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THE BEACH REVIEW
2
IROGE]RS
Job tional R ec o v e r y ls wholly government owned. From all
administration. Mr.
l~ielI~erg will be chairman of tile Na-
tional Industrial Recovery board which
now been enlarged to the number
@f seven, and It Is proposed that this
~p, divided between labor and cap-
Itil r~presentatlon, will guide the poll-
and program~ as well as the en-
tre'cement of NRA.
It may be that Mr. Rlchberg's ap-
~ntment should be given only pass-
tag notice. Polltlcal appointments In
Washington are many and the addition
of one more normally would not at-
tTaet ettention. It appears, however,
flint in this particular Instance eonsld-
emble significance should be attached
to the appointment. It will have
repercussions In more ways than one.
This brings us to the question of
th8 future NRA. As we all know NRA
le~$1atlen in tile house and senate ts
~lcolmterlng rough saillng. There are
many different ideas being put for-
ward about the prlnclple of NItA that
thus far It has been exceedingly diet-
trill to reconcile them. Since tile pres-
ent national industrial recovery act
expires hy limitation of law oa June
26, congress faces the necessity of en-
actment of new legislation or allowing
1[he present law to die and the codes
lmder It to fall apart.
Selection of Mr. Rlchberg on tile basis
of these facts then would seem to In-
dicate that Mr. Roosevelt had picked
Ills bes~ sohller to fi~llt the battle: that
Mr. Rlchberg, beln~ eyes and ears for
]l~lr. Boosevelt, would be the Indlvhiual
guide the President Io choice of
~lley and that hls nlost trusted ad-
Viser would be tile man to put for-
Ward details of the pl'opo.~ed NRA ex-
tension legislation. The undercurI:ent
of gossip around Washington, iiowever,
Indlcatea something else.
In the first instance. Mr, Riehher~
|S in bad wltl~ organized labor, and
~he has shown no disposition lately re
make peace despite the fact that he
woe for years the repre~ntatlve of
railway, labor unions. Mr. Rlehberg
it was who clashed with General John•
~n end who Is regarded, therefore,
~ts Indirectly responsible for General
Johnson's resignation as national re-
covery administrator. The new chair-
man thus goes into his Job with threat-
~ntng clouds on several sides.
R will not be forgotten, either, that
sue.b valiant campaigners as Senator
Carter Glass and Senator Borah. not
~to mention the alleged progressive,
~ator Nye, are waiting for the NRA
]~ltSlafl.on in the senate. Mr. Rich.
4~'g's hide will look to them the same
as any other hide. It is Just possll)le,
therefore, as some observers have sug-
lge$'te¢l, that Mr. Rlcht~erg may have
been put out as the lamb on the sac-
rlfldal altar.
Indeed, color is lent to this suppo-
ldtion by the fact that Mr. Roosevelt
hmJ taken little direct interest In pro-
moting legislation extending the life
of lgRA. Thus far he has sahl that
he desired to have the extension grant-
ed. but he has not turned on the steam
fls he is equipped to do, and as he has
done for bills that were personal hob-
bles with him. It Is made to appear,
therefore, that perhaps there will be
disintegration of NRA as stlch anti
lhat the functions desired by the ad-
~lnlstratlon to be retained will be
Imrceled out, some to tile federal trade
commission, some to the Labor depart-
ment, and others of lesser consequence
scattered elsewhere.
WhlIe we are dtSCUSSln~ legislath)n,
It may be well to consider what I~ he-
Ins done about tile
t Credit ~or program of extend-
~tOfl~e Owners lag credit to home
owners In cities and
tOWh~ through the machinery of the
home loan board. The honse has
passed a bill which will Increase by
two billion, eight btlndred million dr)l-
tars the amount of ftlIM~ avatlab',o for
Iollna of titls type I)y tko ltonte own-
er~' L4~RII curporaliOll. "l'his ~qll~/i wag
approxlmatelY s I)iltlon dolhtrs nt{,re
than the home loan hom'd thong:hi was
t]ecessary, but tlle sl~ht or ltm~rzht
of so much money Stalqed the members
Of the how~e on sonlcllllng like q riot,
$0 they ntad(, ample fun¢ls available.
From reports filtering tlu'm~;:h to
Washlngtun, I thiuk there can be no
questlou bill whllt the heine loan .,,ys-
tern lifts heen nf help ill lhotls}tlldS Of
@aseS. Undoubtedly av~lihlbilily of ~av,
ernlnent money tn this matter has
~aved nnnumhered home nwllol'S from
10SS of their prol~erty where sh,)rt-
~ghted mortgage holders have Insist-
ed npon undue enrtaiinlent or ahs.lltte
repayment of the horrowed m.aey.
