SOCIALISM IS RECOMMENDED TO LITTLE FELLOWS IN DARROW REPORT
SOCIALISM IS RECOMMENDED TO LITTLE FELLOWS IN DARROW REPORT 'VHK ruling groups, having the bulk of ^ th« capital and finance of the nation, • re divided over the NRA. A powerful • ection one...
...But it was determined to appeal the sentence to establish once and for all whether this l«gisUtian, passed during the period of the Lusk insanity (and signed by Governor Al Smith), should remain on the books to be held as a club over the heads of the workers...
...Big business," says the report, "begins b^ making it impossible for the small man to survive...
...Plenty of instances are cited in the report to show that the NRA has strengthened the posseiisors of big capital...
...In the main its cTiarges are that the whole system of "fair competition" undertaken under the National Industrial Recovery Acti tends to monopoly and to the disadvantage of the little business man and the consumer...
...The claaa-conscioiiR workers are the vanguard in support of this program...
...The very bigness of their capital gives them an advantage, but the One Big Unions enable them to add to the pressure which bears heavily upon the owners of little capital...
...These are the criticisms in the general report of the board...
...The National R e c o very Review Board, of which Clarence Darrow is (or by this time probably was) Chairman, p r o v ed to be a severe critic of the NRA...
...The maintenance of opportunity for free political discussion to the end that government may be responsive to the will of the people, and that change may be obtained by Infill means, an opportunity essential to the security of the Republic, is a fundamental principle of any constitutional system...
...The future of the farml-r, the little fellow and the wage worker lies in taking over th« great industries and making them public property to be operated for the common good...
...Thoy are entrusted with the job of administering "codes of fair competition...
...They are toads under the harrow...
...How doea Administrator Johnson meet itT By claiming that it means a choice "between fascism and communism...
...It declares: "The choice is between monopoly suaUined by government, which is clearly the trend in the National Recovery Administration, and a planned economy, which demands socialized ownership and control, since only by collective ownership can the inevitable conflict of separately owned units for code administrators, answered the Darrow reports...
...A powerful • ection one year ago pleaded for government help when the banks passed into the ditch...
...Failure to keep a<id increase business and employment gains brought by lavish Gov rnment spending means increasl ^ dls« illusionment with the Roosevelt program, with inevitable political repercussions...
...The Roosevelt Democrats, now busli/ engaged in building up a great »' chino in Washington and through* out the nation, do not relish th« prospc.L of i.xing any political ground...
...Rdsscil was a sort of a "brain truster" to a "hraiii truster...
...In support of his argument that the state law was unconstitutional, Solomon cited the case of Stromberg vs...
...That is true but it is also a farce...
...Strihcs are on the increase...
...Charles Solomon of the firm of Goldberg A Solomon represented Altman and Retzkin in both courts, contending that the anti-red flag law, Section 2095A of the New York Penal Law, was not only ridiculous but a flagrant violation of both the state and fcjjieral constitutions...
...parade h^ar the Memorial Monumen|, where members of exservicemen's organizations were gathered for a dempnstration...
...All except the most stif-deluded of the President's advisers know there is plenty of discontt it in th« United States, despite what seems to bo the Mr...
...Other big masters are not certain that they can pull capitalism out of the ditch without the aid of the NRA...
...There are some exceptions to this law, but as a general rulfe it is true...
...It is the middle and lower middle classes whose stakes are being gathered in by the big fellows...
...again, he does' not deny it, either...
...The old law of capitalism, that the greater capital has an advantage over smaller capital, works out as well under the NRA as it did before it was enacted...
...eliminated in favor of planned production...
...Capitalism is a game of dog eat dog...
...and, after he is eliminated, it turns upon the weakest of the common aggressors," Moreover, "One may as well dream of making warmaking competition fair...
...The grip of the big barons is based upon their enormous monopoly capital...
...The NRA through administrator Hugh Johnson, general counsel Donald R. Richberg, and several lady-like as of At all times it is merely a question of which dog will next be eaten...
...What he probably means is that the report is dangerously honest, dangerou* to the security of the robber barons in that it tells the rniddle classes that their hop$ lies in a Socialist program...
...California, decided in the United States Supreme Court, and in which case Chief Justice Hughes, writing for the court, said...
...This ia Socialism...
...They want to scrap it but hold on to what they got...
...which in which the small man is the loser, and no power under the NRA is showing itself able to protect him...
...The fact that the report does not turn to Iho hackneyed conclusion that enforcement of the anti-trust laws will bring relief to the little fellow is evidence of "good faith...
