Renewal & Retreat

When Senator Daniel Oren Hastings, Delaware Republican, stood up in the Senate last week and challenged "anybody" to say a good word for NRA, not a single Senator on either side of the aisle went to that organization's defense. Meanwhile courts in Missouri, New York and Wisconsin continued to pull more legal feathers from the Blue Eagle's already skimpy tail. In New Orleans Senator Borah's nephew, Judge Wayne Borah, refused to grant an injunction restraining a box company from alleged violation of the lumber code, pointedly added: "Personally, I believe the whole NIRA is unconstitutional." The Senate Finance Committee, whose Chairman Pat Harrison had maneuvered an NRA investigation out of unfriendly hands into his own, was already committed to major changes as it began hearings on NRA's renewal. And to cap its other misfortunes, the Blue Eagle last week suddenly lost its second caretaker.

Williams Out. If for no other reason than that he was president of that highly successful capitalistic enterprise, R. J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. (Camels), Labor has been unalterably opposed to Samuel Clay Williams as NIRB Chairman since the day he succeeded NRAdministrator Hugh Johnson (TIME, Feb. 25). Because he believed that Mr. Williams had given employers the better of the bargain when he helped frame the preliminary cigaret code before he came to NRA, President Ira Milard Ornburn of the A. F. of L. cigar makers' union introduced a resolution at last autumn's Federation convention urging President Roosevelt to reconsider Mr. Williams' promotion. A "Dear Bill" letter from the White House to A. F. of L.'s President William Green in December failed to mollify Labor.

In January when the automobile code came up for renewal, Chairman Williams and the other NIRB business member voted to have the code renewed practically as is. The other three board members voted against it. Thereupon Chairman Williams took his minority report to President Roosevelt, got it approved. Upshot was that pressure chiefly from Labor last week eased Samuel Clay Williams out of a job that he never wanted anyway.

Answering "Dear Clay's" letter of resignation, President Roosevelt accepted the withdrawal with "sincere regret," but, with an eye toward his own public record, was at pains to point out:

"I was not surprised because I have in mind our several discussions of this possibility and particularly my letter to you under date of Sept. 27, 1934, in which I said:

" 'I am asking you to accept this appointment with a definite understanding that if you find yourself unable to serve as long as I hope may be possible, I shall, although reluctantly, release you from further service on your request. . . .'

"May I take this occasion to tell you of my deep appreciation for your unselfish contribution to the work we are all trying to do, and the fine public service that you have rendered?"

Cigaret Maker Williams announced that he was quitting not only to return to "business connections that I regularly carry," but also to be free as a private citizen to answer any call to appear at the Finance Committee's NRA inquiry. These motives of Cigaret Maker Williams, Cigar Unionist Ornburn picked up and made the worst of.

Cigar makers formed one of the early potent labor unions. The late great Samuel Gompers was a cigar maker, and it was from him that fat-faced, slow-spoken Ira Milard Ornburn inherited his job as union chief. Fast friend of Connecticut's Republican Boss Roraback, he was made a Tariff Commissioner by President Hoover, is now a member of the Labor Advisory Board and on the Cigar Manufacturers Code Authority. Not content with having flushed Mr. Williams out of a job, Mr. Ornburn proceeded to volley a few wing-shots at him:

"Mr. Williams suddenly divests himself of responsibility when trouble lies ahead. Mr. Williams will be in a more congenial atmosphere on returning to the R. J. Reynolds Tobacco Company of the tobacco trust, where executive acts require no explanation to the public. His resignation came five months too late and a month too early.

"Five months ago the American Federation of Labor unanimously adopted a resolution in San Francisco condemning the Williams appointment and asking the President to investigate his fitness for office.

"During the next month the Senate investigation will examine the administration of NRA. By resigning at this time, Mr. Williams refuses to face the music as an official who can be called to account.

"His resignation furthermore comes only a short time after the signing of the Cigaret Code, which was steered through NRA during Mr. Williams' incumbency. He can now return to his industry satisfied that he did a good job."

Speculations were promptly in order as to Mr. Williams' successor. Possible candidacies suggested were those of General Robert E. Wood of Sears, Roebuck & Co., member of Secretary Roper's Business Advisory and Planning Council who, the President had announced, would help him spend relief billions (TIME, Feb. 25) and William Averell Harriman, NRA's Administrative Officer. In the interim it was expected that Leon C. Marshall, Johns Hopkins political economist and an NIRB member, would be made titular chairman. Because Mr. Williams found that frequent calls to confer with the President and with Industry's representatives interrupted his routine as chairman, he had virtually turned over the formalities of that office to Leon Marshall.

George On Reorganization, How much of an organization there would be left to chairman was a question of more importance in Washington last week than who would chairman it. For sentimental, sociological, political and patronage reasons, Franklin Roosevelt feels that NRA must be continued in some form. Obvious requirements of reorganization were that NRA be made palatable to Business, popular with Labor and plausible to the Supreme Court.

Emerging from a White House conference, Senator Walter Franklin George of Georgia, No. 3 Democrat on the Senate Finance Committee, brought first word on the Administration's wishes as to revision. Little businessmen were pleased when Georgia's George announced that all save major industry codes were to be dumped. But Labor was given assurance that NRA wage and hour provisions would still hold good. Senator George intimated that the NRA organization might be scrapped, its vestigial functions turned over to the Federal Trade Commission and the Department of Labor.

Richberg On Renewal. That the Finance Committee's NRA "investigation" was to be constructive rather than spectacular Chairman Harrison had already announced. First witness was Donald Richberg. As NRA's old general counsel, no one knew better than he through what legal pitfalls the organization had had to scramble in the past year and a half, what Constitutional hazards still lay ahead. Nevertheless, "the act should be extended substantially in its present form for two years," said he, producing the President's renewal request.

Having thus given the appearance of a man determined to stick by his guns, Mr. Richberg proceeded to lay down a 17-point program proposing amendments to limit NRA to "what can be legally accomplished." The Weirton decision had cast grave doubt on the NRA's legal power to regulate intrastate industrial affairs simply by spicing the law with the "commerce clause" of the Constitution. With an eye to avoiding a peck of court trouble, Mr. Richberg therefore announced: "Codification should be limited to those trades and industries actually engaged in interstate commerce."

Statistically, NRA was on the verge of a significant retreat: from a maximum 600 codes affecting 22,000,000 workers to about 320 codes affecting some 19,000,000.

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