PROBLEMS INCREASE

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LX, Issue 18191, 12 September 1933, Page 7

PROBLEMS INCREASE

U.S: RECOVERY PLAN GENERAL CONFUSION NEW YORK, Sept. 11. An example of the peculiar difficulties facing the local National Recovery Actboards is the. failure successfully to-, negotiate the end of a strike of 2500; bakers of fancy cakes and confections. Tiie strike has been in progress for several months. The union leaders allege that the Specialty Bakery Owners’ Association is unwilling to co-operate under the Recovery Act. A temporary court injunction forbids the strikers the right to picket and they are threatening to take the matter to the highest courts to clarify the legality of picketing under the N.R.A. Such manifestations as the bakers’ strike are examples of the general confusion respecting the labor features of the N.R.A., which are now being threshed out at Washington. With the larger industries, there is a noticeable growing restiveness among many classes of workers and similar comparatively small strikes are breaking out in other sections of the country. It- is believed that a settlement of the coal ode. which is now before the Administration at Washington, will effect the adjustment of differences in the smaller industries, but, meanwhile, strikes are causing considerable worry to local and national administration boards. The negotiation for a coal code now appears to- be reaching a crisis, with observers predicting that Mr. Roosevelt will eventually have to use force on recalcitrant operators. The code formulated by the Administration was met with reservations by operators of such a nature as virtually to constitute rejection of the whole code. They still resist the “closed shop’’ provision, while, it is understood, Mr. Roosevelt is determined to adhere to the original wording of the Act, and allow labor the right to organise as it sees fit.

“SPEND MORE”

GEN. JOHNSON’S APPEAL WASHINGTON, August 7. The Administration’s campaign for recovery entered upon a new phase yesterday when General Johnson, the Industrial Recovery Administrator, ' made a vigorous appeal for greater expenditure on the part of the public. Addressing a mass meeting at Cleveland, Ohio, by telephone from Washington the general declared that if the public did not play its part by buying, the present recovery campaign was doomed to failure. “It is no time to save money,” he told his audience. “If yon do not spend now and giet something, you will spend later for taxes and doles.” • ■>-

General Johnson did not, however, rest his appeal purely on patriotic grounds. He warned consumers that tire higher wages which were being brought about by the Administration’s industrial policy would result- in higher prices “just as sure as the sun sets,” and added that this upward trend would come soon. He therefore advised every* body to turn their money into goods, because almost before they could draw breath the things they wanted would be worth more than the money they could save by not buying. Such advice, with its plain admission of the inflationary character of the Administration’s programme, is _ scarcely calculated to diminish the anxiety with which many people are watching the ogress of the present experiment. .But it is important to distinguish tho bait from the hook. The general’s appeal for more active buying arises, not so much from a charitable desire to see people obtain* the best for their money, as from a realisation of the urgent necessity of bringing consumption more into line with current production. PAYING OFF PRIVATE DEBTS Contrary to hopes and expectations there has'not yet been any appreciable diminution of the dangerous gap which lias developed between production and consumption during the first few months of President Roosevelt’s term of office. Indeed, the Department of Commerce re* ported last week that retail sales in ,I une barely reached the totals for May, while the preliminary figures for July actually showed a failing off. In the light of this General Johnson’s desire to stimulate public buying by resort to appeals and threats alike can be better understood. One reason why the vastly increased > volume of purchasing power which lias undoubtedly come into being during tho past few months has not uQeii more felt in terms of increased buying is that it has been largely absorbed by the repayment of debts. Investigation lias shown that thousands of those who have been reabsorbed into industry from tire ranks of the unemployed are using their new-found wages to liquidate the often heavy debts which they were forced to incur during their period of idleness. Their honesty, ironically enough, has, however, upset the calculations of the Recovery Administration. In his speech telephoned to Cleveland General Johnson also issued a solemn warning to employers “not to trifle with the Blue Eagle.” He admitted that time was needed by some employers to adjust their productive system to the hours of work and rates of pay laid down by the President’s blanket agreement ; but lie declared that within another two weeks “no man in thb country who is really doing his part will lent* any excuse for 11011-member-ship of N.R.A.” (the National Recovery Administration). To the plea that, the rights of shareholders must be safeguarded tho general retorted that shareholders would “be all right if this plan succeeds: but heaven help them if it fails,” .