Show washingto Washing fo digest iva if national a ii interpreted er by WILLIAM BRUCK i ir ARI P washington business as represented by the chamber of commerce of the united states start class again has clashed sf struggle ruggle with wu the new dealand nd again the can no by business added nothing its attacks apparently bathe bothered red the new deal not at all fr the new deal has proceeded after the manner of the mastiff trotting along without concern while a poodle barked and snarled business made no overtures for compromise with the new deal and new deal spokesmen were not hastening to make peace with business leaders altogether there was not the slightest indication given that there will ever be peace between the two elements of economic thought the one thing that impressed me about the recent annual meeting here of the chamber of commerce was the solidarity of business in its opposition to general new deal principles that was to be expected but it has not always been the case in days past there were many business groups and individuals who adhered to the file new deal and vainly tried to work out an understanding with the administration at this annual meeting however there was not the slightest effort made on the part of business to accomplish any arrangement whereby business and the administration would work together this can mean only one thing president roosevelt Is going into his campaign for reelection election re without the support of business interests except where in particular lines benefit has accrued incidentally to specific businesses one would think that such a condition would constitute a threat against the presidents denti reelection election re such appears not to be the case however because of the particular type of campaign which sir mr roosevelt and his political commander in chief postmaster general farley are making the presidents recent political speeches have made it quite clear that he Is seeking support wholly from the agricultural and labor segments of our voters his appeals are quite open and frank and they are drawing considerable criticism because it Is held they constitute the initiation of class struggle in this country whatever the reason for the presidents course it remains as a fact that he Is very busy cultivating voters who have suffered most in the depression 0 0 0 when I 1 ie ported above that business came off second best in its fresh assault on the new makes good deal I 1 did not mean fight to imply that it had not made a vl vigorous orous fight it probably gained some ground in getting before the country its side of the story a phase of our national situation which has not been as fully advertised to the country as have the activities and accomplishments of the new deal the story of the losses suffered by business actually Is not a great deal different from that of the individual and many businesses are existing on a hand to mouth basis just as Is the case with thousands of individuals divi duals because business in our minds eye at least Is larger than an individual political demagogues regard it as fair game and for that reason I 1 am inclined to believe business has not had a fair chance on the part of most of us its when considering natIon naf nT problems on the other hand business has many units within the whole that have hot played fair there are a great many corporations that are guilty of plain oppression even to the extent of fraud and corruption of business methods for the crookedness of this seg ment all business has been blamed by the new deal this Is not equity the unhappy part of it all Is that unless all business stands together good bad and in between it can get nowhere at all in defense of its legitimate rights there Is therefore a wholly natural and yet quite ui idair result emanating from tills condit condition ion new deal planners in their efforts to catch the crooks have punished legitimate business far too much if one Is to accept even partially the public statements and the private expressions expression s of the business men who ila attended the annual meeting of the chamber of commerce this ought not to be and I 1 think that legitimate business has just ground tor for complaint on this score so as the situation now stands I 1 believe it can be said in all fairness that neither side in tills this b battle a it I 1 e between betwee D the new deal and business comes into court with entirely clean hands bustness business has its cancerous sores the new deal has its nitwits and theorists who know nothing about practical economics the result of this Is plainly seen and it becomes more and more apparent that mr air roosevelt cannot accomplish his objective of complete recovery until lie he directs some of his subordinates 0 to put their feet on the ground indeed there are some of the new deal subordinates who ought to be tossed bodily into the street j just as there are some business men who ought to be thrown into jail the chamber of commerce meeting brought forth the information that business as a whole business had kept hundreds of has answer thousands of workers on its collective pay rolls during the depression when ben conditions d d did tid n not 0 t j justify us t i fy t their h el r re retention t e n t i 0 n cial the T 1 claim was w a s advanced a d v a n e d that t h at business b u s i n e s s had expended something like twenty billions in wages paid from stored up reserves it was further asserted that business was alone responsible tor for such gains toward recovery as have been made new den deal I 1 spokesmen men from president on down have hare consistently accused bu business sines of failure to take on workers and help solve the unemployment problem at the same time the banking structure of the country has bag been accused chiefly by the president of refusal to extend credit to business and business as a whole has been classified by the president as greedy it seems safe to say that as regards these charges business does have an answer for throughout all history capital capila has refused to work unless anle as there was a reasonable promise of return now in addition to the lack t u f that promised return business is and has been constantly confronted with uncertainties on the part of the new deal the present pending tax legisla tion Is typical the most dangerous provision of that le legislation Is that which will prevent business from building up reserves such as thosa upon which it has been drawing during the depression if the business claim Is true that it has paid out twenty billions more than its operations justified for wages during the depression it causes one to ponder over the future one Is inclined to ask what strength business will have to do even as muc much f for or the working classes during daring the next n et depression d pres slon as it has done in this one 0 is with reference to the new deal policies toward business a statement by the rural electro delicate Deli cale fi catlon admInIs tra question tion has just come to my desk it touches on that very delicate question of how far the government can enter into business bustnes busl busin nes esl ip in competition with private enterprise without destroying or driving out private initiative the complaint on the part of private business that the government Is continually wedging its way into private fields Is well known but the REAs statement puts something of a new sint on elle the view in fact it brings tc the front one of the elements of government govi rement in business not generally recognized the REA statement consists of a letter from REA administrator morris cooke to the state corporation commission of virginia the virginia commission was urged to consider the situation in which the REA and one of its loans will be placed in event of a certain ruling by the virginia officials in effect administrator cooke asked the virginia commission to rule against private business in order that a loan made by REA to a cooperative organization to in birj virginia ala can be protected to review the facts briefly let me explain that a private electric company applied to the virginia commission for authority to extend its lines for transmission of energy into a farming section adjacent to cities served by the electric company it happened that the REA itea had sent agents into this same territory and had obtained promises from many farmers to buy electricity from a co operative cooperative concern to be organized and financed by REA the private company apparently horned in to what nir mr cooke thought was the file territory of REA by right of discovery or some other such reason and so he Is now dow engaged in attempting at least to prevent the private company from entering that field the point of tills this circumstance la is that here Is a federal agency steeped in bureaucracy and with the usual bureaucratic thirst for power which actually Is a attempting to drive private industry of its way IN a y it Is doing it under the thinly disguised reason of protecting a governa government ent loan I 1 have heard considerable discussion of tills this case many observers and students of economic questions contend that the federal government has absolutely no right to engage in that sort of business while it may be and I 1 probably can be said that the elec trie company was attempting to take the cream of the crop by extending its lines only to territory adjacent to I 1 its headquarters the fact remains nallis laut that the normal re employment w which aich that private company would do will be cut down proportionately by the extension ot of the file federal activities into that aren area it may day appear that the workers displaced for or the private company will be taken on by the federally financed operative cooperative co lines but such Is not the case it Is just one more indle indication aaion of liow how government once it enters private business continues to expand and to destroy initiative which private enterprise tins lias and which government neer has been known to have 0 4 western newspaper Newe paper union |