Ke Alakai o Hawaii, Volume X, Number 7, 18 Pepeluali 1937 — Attacks on Roosevelt Split Ranks of U. S. Chamber of Commerce [ARTICLE]

Attacks on Roosevelt Split Ranks of U. S. Chamber of Commerce

Tiie bi 11 e r "battle to the death." waged by the Ūnited States Chāmber of Commerce during the- campaign against President Franklin D. Roosevelt aad his New Deal policies is begioning to have a decidedly adverse effect- upon the chamber's membership and future. Latest move of a subsidiary of the Chamber in protest against its activities and stand in opposition to t h e President is th e announced resignation of th e National Dry Good Retail Association from the Chamber This organization comprises 5,600 retail dry goods and ottj.er merchants who sell $5,000,000,000 worth of merchandise annually in tl>e co»ntry's department, dry goods and specialty stores. Comment upon ttvīs deoisioii said ikai it was based primariiy upoh the fact that "Chamber of €omnierce thinking h a s be e n dominated by men who eould nol or would not understand that iu our system it is just as important to have customers who ean buy as.it is to have goods to se!L M The declslon was reached at a recent board of directors meetmg of the National Retail Dry Goods association at Atiantic C l nd one of t\vo significir* innouncements. First was a proposal for a retailing "NRA" founded on state instead of federal statutes, At llie next Dry Goods eonveutiou the gener;»l meml>ership wiU be asked to approve a program eallingr for~fcupport tn state leg!sla tures of model laws eover!ng wages, hours, child labor, deeeptive advertising, mlsleadinf labeling and priee cutting. Hie second was the announeement of the deciston to quit the United States Chamber of Conxn\erce rt*Jeaaed by Chaiuiing i EiissvorUv Eweitzer, Uie association's large, able, 43-year-old managtng direc(or, was Lliis explanatlon: "The board of directors has submitted the resigna- ... etiecUve immediately |becaiUise ui represeu.īalion roi retailing in tlie eoun'ei! of the Chnmber aiv' ? .1 '-ek of recognltion of the lmportanee of retail trade, whieh has an annuai voiume of approximateii"

Applauded rublisher £ s David Stern's Pliiladetphia Record: "The C. of C. has misrepresented the businessmen 6f thls coimtry long enough. Tbe C. 0f C. brought businessmen unmerited disrepute by its shortsighted selfishness, its vfoflnt and irresponsib!e attacks oiifīhe New Deal and its hook-up w!th interests whieh th e American businessman fears — and has reason to Chamber of Commeree thinktng has been dominated by ,

who could not or wou!d not understand that in oxrr sytem it is just as important to have icūstomers who ean buy as it is to have goods to sell." The Drj' Goods Association is thc second big trade organizaiion to pull out of the C. of C. this year, the National Automohile Manufacturers having quit last spring because the Chamber was not anti-New Deal enough. A little later Edward Albert Filene, one of the Chamber's founders, resigned in disgust over t&eChamber r s ainateurlsh handling of national eeonomie problems (TTME, June 8).