Chamberlin Says N.R.A. Has Little To Do With Recovery, Near Finale

Just returned form a brief trip to Washington, Edward H. Chamberlin, Associate Professor of Economics and member of the Consumers' Advisory Board for the N. R. A. administration, stated in an interview with the CRIMSON yesterday that "the National Recovery Act has less to do with recovery every day."

Going on to explain, Professor Chamberlin pointed out that "it has become increasingly apparent that the means chosen were not adapted to the ends. Restrictive measures such as price fixing, the prohibition of sales below cost, and the limitations of output are being abandoned, although a year ago these were represented as the only means of curing a demoralized state of industry. Mr. Richberg has even recognized that the process of raising wages in order to "increase purchasing power" may be carried to excess."

"There is no way of knowing," he continued, "how far the process of liquidation will go. But with the movement in reverse, it seems very unlikely the NRA would be made the agency through which now positive measures designed to bring about recovery would be undertaken."

Asked to explain what the future of the NRA will be he expressed the opinion that the government will naturally nor discontinue the codes, for to do so would be an outright confession of failure. If in the future the domination of the system by the large industrial units can be prevented and if the interests on the public can be effectively represented, the NRA codes may provide an avenue through which some of the problems of industrial competition can be satisfactorily settled. But all this has nothing to do with recovery.

In conclusion, Mr. Chamberlin remarked "there are good reasons for thinking that the public interest will be distinguished from that of business and be more effectively heard in the future. Looking backward, it seems no less than a nightmare that business should have been handed a blank check, as it was under General Johnson, to 'govern itself' with no thought for the consequences. The present set-up of boards makes it much more possible to look at problems from several angles instead of only one. for a long time to come, however, public gains will be realized only slowly, and much of the power which large industrialists have secured for themselves with governmental sanction will never be retaken from them."