, 1935-11-24
Behind the
Scenes in
Washington
BY RODNEY BUTCHER,
Brownsville Herald Washington
Correspondent

the fuss. fury, and ballyhoo over Maj.
George Berry's NRA convention Of
labor and industry Dec. 8 is OBJ
scured the n real explanation OF
what the show is allAabOut.
This administration, though un-
willing to admit it publicly as yet,
wants a national 40-hour work week,
child labor legislation. and-if pos
sible-a minimum wage law.
Purpose cf the Berry conference
Is TOT drum up articulate support
from industry Tor such a program in
the next congress. In a campaign
year it isn't considered good medi-
cine to seem to be showing such leg
islation down induStry's throat.
Insiders are uncertain whether a
majority of the industrial represen-
tatives at the meeting can be per-
suaded to support industrial legiSla-
ton OF this type.
NRA Is dead and as good as gone.
There's no thought Of trying to re-
vive It. But the big problems NRA
was supposed to solve remain.
Unemployment, the biggest. Is &C.
certuated by eveTybody's realization
that II 1929 production levels are
regained within a year-as some
adminiStratiOnistS expect-siX or
eight million people still will be out
Of work.
Such a labor surplus Is sure to hold
down wages and mass purchasing
pcwer while continuing the relief
problem.
Code labor standards have been
generally smashed except where
strong labor unions could preserve
them. and output per man per hour,
meaning chronological unemploy-
nent. increases rapidly.
Roosevelt Wants Laws
What Roosevelt would like is an
admission by industry Of the neces-
sity for labor legislation. He doesn't
want 70 kiss NRA goodbye without
leaving something in the statutes
that will tend toward curing the
Unemployment disease and that can
be amended later as need seems TO
require.
Unsympathetic with organized
labor's demand for a drastic 30
hour week, ne nevertheless reels the
principle of a 40-hour week should
be conceded by any reasonable in
dustrialiSt and that a shortening Of
hours is still a vital need of the
industrial system.
There r plenty Of induStrialists
who agree with him-and there's
reason to believe they're being or
ganized for the December meeting.
But they seem TO be outweighed by
the mass production industrialists
who want no industrial legislation,
led by automobiles, steel. chemicals,
electrical equipment, and allied fl
nancial interests.
Outcome Of the session Is unpre-
dictable as yet and 1t may just be a
cat-and-dog fight between indus
try and labor. But the foregoing is
what it's all about.
StiII Flowing En- Under
The department Of agriculture ex-
perimental farm at BeltsVille. Md.
matches 1900 chicks a week for its
breeding experiments.
II used to sell them, receiving some
return on the expense.
Now 1t kills them and plows them
under.
Private poultry interests objected
to the competition.
Not the First rundown
II you read how the New York,
New Haven a. Hartford railroad IVES
turned down by the Interstate Com
merce Commission for another RFC
loan and consequently vas forced in
tc reorganization. you probably also
read that this was the first instance
Of its kind.
That isn't so. Several other roads.
some Of them large, have been turn
ed down informally and without
publicity by the ICC. with the re-
suit that they went into bank
ruptcy.
Among the roads which have gone
into reorganization in the last year
or 50 are Chicago a. Great Western,
Northwestern. Missouri Pacific,
Western Pacific, and Denver a. Rio
Grande.
Most such roads tried to borrow
additional money from RFC and
were refused by ice informally.
RFC is barred by law from lend
ing government money when earn
ings fail to justify IT'D
The big thing the ICC had in
mind in promptly making public its
decision as TO the New Haven was
that no railroad official would have
advance information with which TO
make money on the stock market.
It wishes Il had thought OF that
before-before certain persons took
advantage of inside information to
similar effect
Copyright. 1885. NEA Service, Inc)