"SYNDICALIST MOVE"

Evening Post, Volume CXVIII, Issue 50, 28 August 1934, Page 8

"SYNDICALIST MOVE"

THE NEW DEAL POLICY

DANGER TO. THE NATION

The policies of the Boosovelt Administration offer tho moans whereby a. "new deal combined with freedom" can be evolvod without saddling the National Recovery Administration as it now functions on the nation, according to Professor Hornell Hart, of Hartford Theological Seminary, speaking at the general session of the American Home Economics Association, says the <' Christian Science Monitor. ' '

Professor Hart held that much had been accomplished by the National Rocovory Administration, but that this had been counterbalanced by valid objections to other features. Between these two' extremes, a workable compromise could be evolved, ho declared.

Professor Hart advocated putting tho 8,000,000 unemployed back to work producing goods for which their re-employ-ment would create demands. The first step, as outlined by him, would bo the formation of a commission of exports on consumer budgets. The "freedom" would be exerted in a move to release, stimulate, and facilitate tho balanced expansion of production in the lines indicated, he emphasised, an act which, would provide the needed purchasing power. Confidence was nooded, and would be established if the Government would make authoritative surveys of consumer needs available to business men. •

His talk on the N.R.A. followed one- on the same subject delivered by .Professor Paul H. Douglas of Iho University of Chicago, which was considered by many delegates to the convention as the'most, stirring address of the conference.

Professor Douglas began his talk b3r saying that "The 'New Deal' of President Roosevelt, admirable in intentions, was born into a world still dominated by sellers rather than by consumers." The rosulfc, ho added, was that employers under the N.R.A. have followed the policy of charging the cost of the idle overhead, however great, to the output, however little. This has been hardest on the poor consumer, he stressed. THE OLD POLICY. "Wo are facing, therefore, a frantic effort on tho part of the owners of a largo proportion of our industries to improve their individual position by boosting prices and by restricting production in their own lines," he continued. "But that is largely self-defeating when uni-. versaliscd, and it is extremely disadvantageous to society as a whole. "Tho truth of the matter is, I fear, that wo aro rapidly creating a system of capitalistic syndicalism. Each industry, undor tho delusive slogan of industrial self-government, is being largely turned over to its owners to manage as they sco fit, subject to some slight public regulation. ''We havo been trying to regulate tho public utilities of this country for the last quarter of a century, and virtually overy impartial student of the question knows that, instead of the State commissions controlling the utilities, the utilities, with a few honourable exceptions, have controlled tho commissions." Professor Douglns did not recommend complete repeal of the N.R.A., but urged a bottom to labour conditions below which destructive competition could not go, tho preventing of private monopoly and price fixing, tho enforcement of fair codes, tho prohibition of misrepresentation of one's own products, or those of competitors, and the protection of standards of quality. Business practices are at variance with morals and religion, Dr. William H. Kilpatrick, of Teachers' College, Columbia University, said at a group discussion of "Youth and the Family in tho Now Deal." Quoting tho Scriptural passage, ("Thou shait lovo thy neighbour as thyself"), ho contrasted the attitude of "beating tho other fellow" with the policy of considering the well-being of othors. '' Wo are essontially at war with ourselves," ho said. "Wo do not live wholeheartedly for the right and good. If we did but pool our resources and use them for the good of all, we would create enormous wealth —enough to banish all poverty, give everyone security, and distribute a much larger share o£ wealth than we had in 192 D. "These are sober facts. I am not talking of chimeras. We will study Russia,, we will study Italy, we mil study Germany—but our ways aro not their ways. Our way is to pursue the democratic process. There must bo no dictator of any sort. Power must be nsed for the good of the pooplo, playing no political favourites." j Earlier in his talk Dr. Kilpatrick had contrasted present-day living with pioneer days when each family was an economic unit. • j "We are now facing a gcnuinoly new fact—the fact of economic interdepend- j ence," he insisted, "and this may require a change in our constitution which is based on the- prior state of economic independence." ' UNFAIR PROMOTION. At a gathering on "Home Making," i ways of combating the unfair labelling and advertising of goods weri! discussed. Miss Rosamond Cook, professor of Homo Economics at tho University of Cincinnati, told of a campaign which the Better Business Bureau of her city was undertaking to protect consumers from buying silk garments that are "weighted" but marked in such a way that the consumer is not aware of this. Miss Ann Pierce, magazine editor'of New York, traced much of tho faulty purchasing to the fact that "80 per cent, of us, according to psychologists, are susceptible to the emotional appeal of advertising, and until we show that we can buy on a fact basis, the consumer will not be protected." Social insurance and homo economics featured round-table^ discussions. Mr. Paul Popcnoe, director of the Institute of Family Relations in Los Angeles, said that, in his opinion, happier marriages would result if every girl received a thorough training in budgeting- and buying during the high school period, as the proper handling of tho family income was a factor, in the harmony of the home. Tho enactment of a comprehensive system of social insurance was urged by Mi1. Abraham Epstein of Now York, executive secrotary of the American Association for Social Security, who cited the benefits that havo been realised by European countries through this guarantee of income. Beautiful buildings cost less than ugly ones, according to Mr. David R. Williams of tho Rural Rehabilitation Division, Federal Emergency Relief Administration, who planned houses for 100 families on subsistence farms in East Texas. The houses were mado from native materials and in native styles in keeping with geographical surroundings.