Evening star., 1936-04-30
ROOSEVELFGlVEN
F.: |. lNDUS:TRY'S REPLY
Browns U. S. c. of c. Talk
:. Held Succinct Answer on
= Unemployment.
BY DAVID LAWRENCE.


s It isn't often that a large group
sembled in any one hall and it isn't
often nowadays that one hears them
applauding speech by a member of
the New Deal administration.
Secretary Roper of the Department
of Commerce had been speaking. The
place was the assembly hall of the
United States Chamber of Commerce
and the occasion was the annual
meeting. With a great deal of what
Roper said the business men were in
agreement Then came the true signi-
flcance Of it all.
1t happened just as Lewis H. Brown,
president of Johns-M -Manville Corp,
rose to begin reading his prepared
address. With good-natured smile,
he expressed wonderment whether
the views expressed by Roper were
his own or the political views of the
Roosevelt administration. And then
the audience laughed.
Again and again, Roper, who is a
sound conservative and well-liked by
business men, has stood up before
them and spoken doctrines that are
acceptable to American industry. but
on the other hand President Roosevelt
has repudiated the Roper views by
attacking the business mechanism.
So the business men of the country
are not likely to credit promises or
pledges, but actual performance.
Replies to New Deal.
Perhaps the best summary of the
business viewpoint was that given in
Browns speech which was not in
tended as an answer to Roper, but
reply to all the statements from the
President and others in the admins
tration who have been trying to
shift the blame for unemployment
to the shoulders of business. Browns
address was one of the ablest outlines
OF business thought that has been
made in the last three years. 1t will
long be remembered as succinct and
forwardlooking argument on behalf
of American business. Among other
things, Brown said
Business leaders are just as much
in favor of the avowed ideals or ex-
pressed objectives of the New Deal
as is the average citizen.
Business men are more anxious
than any one else to see the unem-
ployed with good Jobs again: to see
the farmers with restored purchasing
power; with children in school and
old people properly cared for; with
everyone, including business men.
with shorter hours. thus having more
1eiSJ1rn fn 4rty t7n k1ty, oyot
life.
Practical Progress Slow.
But the only way we know how
to actually make these ideals come
true is by the same slow practical
process that our pioneer forefathers
turned the forests and prairies into
farms-that Thomas Edison turned
a laboratory experiment into a great
industry-that Henry Ford changed a
horse and buggy into horseless car
riage. -
Brown made it clear that business
men do not want anybody to starve,
but on the contrary want the local
and national governments together to
raise "a Community Chest fund to
care for those in real need" and
argued, moreover, that in Democratic
form of government mo one can ad-
minister as efficiently such a public
fund as a non-partisan committees
Of neighbors of those on relief
The simplicity of Mr. Browns ap-
peal namely that to fight unemploy-
ment it is necessary to get the facts,
to find out who the unemployed really
are in terms of occupations, made
deep impression on his listeners who
naturally say that Federal Govern
ment has had billions for boondog-
CLING but not cent for the fact of an
unemployment census.
Suggestions Rejected.
Mr.. Roosevelt has time and again
said that industry must solve the un-
employment problem and he has
offered several plans that business
men feel are not only economically un-
sound but destructive of the business
mechanism and hence dangerous to
those who are employed.
Every so often during this period"
remarked Mr.. Brown when the
government has become discouraged
with its inability to make satisfactory
progress in the solution of this diff
cult problem (unemployment) we
have listened to Government officials
demanding of industry that industry
undertake arbitrarily to reemploy the
unemployed. This ingenious request
is based upon two promises-both of
which are false.
The first assumes that industry en-
ploys workmen when there is no work
to be done.
The second that industry has a
source Of income out of which to pay
wages, other than the sale of goods
to customers
Mr.. Brown revealed that industry
had submitted several plans and one
in particular, namely the Report of
the Durable Goods Industries Com
mlttee. was given to the President in
May 1884. He said:
The study that this committee
made as result of weeks of intensive
work indicated clearly that the one
main objective was recovery. What
the American people wanted was to
speed up the machinery of business
W PAONAAC Al pLlNdGc cl1CcIpIlSeS, lODS
for the unemployed.
Report Laid to Rest.
Everyone agreed that relief had to
be given so that no one should starve,
but all were firmly convinced that re-
lief was not bringing and never could
bring recovery. The committee stated
at the time that the pump priming
theory insofar as it involved merely
the distribution of government money
could never bring about recovery"
Brown didn't tell his audience what
happened to the comprehensive re-
port OF the Durable Goods Committee
with its detailed recommendations.
But it's an open secret around Wash
ington and in the public interest ought
to be recorded. 1t was never even
acknowledged by the President of the
limited States tn tho rhoiry,,oy ', ~ fl,a