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Show National Topics Interpreted J- by William Bruckart SE Whether General Johnson continues contin-ues at the helm, or whether the management of that work is entrusted en-trusted finally to General Johnson's hand-picked group of five, it is certain cer-tain that the summer and autumn will witness elimination of many petty features of codes that have proved to be only annoyances. I believe there is agreement among unbiased thinkers that development develop-ment of codes at the rate necessary neces-sary to make the Initial drive for recovery naturally brought many provisions of a worthless character. charac-ter. Many times, it has been shown, those provisions have very nearly upset the good that was obviously ob-viously going to result from fair practice agreements. The job the five-man board has to do, if it remains re-mains as a successor to General Johnson, is to go through the codes with a fine-toothed comb and eliminate elim-inate all of the questionable and useless provisions. My opinion is, if this were done, there would be much less opposition to the codes and consequently to continuation of the Industrial recovery act. The prevalent thought in Washington, Wash-ington, then, Is that as a result of the annoying features, contained In the codes, the administration Is likely to pull hard to revise as many of them as Is possible before next winter. Washington. Unless all signs fail there is going to be a determined deter-mined stand by Fight for many of the eoun-Limit eoun-Limit on NRA tra business in-terests in-terests for a limitation lim-itation on the provisions of the national na-tional Industrial recovery act when that question comes up for congressional congres-sional action next January or February. Feb-ruary. An undercurrent of Information, Infor-mation, to the effect that a movement move-ment to that end Is under way, has begun to seep into Washington in a growing volume. It indicates that we will hear much about NRA during dur-ing the coming campaigns. Indeed, some observers are convinced that President Roosevelt already is attempting at-tempting to get the administration's sldo of the story to the country by Bonding General Johnson, recovery administrator, out for a tour of npeechuiaklng to sell the blue eagle to the counft-y. The President, it will be remembered, remem-bered, already has declared that NUA must be made a permanent part of our economic structure. I have found few persons who disagree dis-agree with that. There Is a difference differ-ence of views, however, and it is emphatic, as to the extent to which NRA should go in managing the country's business on a permanent basis. It is upon that question, therefore, that the battle apparently apparent-ly will be waged. It always has been true that an Invalid who is convalescing passes through a stage Invalid on the way to re- - Perks Up covery where he develops a genuine genu-ine grouch. Everything hits him wrongly. Food is not right and medicines are no good, and a thousand thou-sand and one other things furnish grounds for complaint. This condition con-dition nearly always precedes the time when the patient gets out of bed and takes a few steps again. The circumstance to which I have referred Is such a common occurrence occur-rence that It seems to me there is no better Illustration of the condition condi-tion in which American business now Is represented to be. It is highly significant. In the first Instance, In-stance, It shows, according to the experts, that business has enough new life blood to start fighting back against administration plans and policies that cramp Its style, and, secondly, vigorous opposition never has failed to be a healthy thing for the country as a whole. From the Information I get In many quarters, It Is yet too early to tell whether commerce and 'Industry 'In-dustry Is going to be a unit in any one course of its opposition. The strictly recovery phases of the New Deal are not going to be attacked, even by the Republican national . committee. That question apparently appar-ently is settled. But business interests in-terests apparently and quite logically log-ically are distinguishing between recovery and reform. Take the legislation that created the commission commis-sion for control of security sales and policing the stock exchanges, as an example. I frankly do not see how the Republican leadership or business interests can expect to get far in criticism of that, even If it is solely a reform proposition. Not the least of the problems that are arising out of the work so speedily done in Legal creating NRA and Questions othe,r recovery agencies are the horde of legal questions now on the horizon. One of these stands out. It relates to the rights of citizens after they have signed the codes of fair practice, and legal lights tell me it runs straight back to a base in the Constitution of the United States. It is an old legal maxim that after" aft-er" a person has accepted benefits from a statute or regulation, which means a voluntary action, that person per-son may not be heard to question the validity of the provision from which those benefits accrued. Now, business men signed the codes under un-der what NRA lawyers claim was a voluntary act. Having done that, It Is claimed, they cannot test the constitutionality of the law or regulations reg-ulations (or the codes) written under un-der that law. It seems, however, that there is a difference of opinion between the lawyers of NRA and the lawyers of the Department of Justice. Many lawyers outside of the government are understood to be gathering up all of the pieces of argument they can find respecting the positions of the two governmental groups. As I understand It, lawyers representing rep-resenting code signers have put forth the argument that the signing sign-ing was not a voluntary action. They contend that throughout the making of codes, General Johnson and his aides consistently stressed the point that unless those to whom the code was to apply agreed, the administrator would write a code for them and they would be bound by It. I never heard It used as a threat, but It nevertheless Is a fact that most of those who had dealings deal-ings with the NRA were afraid tin y would suffer from the licensing -ef their plants if they failed to sln the codes. by Western Newspexr Unloq From what I can pick up around here, it is certain that a considerable consider-able portion of the business interests inter-ests is desirous of a limitation on the recovery act provisions so that they will apply really Just to establishment estab-lishment of maximum hours of labor la-bor and minimum wages, and to abolition of the sweat shop and elimination of child labor. They are determined in their opposition to retention in the recovery act of provisions that give power to fix prices, to control production and to grants of authority that bring private pri-vate business books into the limelight lime-light whenever snooping government govern-ment agents want to dig Into private pri-vate affairs of Individuals or corporations. cor-porations. Frankly, I think that feature has done more to discredit NRA than any other phase of the law under which it operates. On the other hand, only the meanest and cheapest of individuals can oppose op-pose any move that Is designed to provide better working conditions and hours of labor for those who live by the sweat of their brow. While obviously none can foretell fore-tell the result of this issue at such an early date, the opinions that I gather among observers here make me believe that there is quite a popular appeal in the argument which is being advanced for revision re-vision of the recovery act and limitation lim-itation of NRA control. Folks generally gen-erally will go along with propositions proposi-tions that work for betterment, but which do not at the same time include in-clude invasion of what they believe to be their personal rights. The administration contends, however, that extension of the recovery act powers or at least, retention of the powers now existent in NRA are not an invasion of - personal rights beyond the necessity for creating cre-ating greater human happiness. But the hard-headed business man, great or small, is going to be hard to convince, it seems to me, that government control to the extent of fixing his prices and doing some of the other things now permitted is not an undue messing with his personal affairs. The lessons of the four-year depression de-pression have been so severe that there is little evidence of Important Impor-tant opposition to curtailment of hours of labor. Likewise, sound business leaders cannot Justify opposition op-position to minimum wages nor can they find a safe ground upon which to propose use of child labor or operation op-eration under sweat shop conditions. condi-tions. Politically, therefore, labor will be interested only in those four Items ; the women vote of the country probably will be Interested only in accomplishment of those ends, and business Interests worthwhile worth-while will not object. Attention was called above to the tour which General Johnson is making in be-Johnson be-Johnson Wants half of the blue to Retire eagle of the NRA, and it will be recalled that some months ago I reported on the probability of changes In NRA management. During General Johnson's absence, a board of five men constitutes the administrative authority of NRA. It seems to be In the nature of an experiment If it works out satisfactorily, satis-factorily, we may expect to see the veteran army officer retire to private pri-vate life. He has said as much. He wants to get back into private business. Mr. Roosevelt, however, likes the fighting qualities of General Gen-eral Johnson, and It Is still possible possi-ble that he will remain on the job. He Is responsible for the general plan of NRA administration and the theories embodied In the various vari-ous codes. It would seem, therefore, there-fore, that the man who worked out the codes should stay along and sift thern down to the permanent Wvol, If permanency be the goal. |
