Evening star., 1935-02-03
States May Take Over
Functions of n. |. r. A.
BY HARDEN COLFAX.

The trend of opinion in favor Of
turning over to the States many OF
the recovery and reform functions ex-
ercised during the emergency period
by the Federal Government is seen in
the growing belief that when the ma
tional industrial recovery act IN. I.
R. A. emerges from the deliberations
of the present session of Congress it
will lean more and more heavily on
State enactments to carry out the in
tent of the administration.
This will not be such a radical
change as at first it might seem to be.
officials in Washington are pointing
out that, addressed primarily to in
dustry and trade from the Nation
wide angle, N. r. A. has already had
noteworthy effects on State legislation,
past and future.
In a number of States, when N. /.
r. A. became law it found an exist
ing body Of legislation in line with its
main purpose. For some years quite
a number of States have had on their
statute books legislation looking to
| fairer treatment of labor and generally
better working conditions. Some Of
them also have had rather stringent
antitrust laws.
- Il X
! Looking forward to the Midwinter
/ session of many State Legislatures,
that section of the N. R. A. which has
been interested in the relations Of the
national body to State laws had pre-
pared a draft of legislation in the
hope of making these laws more uni
form and effective. This, of course,
was to be merely suggestive.
When the 1884 Legislatures ad-
journed, there were laws on the statute
books Of IA States giving additional
legal effect to N. r. A. codes. The
scope of many of these extended to
Interstate transactions, as well as
governing business operations within
State lines.
| Eight laws call for the filing of
N. r. A. Goodies with the Governor or
some other State official. Seven have
other legislation supplementary to
N. r. A., including provisions for CO.
operation with the A. A. A. (Agricul-
tural Adjustment Administrator and
penalties for black listing, boycotting
and the employment of women in tex
tile and leather trades beyond GER
tain number of hours, as well as pro-
yiding for the suspension of the opera
ton of antitrust laws as to acts which
comply with the codes.
| X X X
The period Of depression seems to
/ have been marked by a good deal Of
new State legislation which shows
fairly definite trend toward throwing
| overheard large portion of the creed
of free competition, as applied to GER
| tain fields of business activity to which
Americans have been so long accus-
toned. Temporary setbacks, such as
that occasioned by the Supreme Court
decision in the oil cases, are not re-
garded in Washington as interfering
in any serious way with the progress
of such legislation. California, Texas
and Oklahoma have been struggling
with the problem of regulating the
production and distribution of Pc
troleum, looking toward planned pro
duction, for many years. 1t Is felt
that they will certainly succeed before
long.
In Louisiana, Mississippi and IN
diana there are laws putting restrt elt
on marketing competition from the
standpoint of the producer, and in the
same States, as well as in Kentucky
and Wisconsin, In relation to the re-
taller. Finally, the competition be-
tween railroads, trucks and buses Is
fast coming under even more strict
regulation in o number Of States.
(Copyright, 1850