Mason Opposes N.R.A., in Spite of Advantages and Progressive Features

Many features of the N.R.A. are excellent: the recovery, Administration training, working hours, thereby eliminating the sweat shop, it nationalizes labor legislation, it abolishes child labor and annual it helps destroy unfair competitive practices. But in spite of all these virtues, said Edward S. Mason, Associate Professor of Economics, in an interviwe with the CRIMSON, "I am decidedly to the N.R.A.

"I believe that the happy features of the N.R.A. might have been incorporated in the government without the concomitant evil that the Recovery Act has brought about. Codes of fair competition were deflectable measures as long as they did not permit industrial combinations to restrict output and fix prices. It is in these two powers that the great perilnes.

"In the case that trade associations are allowed 'carte blanche' to limit output and determine prices, it is almost certain that the associations will commence charging monopolistic prices, and will force them upon the public.

"In the case that price-fixing and output-limiting are subject to government regulation, we shall find that no adequate technique has yet been developed for answering questions which regulation of this sort will have to answer, namely: What is the proper output? What is the proper price Also, government regulation will father the exercise of political influence, log rolling, and intrigue; all in the attempts to get monopolistic prices.

"There are certain code mechanisms already adopted that limit machine hours, prevent the substitution of machines for human labor, set minimum prices, and prevent the sale of commodities at less than cost. Through all these methods the N.R.A. is pointing the way for monopolistic price-fixing and limitation of output. The consumer is very likely to be seriously injured, and therefore it is in his behalf that I oppose the N.R.A."