Star Chamber

Some pretty good material turned out for the "All-American" business team which President Roosevelt proposed before the bankers in Washington last month. Big Business lettermen were joining long before elections. But not until it was apparent that the New Deal would probably last six years did a general stampede begin for positions in the Roosevelt lineup. And not until last week did the U.S. Chamber of Commerce turn out for scrimmage. Indeed, the Chamber's directors had no intention whatever of going into strict New Deal training when they assembled in Washington for a purely routine meeting. They merely saw a fine chance to get in the game, and, much to the astonishment of less lively Chambermen, they grabbed it.

That chance was dumped in the Chamber's lap by two tycoons and the U.S. Press. Feeling an urge to play on Mr. Roosevelt's side, President Lewis Brown of Johns-Manville Corp. and Pickler Howard Heinz hastened to Washington, there to talk with the President and conservative New Dealers. Messrs. Heinz & Brown soon gathered that, if private enterprise could hoist the business curve a notch or two in the next 60 days, there was reasonable hope of keeping the Administration a little to the Right of Centre. With some tangible evidence of Recovery in his hands, the President could reasonably handle the spenders, bonuseers and inflationists of the next Congress. And very definitely Messrs. Brown & Heinz sensed that if business was to have any voice at all in government, it must at least sit in the Roosevelt cheering section.

The Press soon blossomed with loud hints of the chastened Big Business attitude. Just before the Chamber's directorate met last week the New York Times front-paged a story speculating on what recognition that group would give to the new spirit of conciliation.

Confronted with such a buildup, the Chambermen, smart for once, decided not only to play Roosevelt ball but also to assume leadership of the whole co-operative drive. It resolved that "utterances by the President encourage the belief...that he is receptive of suggestions for promotion of the common welfare." It pledged "fullest co-operation." It appointed a Recovery committee headed by none other than Silas Hardy Strawn, Chamber president under Herbert Hoover and die-hard New Deal critic. Within two days, the U. S. Chamber of Commerce, still pinching itself incredulously, found itself the leader of the whole current business drive to put men and money back to work before Congress meets.

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