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Show s ''i Economic Highlights Industrial News Review Happenings that Affect the Dinner Pails, Dividend Checks and Tax Bills of Every Individual. National Nation-al and International Problems In-p In-p separable from Local Welfare. coo's coo-'s As the NRA campaign entered the N middle of its third week, enthusiasm ""was undiminished, pledges continued to pour in. While troubles have put in their appearance and the campaign is ..obviously touching its most crucial point, spokesmen are as confident as ever in forecasting remarkable results. ''The NRA blanket code has usurped the place of the trade codes in the p,news. The latter, however, will probably pro-bably be in operation longer than the NRA, and the law, instead of public i .opinion only, is back of them. It is an y;;open secret that the government is dissatisfied with trade code progress . and is making every effort to speed matters up. One of the most impor-:l'tant, impor-:l'tant, lumber, was thrown out when 0,first sent in. Now the president has signed an approved lumber code which lr is expected to do much for the indus-I indus-I try and its employees. Minimum wages range from 23 cents an hour in the south to 40 cents in the north and , west, with a 40-hour week which may . be extended to 48 hours at seasonal peak. An agency known as the Lum- j ber Code Authority, Inc., is given the ! job of protecting price levels and controlling con-trolling production.' Every operating company will be given an allotment, and production quotas for various di- visions of the industry will be arranged arrang-ed on the basis of consumption, in-:luding in-:luding anticipated export demand. Selling price is never to be allowed to irop below the cost of production . point. Underselling will be illegal. The .agreement is designed to increase "lumber and timber employment by 115,000 men. The electric industry is operating under a temporary code, un-;il un-;il the Edison institute can obtain approval ap-proval of a permanent agreement. Steel and automobile industries are iones of contention. Code officials are struggling with the problem; if worst :omes to worst the government will nake up codes, force them on the in-lustries in-lustries whether they like it or not. !t's a case where they won't take no 'or an answer. oOo The first NRA "chiselers" are ap-earing. ap-earing. These are firms which sign he agreement, then violate it by not ringing wages to the specified mini-num, mini-num, keeping workers' on the job for onger hours than are allowable, etc. ases have been found where employ-is employ-is have protested, only to be told that f they reported violations to NRA lirectors they would be discharged. General Johnson and subordinates are foing after concerns falling in this lassification. The law may step in. signed NRA pledges are sent through he mails. Postmaster General Farley s considering the possibility of prose-uting prose-uting employers who sign and then 'iolate, under the postal fraud statute. Jeneral Johnson has inaugurated a 'Buy Now" campaign, with the buy-ng buy-ng restricted to NRA members. An xecutive order, permitting cancella-ion cancella-ion of government contracts with manufacturers who have not come nto the fold, has been issued. No new rovernment contracts will go to non--i 4RA firms. '; oOo Two famous government bureaus ifficially died the other day. One is he Shipping board which, with its ubsidiaries, received the neat sum of :3,600,000,000 in appropriations dur-ng dur-ng its life, and had a book value of f 288,000,000 at last report. Its func-ions func-ions what are left of them were ransferred to the department of com-nerce. com-nerce. Other casualty was the Prohi-ition Prohi-ition bureau, which came into being n 1920, spent $100,000,000 in 13 years, .nd was involved in the loss of 250 ives. Most of the 1,800 dry agents rere dismissed. J oOo The farmer and the grain dealer 1 bund one recent government report J 'f great interest. It was the latest rop forecast. Highlight was that the vheat crop would not be as short as lad been expected, and prices dropped - iccordingly. Most remarkable revela- - ion, however, was that all grain crops vill be extremely short. Total will be mallest in decades. The farm relievers reliev-ers are faced with one very perplex-ng perplex-ng question heavy hogs. The nation ' low has 1,000,000 expectant mother logs, and if the birth rate is up to lormal there will be a great over-iupply. over-iupply. Probable solution will be to mcourage the marketing of small pigs )y paying a higher price per cwt., and y placing a stiff processing tax igainst heavy hogs. To bring supply n 'line with demand, it will be necessary neces-sary to remove 500,000,000 pounds of pork and pork products from the mar- r cets during the remainder t f t'iis year, md 2,000,000,000 pounds next year. A 16,561,000-bale cotton crop was fore-:ast fore-:ast for the south. It is estimated that his will be reduced to 12,31-1 OOo bales )y the destruction of 10,500,000 acres i I of cotton plants under contract with the adjustment administration. |