Evening star., 1937-03-03
Industrial Analysis.

AsSoSS'SAeo
Industrial Analysis, set up in April, 1886,
to make study of the N. r. A. opera
ton and what happened in industry
after the Supreme Court declared the
law invalid, has recommended that any
effort to revive that system of control
be made with care and limited to few
important industries, to begin with.
This is a sound thought. To rush the
whole Of American industry into
control system almost overnight, as was
done in the case of the N. r. A., is CAL
culated to create confusion and huge
administration problem. Obviously, and
as indicated in the report of the COM
mittee, control of industry has never
passed an experimental stage. 1t is
easier to experiment with few in
dustries than with all Of industry.
The committee, which was composed
of college professor, lawyer, labor
leader and manufacturer, has pre-
sented lengthy and interesting report
on the N r. A. It found things to
praise and things to blame and said so.
Without making recommendations for
legislation, the committee discussed
standards for wages, fair practices, hours
of labor and went into the matter of
the antitrust laws. 1t held that if
system of control is revived, it might be
in the interest of industry and fair
practices to waive certain features of the
antitrust laws.
An interesting comment of the COM
mittee has some bearing on the proposed
30-hour work week-a hard and fast
proposal designed by its sponsors to
create more jobs and so give more per-
sons employment. There must be
normal standard of hours of labor, the
committee holds, representing "the most
effective balancing of the workers time
between producing more goods and en-
joying more leisure. This means that
whenever more goods would be worth
more to the worker than more leisure,
hours should not be shortened" To 60
beyond this point in the matter of short
ening hours is a confession that there
is something entirely wrong and
failure in the economic system. The
committee admitted that such shorten
ing of hours might be necessary to tide
over an emergency condition, but in
sisted that If it were continued over into
normal times, 1t might well limit produc-
ton instead of merely spreading work,
and so do real harm. When the earn
ing power of the workers is so limited
that their purchasing power is cut down,
production necessarily falls off. If the
earning power is curtailed, no matter
what the cause, whether by law or by
a depression and lack of work or lower
wages, the purchasing power is i'm
mediately affected.
The committee regards a minimum
wage as a safeguard for the worker and
also as wage floor for the operation
of the competitive system" 1t seems
reasonable to suppose that any control
system which the President may recon-
mend to Congress will carry with 1t q
minimum wage standard. The COM
mittee also recommends that in the op-
Grafton of a new control law there is
flexibility in the application Of its pro-
visions with regard to peculiar condi-
tions in particular industries. And at
the same time the committee has grave
doubts as to the advisability of attach
ing to such provisions penalties of q
criminal nature or even triple damages.
The N. r. A. was created hurriedly, in
an emergency period. 1t was intended
both as a reform measure and as
recovery measure. With conditions more
nearly normal in this country, the Con-
gress and the President can both afford to
give any new legislation the most care
full scrutiny before enacting it. This does
not mean unnecessary and long delay,
but 1t does mean look before the leap.
1t is still fact that American industry
and American business gained far more
after the N. r. A. was ruled unconstitu-
tional than before that decision by the
Supreme Court.