Collision Averted

In one of the oldest Federal buildings, in a colored district of Washington sits a short, neat, ruddy man of 53 with a flowing black tie and crisp-curling grey hair, a man with the air of a preacher or an actor. He is the best hated man in Washington. He once ruled that a traveling Government official could not tip a redcap more than 25-c- for two bags. He refused to honor a $15 Navy Department expense account for an official wreath at a State funeral. He once argued for months with a railroad over a 35-c- claim, and won. He refused to give a traveling official $1.50 for supper because he said the man could have eaten at home before he caught the train and that anyhow Congress had not appropriated money for that purpose. He has more power over Treasury expenditures than the President, must see every check that is written from 1-c- to $1,000,000,000. He can be overridden by no Government official. Comptroller General John Raymond McCarl has been tsar of U. S. Treasury expenditures since 1921. He is responsible to Congress alone, interprets Congressional law with literal exactness. He was appointed by President Harding after he had led the Republican Party in the election of 1918 to its first major Congressional comeback since the debacle of 1912. But politics do not sway his decisions. By law he holds office for 15 years, can be removed only by joint resolution of Congress or impeachment, is ineligible for reappointment. Personally affable, with eyes of merry blue, he speaks in a slow, quiet voice. Iowa-born, he was educated in Nebraska, practiced law there. Washington-polished, he plays golf in the 80's at the Congressional Club. Observers have long anticipated a collision between Comptroller McCarl and the NRA. Last week that collision seemed imminent. Upon the Comptroller's desk arrived a letter from a Ford dealer in Bethesda, Md. which was loaded with implications. The dealer, one R. P. Sabine, had put in the low bid on 1,500 trucks which the Civilian Conservation Corps proposed to buy. His bid was declared ineligible by General Johnson because Mr. Ford had failed to sign the automobile code and under Presidential ruling only Blue Eagle firms could receive Government contracts (TIME, Aug. 21). Dealer Sabine protested that his firm was under the Blue Eagle, that he was, in fact, a leader of the NRA in his locality. Said he: "I submitted the bids as a private dealer, not as a representative of the Ford Motor Co. ... I do not feel that I should be penalized because of any disagreement between Mr. Ford and the Recovery Administration." Observers were willing to bet that Comptroller McCarl would uphold the letter of the law and award Dealer Sabine his contract regardless of NRA. But while Tsar McCarl cogitated, Henry Ford backed down. Mr. Ford would not sign the automobile code because he mortally hates & fears collective bargaining, one of the Blue Eagle's proudest plumes. Fortnight ago he broke a long silence to rebuke NRAdministrator Johnson for "assuming the airs of a dictator." Last week he did not actually sign the automobile code. He did not even give out a personal statement. But by letter and through spokesmen he let it be known that Ford Motor Co. would satisfy the major requirements of the motor code. He would file wage and hour reports for NRA with the Automobile Chamber of Commerce. As to collective bargaining, he dispatched a terse, six-paragraph statement to strikers at his Edgewater, N. J. plant declaring that most of their demands had already been met and promising to raise wages as soon as conditions permitted. And he added this single cryptic sentence: "Recognition of collective bargaining through representatives of the workers' own choosing is already required by the present National Industrial Recovery Act."

New York's Senator Wagner, chairman of the National Labor Board, promptly announced that Mr. Ford had recognized and put into effect the principle of collective bargaining. In Detroit a Ford official declared that the Ford Company had always recognized that principle. "The men have come to us in groups as well as individuals and we have dealt with them. We may not have called it collective bargaining, but that was what it was to all practical purposes." The strikers at Edgewater were by no means satisfied with Mr. Ford's statement. Their leaders pointed out that to cite NRA's collective bargaining clause is one thing; to subscribe to it, another. They called a meeting, denounced Mr. Ford's statement as evasive, declared they would "prosecute vigorously" the charges they had filed against the Ford Company with the National Labor Board. That same day Mr. Ford took steps to bring his company into line with a third automobile code provision-- the 35-hr-average work week. He announced that no less than 9.000 men would be laid off each week for a seven-day period beginning this week until all had reduced their hours from 40 to 35 by Jan. 1. "The company is taking this mandatory step in compliance with the new prohibition against work in this country," smirked a Ford spokesman. NRA officials in Washington did not hide their concern over this action. They said that while Mr. Ford may have had a legal right to reduce his payroll, it was a violation of the NRA spirit. General Johnson, surprised by Mr. Ford's sudden submission, said he would be glad to make an exception so that the 9,000 Fordworkers could be kept at work.

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