Extension of the symem lwobabty ba~
resulted also lu reduction of general
Interest rates by privme lenders of cap-
ital. If the), wantt, tl their mnuey
to work at all. they had to meet the
government COml~etition- Whether tile
principle of goverllu/ent ]oltns ls sound
In normal times Is another llorso. Time
alone can tell. The activity of cnngrcss,
especially tn the house, lndicaWs that
there Is a demand of some kind or
other for these In'ms in preference to
private capital and that necessarily
must be considered as an lnIluentlal
foe{or.
A~I the legislation Increasing the lend-
I can learn It ~tands out as the
finest Illustration of what politicians
can do In the way of building polit-
Ical machines that I have seen In e
score of years In the National Capital.
It will be remembered that upon cre-
ation of tile board former Representa-
tive "Seaboard Bill" Stepllenson of
South Carolina was named chairman.
Mr. Stepheason, being more honest
about politics thall many others, an-
nounced unequivocally that appoint-
meats were going to be made on a po-
litical basis. He created quite a furore
and finally found himself sidetracked.
For a time we here in Washington
have heard little about politics In the
home loan system. It has developed,
however, that politics was not dead,
but sleeping.
The loan corporation In carrying out
the Idea or policy of decentralization
did some very pe-
Peculiar culler things, accord-
Doings? lng tO well authen-
ticated reports. Ac.
tually, I am told, some young men with-
out previous practical experience or
training were supplied with copies of
the home loan act. given a ticket and
ordered to the hinterland to ()pen des-
Ignated regional oflice~. Shortly there-
after out of the thousamts of em-
plo.veos in the home office of tile loan
corporation Individuals were called
Into tile office of the directing heads
and were ordered to go to one or the
other of the newly opened establish-
meats. They were told at the same
time that their salaries would be re-
duced. In addition, I am reliably in-
formed, hundreds of them have suf-
fered further salary redactions since
they have been on their new Jobs.
While all of thls has been going on,
tile corporation set up a board of four
members in the headquarters before
which remaining employees in the
Washington office have been called for
examination. This board was an-
nounced a.s for the purpose of deter-
mining which of the employees should
be retained. They wanted to be fair
about it nnd wanted to keep on the
payroll such of the employees as were
unable to get along wlthon~ the Jobs
they were holding. It seems, however,
that that board has become an In-
quisitorial body absolutely without
precedent in the character of examine.
tlon to which It subjects tile employees.
The result Is that few, if any, of the
employees of the loan corporation en-
tertain any belief that they can stay
on their Jobs with any feeling of safety.
For example, one man's experience
is quoted. He was asked whether he
had money in the bank, and he had
none. He was asked wllether any of
his people were on tile relief rolls.
and they were not. Numerous other
que~lons, such as the rate he paid
for Ills board aml room and the cost
of his laundry were put to him. He
then was asked If he carried life In-
surance, and his answer that he did
apparently was wrong. Although he
was not told directly, the inference of
questions put to him was that he
could llve two months if lie cashed
in his life Insurance policy. At any
rate he was dlsml~sed.
But th'~s is not all. Included in the
bill which increases the amount of
funds that may be loaned by the cor-
poration is a line of legislation that
will have tile e~rect of expanding poli-
tics In the organization. Written into
that bill are instructions that tile cor-
poration shall recall to Washington all
of those enlployees who were dis-
patched to new J~hs in the regional,
state or district olltee~. ()f coarse.
n,t one can say yet authoritatively that
when these wm'kers are recalled they
will be diSnlissed here. That, however,
obviously Is the result.
$ $ $
Senti[or Core of Okt:lhorna placed
In tile L'on~re:~sional I:e(.ord recently
a telegram he had
Co~r(zge received and his re-
Needed ply to It that lllns-
lrates bettor than
any recent lncidellt ]lr)W nl'l~h cotlr-
age Is reqtlired by It national legisla-
tor to withstand tile i)l'eSstlre from
honle. The o(.ca~ion w,is con.~tdol'atbln
hi the sen'He of tile put)lie works
l,fill. The telegram received by the
senator was siane(l by .lee A. Brown,
tile may.r of Iiartshnrne. okla., and e.
tL Lindsa.v, mayor of Ihflh,yvllle. Okla.
it follows :
".