King Country Chronicle. Tuesday, October 9, 1934. THE UNITED STATES N.R.A.

King Country Chronicle, Volume XXVIII, Issue 4607, 9 October 1934, Page 4

King Country Chronicle. Tuesday, October 9, 1934. THE UNITED STATES N.R.A.

Mr. Roosevelt must be given credit for a sincere effort to restore prosperity to his country. His policy in this way has been a bold one, and the results so far have been negligible. It has been a great adventure, but even in the face of strikes and co'ntinued low prices, the President will not acknowledge defeat. The Chief of the N.R.A., General Johnson, has resigned from office, and his successor has announced a change of policy. ' The original plan of the N.R.A. provided for price fixation and the control of production. The newly appointed administrator, Mr. Donald R. Richberg, now advises business interests to leave "the lop-sided guild of Socialism, of price-fixing and production control for the old competitive system." To stabilise prices for every commodity would be the ideal thing if such were possible, but in a world of intense competition and varying standards of living, it is far from being a sound economic ]oroposition or even practical. Price fixation might be. possible and even desirable in certain standard lines, but to extend it to every line is quite out of the question. Limitation of production is also a problem the solution of which would be hard to provide, and does not seem to have been practical in the United States. Summing up the position at the present time the National Recovery Administration appears to have been a failure, and to change horses in the middle of the stream is a dangerous practice. Yet the new administrator has no alternative, and as Mr. Roosevelt will not acknowledge defeat the N.R.A. will go off at another tangent, the lines of which have not yet been disclosed. It is a paradox that a country like the United States, which amassed so much wealth immediately after the war, should be in the position it is to-day, when Great Britain, which had to bear the greatest financial burden ; to save Europe and civilisation, is : surely emerging from her financial ; and industrial troubles. Yet the ] reason is not hard to find. If the i United States had taken the same broad view as Great Britain and realised that not one country can be

prosperous at the expense of others, the economic and financial conditions of the world would be very much different to-day.