whether their sus-
picions are justified or not, the fact
remains. as pointed out so penetrat-
ingly in an article In Fortune Maga-
zine in the December issue, the busi-
nessmen do have these antagonisms
Business Has Tried.
: Nobody ever got anywhere trying
to sell ideas to persons who are first
| antagonized Resentfulness does not
produce a setting for Cooperation. "
Again and again. the Roper Council,
composed of outstanding business lead
ers, gave the administration sugges-
tions and recommendations as to how
business and the Government could
get along well together, but the Presi-
dent pigeon-holed almost all Of the
suggestions.
Notwithstanding this. If Mr.. Roose-
an invitation to business and indus
trial leaders to send delegates to a
conference that he himself called. 1t
would be safe to assume that he
would get nearly 100 per cent ac-
ceptances. Saying mo" to George
Berry and the N. R. a. background is
one thing, and consulting with Mr..
Roosevelt himself is quite another.
Different Approach Needed.
Business and industry would like
to be on better terms with the Presi-
dent, but thus far he has preferred
to lombard the business and financial
world with accusations and attacks,
threatening taxes on size and big
ness, promising further legislation on
holding companies even outside the
utility field, and generally producing
an uneaSineSs that might well be de-
scribed as unparalleled in the last
50-year period in which corporate
structures have been built up.
This Is Mr.. Roosevelt's most vexing
problem, economic. political. personal
how to get business and Government
working together. 1t Is not an in
surmountable barrier or an impossible
job to do. But it takes an entirely
different approach than Mr.. Roose-
welt has been using. and it will prob
ably take concrete performance in
the way Of existing egislation-that
Is, recommendations for repeal or
change-before the business world will
believe that Mr.. Roosevelt intends to
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