Business in America Slowing Down

Manawatu Times, Volume LIV, Issue 7301, 31 October 1933, Page 8

Business in America Slowing Down

RESERVE BANK AND N.RaA.

WASHINGTON, Oct. 27. A sharp difference of opinion over the interpretation of tho results of the national recovery programme developed ■within the administration to-day, when tho Federal Reserve Bank Board issued its monthly statement declaring that Business activity had slowed down in tho past two months in industries “in which agricultural processing taxes or National Recovery Act codes have become effective recently.”

The Administrator of tho National Recovery Act (General Hugh Johnson) and the Secretary for Agriculture (Mr Henry Wallace) immediately issued strong protests. General Johnson insisted that “every report received from major industries, excepting steel, shows a definite upward trend.” The Secretary of Agriculture insisted that the apparent" slowing down in industries and tho processing of farm products wero due to their efforts to “anticipate thp processing levies, thereby beating the tax.” Some political observers here interpret tho Rlßirve Bank Board statement as thfe first open break in the long-standing rift between the fiscal branch of the Government and the National Recovery administration. Stimulating Steel. President Roosevelt’s plan to stimulate the steel industry has again been brought forward, as the President charged four leading steel corporations with collusion in bidding for contracts. For years ,through an extra-legal agreement, tho price of rails has been pegged at 40 dollars a ton. President Roosevelt indicated that the companies should bid individually, and at a lower rate, in order to get the Government’s contemplated order of a million tons. To-day the corporations presented a uniform bid of 37 dollars 75 cents a ton. The Government has issued a virtual ultimatum that either the bids be reduced to 35 dollars or the companies’ books be opened for Government spection, after which President Roosevelt would fix a fair price. Tho Public Works administration announced that 200,000,000 dollars will be allocated to a new Government corporation, which will engage directly in the construction of model home and tenements in congested city areas. Ford and the Boycott. President Roosevelt definitely projected a boycott against Mr Henry Ford to-day when he let it be known that, barring a legal decision by the Attorney-General to the contrary, Mr Ford is ineligible to receive Government contracts. Mr Ickes, Secretary of the Department of the Interior, Which' is perhaps tho largest Government purchaser of equipment, definitely announced that no more Ford vehicles would bo purchased, and General Hugh Johnson again made a threat of legal action against Mr Ford, saying that any “clear-cut violation” of the code by Mr Ford would be communicated to the Department of Justice as a personal gesture against Mr Ford.