...Under the NRA the masters of capital were told to organize into nationwide trade associations...
...With the Congressional el..tions liLtlo more than Ave months off, it is vitally necessary from x political standpoint that the Administration push it 4 "recovery" drive with more success than in the past...
...Just what the President and his advisers will do t« head off more discontent and dia* illusionment Is not clearly known, but it is believed their eflTorts wlU be centered on a .strenuous drlv» to increase activity and emplojp...
...llian seasonal proportions in sonic Although the Darrow report relines and with the usual summer ceived a bushelful of publicity, insiders in Washington know that dullness close at hand, the RooseGeneral Johnson, or some one else velt Adiiiinistration will he forced near the White House, out it aJ) hy {(olitical coiisi<leration» if nothing else to make a renewed Red Flag Law Knocked Out Mli W YORK State's anti-red flag law, one of the fruits of the aiiti-radical hysteria of 1919, has lieen declared unconstitutional by the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court, First Department, in the case of Jack Altnian and Alex Retzkin, Socialists, who were convicted for a violation of the law in the Bronx Supreme Court last January...
...The Darrow report ia auggentive of tha Socialist program...
...The report refers to the "conflict of interest between large and small businesses, WASHINGTON at las...
...Growing labor unrest, approaching the explosion^ point in the steel and automobile industries, is merely one indication of this disconte;it, which is almost certain to result in some Democratic d»> feats in November...
...discovered — wliat it always sus()cctcd—that there is a Socialist ill the woodpile: Charles Edward Russell is to he hlanicd for the report of tiie-Darrow Hoard...
...Because it is true, the tendency for a century has been for the business unit to increase in size and for the smaller units to sink to lesser relative importance in the system of capitalist jrroduetion...
...effort to increase business activi'y...
...To give tho lanction of government to auatain proflta la not planned eeonomr, but a regimented offaniiation for axpluitation...
...Johnson did not hesitate to denounce the board's Roosevelt Doesn't Say the Word report as "superficial, intemperate and inaccurate...
...One might as well ask the burglar to prevent his pals from robbing safes...
...Russell himself does not admit writintr that reiwrt...
...They were arrested September 10, 1933 in Pelham Park, Bronx, for cBiTrying a red flag in a Y.P...
...Altman and Retzkin were given suspended sentences, the law having become virtually a dead letter in recent years...
...But Chairman Darrow and William 0. Thompson furnished the President with a supplementary "port of theii* own, in which it is •trongly urged that the country •*>pt a "planned economy...
...Roosevelt'., continued popularity...
...It is the aim of the Administration to hold ese defeats to a minimum...
...Btit then...
...The , result is that the small man "is often driven into bankruptcy by the low prices forced upon him by the powerful combinations...
...He pointed out that a statute invading such rights was repugnant to the 14th Amendment of the Constitution...
...S.L...
...Into this situation comes the Darpow report, which prcsciits the claims and the grievances of the fellows with small capital...
...The One Big Unions are managed by the big cauitalists...
...All other Tictima of tii* robber barons can And release and aecuritjr only by making the workers' prograa their own...
...that he had fought it on the floor of the Assembly, and that instead of Altman and Retzkin being arrested the "patriots" who had interfered with them in the exercise of their constitutional rights should have been arrested and brought to trial...
...They did...
...The little fellows declare that then <"•« being crushed...
...the market IN...
...He has recommended to the President that the To Poss the Labor Bill Darrow board be abolished without further ado, on the ground that Its continuance in operation can only hamper his successful operation of pACl'.l) witii a Iiusiness recesthe NRA and recovery in this sion which has readied more country...
...Having' organized their One Big Unions, this powerful section has turned against the NRA...
...In the days before the Great Collapse when such investigations were made, they were followed by urging that more teeth be placed in the anti-trust acts...
...He advises that the board that made the report should be abolished because it "is not proceeding in good faith...
...The Darrow Report Stirs Up Excitement in the Capital By Benjamin Melmoii i Snecial Corresnondence "demands socialized ownership and control, since' only by collective ownership can the inevitable conflict of separately owned units fol" the market be eliminated in favor of planned production...
...Workers are more and more dissatisfied with the administration of the codes, the sabotage, the chiseling, the delays and indecisions...
...The Darrow report declares that the "monopoljatic combinations are expected to enf(;rce against themselves a law to prevent monopoly...
...The Darrow report makes no such recommendation...
...He pointed out that the law was enacted in 1919 durfng the post-war hysteria when he waii a member of the legislature...
...Tke ruling elaga is ((ivided...
Vol. 17 • May 1934 • No. 21
