Evening star., 1936-04-30
BUSINESS TO ASK
RIGHT TT0CONDUCT
ITS OWN AFFAIRS
Resolution Will Be Offered
Before Concluding Ses-
sion of C. of c.
CUT IN Government
EXPENSES DEMANDED
Hear Warning by Hull of War
Danger Through Commercial
Barriers.
BY ]. A. FOX.

American business prepared today
to demand the right to work out its
own salvation, without Government
interference, after hearing Secretary
of State Hull warn of the rising
danger" of another World War grow
ing out of excessive commercial bar
rierS.
A resolution to be offered for adop-
ton this afternoon at the concluding
session of the twenty-fourth conven-
ton of the Chamber of Commerce of
the United States set out this declara-
ton:
When Government attempts by
legislative means or executive fiat to
impose upon business rules of conduct
pertaining to such matters as wages.
hours, conditions and terms of en-
ployment, or other restrictive meas
ures interfering with the free play
of economic forces, it retards both the
material and spiritual progress of the
Nation"
Against Codes on Industry.
Another resolution said: ITO the
imposition of codes upon industry by
administrative or executive authority.
the chamber has repeatedly expressed
its opposition. Proposed Federal
legislation intended to bring about
governmental control over hours and
wages in enterprises performing work
on Government contract would involve
the imposition of codes in a most
Objectionable form. Governmental de-
termination of hours of work and wage
rates in private enterprises engaged
in Government contracts necessarily
would affect terms of employment
throughout industry and would result
in uneconomic rigidity Of business
operation, thus producing general pub
lie detriment."
The sharp tone of the resolutions,
which covered wide scope, was not
unexpected. They called for a cut
in Government expenditures and the
application of an equitable" tax plan
and assaulted social security legisla-
ton. 1t was considered probable that
the declarations would be adopted
when they went before the chamber.
Must Assume Responsibility.
The resolutions were made public
as they came form the Resolutions
Committee and followed a general
session at which the business men
heard Secretary Hull.
The attack on social security legis-
lation was appended to the resolution
demanding freedom of business from
Government restraint.
Control of business" the resolu-
tion said. must of necessity be vested
in management, but management
must assume its full responsibility in
respect thereto. This responsibility
runs not alone to ownership, but with
even greater force to the human ele-
ment of business enterprise.
Business would ignore its gravest
responsibility if it failed to provide
the greatest possible degree of eco
nomic security to the individual. The
attainment of this end so necessary
to the furtherance of American ideals
will require not only the maintenance
of high wages, but likewise construc-
tive solution to the complex problem
OF security to the individual when he
or she has outlived their capacity to
earn a comfortable living. Here again
interference by Government in at
tempts to reduce the whole complex
problem to one of legislative formulae
can only postpone the final solution by
making it more difficult for business to
assume its own obligations in the
matter"
Urge Reduction of Expenses.
On the subject of fiscal affairs, an
other resolution said that the first
step in bringing order into Govern
ment finances should be reduction of
expenditures both by Congress and by
the Executive to those amounts which
are needed for efficient accomplish
ment of purposes which are necessary
and appropriate for the Federal Gov
ernment."
The tax plan, it said, should be
complementary to such a policy.
"The bill now pending in Congress
Is not a measure of this kind and
(see U. s. CHAMBER, Page s.