Evening star., 1935-03-28
R|CHBERG KEYNOTE
CLARIFIES POLICY
Outline in Speech at Rutgers
to Form Basis of Court
Action on Regulation.
BY DAVID LAWRENCE.

berg, director of the National Emer-
gency Council, makes speech on some
nhase of the administration activity,
but In none has he outlined so COM
prehensively and clearly the economic
philosophy of the New Deal as in his
speech at Rutgers University, just de-
livered.
Mr.. Richberg's argument is of tran
scendent Importance because it will
form the basis of the whole appeal OF
the Roosevelt administration in the
Federal courts that its power to regu-
late commerce inside or outside a
State be sustained on the ground that
all business nowadays affects the
free flow of commerce.
IF the system of private enterprise
Is to be maintained" says Mr.. Rich
berg, 1T should be abundantly clear
that the exceSses of competition and
the excesses of profit making must be
prevented by social discipline. If this
can be worked out by the cooperation
of agriculture and trade and industry
by associations of common interest
and a co-ordinating supervision of
public authority, we shall be able to
preserve the maximum of private ini-
tiative and individual liberty which
is possible in the complexities of mod
ern industrial civilization"
Necessity of Planning.
To accomplish this. Mr.. Richberg
adds that planning and organization
leave the job wholly to chance and
private experimentation" and he
points out also that the individual who
is a true lover of liberty in the twen-
tieth century lis not the man who in
sisLs on maintaining theoretical free
dom to ruin himself and his fellow
men by unrestrained elf-seeking."
Now the most interesting aspect OF
Mr.. Richberg's address is that one
can concur Fundamentally in the
noble detectives which he outlines,
one can sympathize wholly with the
importance of putting loftier motives
into the hearts and minds of business
men who are competing with one an
other, and yet feel considerable doubt
as to how the "co-ordinating super
vision of public authority" can actually
be accomplished in the face Of reali-
ties in the National Capital even under
the New Deal.
For instance. in the very same
speech Mr.. Richberg speaks of the
benefits of the national industrial re-
covery act and says that ANY valid
criticism must be directed not at the
law but at it's administration"
Again and again, that key word
personnel-or that key idea, which
relates to administrative sense and
capacity, comes up to plague the
idealist and reformer.
Disinterested Supervision.
How, for example, in an administra-
ton which has made a practice of
recognizing those Democrats who
sided with the Roosevelt candidacy
before the Chicago convention of 1882,
or those who have played a part in
Democratic politics, as opposed to Re-
publican politics, can the public be
assured of disinterested supervision?
The same thing holds true with
reference to influence upon Govern
ment action by persons of political
prominence, who. as lawyers, engage
in work here which plainly reflects
their party connection. For a time
this was froWned upon and an effort
was made to compel Democratic Ma
tlonal Committeeman to resign from
their posts if they kept Government
jobs, but, with the Postmaster General
retaining that Office as we'll as the
Craftsmanship of the Democratic Ma
tional Committee, it has been difficult
for the rank and file to believe the
Roosevelt administration was at heart
much interested in abolishing political
pull and influence
The raids which have been made
on civil service and the way in which
Congress has insisted on patronage
are so much like what has happened
under Republican administrations
that any observer who really would
like to see governmental authority
applied, even to a limited extent,
to help in the adjustment of eco
nomic problems, cannot but see diff
flculties and impossible barriers
ahead. from the political side, which
tend to nullify the precepts of Mr..
Richberg's fine address.
Restriction of Liberty.
Mr.. Richberg's major point is that
liberty should be restrained because
1t might mean license; that is, license
to commit fraud and miSrepresent
or otherwise deceive. His contention
Is summed up in this sentence:
Faced with the clearly evil effect
upon many men of an exercise of
Individual liberty, legislative re-
straint upon wrongdoing, for the
purpose of protecting the freedom
of others to do right, cannot be chal-
lenged as an interference with con-
stltutional liberty"
The only fly III the ointment is
that definition of what is right or
wrong should be made by the courts
and not by administrative officers in
bureaucracy, and that, when legis-
latlve restraints are applied, they
should be applied by the Federal or
State or civil governments, each in
its respective domain.
The fight against invasion of con-
stitutional rights is not at all against
proper restraint by legislative body.
but 1t Is a questioning as to which
governmental authority-Federal or
State-should assume jurisdiction. If
restraints go beyond an existing Fed
eral or State Constitution, it is usual.
ly argued that the proper amend
ments adopted in the orderly way
should be championed. Most of the
complaint today by those who have
had their constitutional rights in
vaded is that the effort has been made
by subterfuge or circumvention, and
not by the exercise of the legislative
power actually granted by the people