Will Roosevelt stop this?

Radio Record, Volume VII, Issue 12, 29 September 1933, Page 12

Will Roosevelt stop this?

"THE World Fair is the best thing that Chicago has ever known. Six. months ago it was the most stricken city in the United States. To-day it is the most prosperous city in the country-simply because of the money that is being spent all day and every day by the visitors to the Fair." So said Mr, Charles BE, Forrest, founder and managing director of the International Radio Company (importers of National Union Valves and Jensen Speakers), and one of the most successful men in the radio game in this part of the world, to a representative of the "Radio Record"

dis weex,. Mfr, LO rest, who originally started in Wellington, but later sold out and. established his business in Sydney, has just returned from America where he spent a considerable time visiting the principal cities. PPP PPPP PPL PLL PPL PLP POP Le

"It is estimated that there are. half a million visitors daily to Chicago for the Fair,’ and that each of them spends on an. average 10 dollars a day.- Total that .out for yourself over six months and you'll guess why the Chicago people are looking on the Fair as a gift from Heaven. Every railroad company, too, is helping the scheme along by offering return fares from any

part of America for a single fare plus sixpence, on condition that the ‘traveller returns within 10 days. "The Fair itself is wonderful. It is designed to show a century of American progress and various courts show the advance of science and transportation and so on. There are no goods on sale-except- hot dogs and beerbut many manufacturers are reporting better business as a direct outcome of the Fair. The radio sets being displayed are very much the same as the sets that are being cold in New Zealand to-day. . "Television?’ Mr. Forrest smiled. ‘"There’s not a radio firm of any standing in America to-day that is selling television kits or parts. One or. two of the B class stations are playing round with it, ‘and: the attempts that I saw. were pretty crude. ‘It’s bound to-come, of course, but, surprisingly. enough, it: may not be in the hands of the radio people when it does. More money is being spent by the film industry than by the wireless, and the banking house. of Pierpont Morgan is working in with several talkie magnates on the: perfection of television.

"But Roosevelt is the man that America is looking to. Until he started beating things up with his National Recovery Administration nobody cared adamn. The country was so near to revolution that it didn’t matter, but, in a few short months, all that has been changed. Hundreds of department stores throughout the country weve not paying their assistants any wagesjust commission on sales. Roosevelt stopped all that. ‘Pay them commission if you like,’ he said, ‘but you’ve _ got to pay a living wage, too.’ ‘

SERENA "In the radio industry wages have increased 50 per cezt. IF know of one . little town in Indiana that was paying the workers in a radio manufacturing factory 10 to 20° cents an hour. The makers were able to transport the sets into the big cities and more than compete with the large manufacturers who were paying their employees 25 to 80 cents an hour. But all that bas been changedwages have been brought to a basic level and, while the big concerns are faced with a'50 per cent. wage increase the little ‘gyp’ outfits like the one in Indiana find their wage vills inereased 200 to 300 per cent. "The N.R.A, is going to have its effect on New Zealand

shortly — American goods will go up in price, radios probably about 25 per cent. Until the act came into force there wasn’t one radio company in America that was working at a profit. They were not losing 100, 000 dollars a year but millions. Any firm in America selling below the cost of production to-day is liable to a heavy fine, and its principals to imprisonment. The Radio Manufacturers’ Association, which is a concern absolutely representative of the whole of the trade, has produced figures to show that not mere than five per cent. on the total American output is exported to the whole i world.

From this it can be seen that Roosevelt’s legislation is far-reaching, and. that his policy of no sales below production costs will have a beneficial effect on the makers of 95 per cent. of the sets sold. ’ "Roosevelt is out, too, to clear America of its gangsters. He has organised the Federal police to stop the kidnapping menace which has grown enormously in the last few months, ‘Since these police have been on the job many of the biggest kidnappers have been put safely behind the bars. ‘ "Was there a story in the papers here about a big shooting in Kansas City? It appears that a well-known gangster was being brought in by train with five police officers in charge of him. The train arrived at Kansas at mid-day and the man. was being taken to a waiting car when a machine gun from a nearby car opened fire, killing the five officers and the prisoner, The ordinary police weren’t able to trace the criminals, but the Federal police caught them in ten days. sos "There is no organisation for the relief of distress as