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The reasons upon which Mr. Tugwell's opinions about planningwere based were very different from those of the Chamber of Commerceor the American Federation of Labor. But the idea that therewas something wrong in the economic system, that there was disorder,that there ought to be planning of some sort, and that thereshould be a conscious control and management of the economicsystem was deeply rooted in all these groups in one form or another.And so as the President settled down to the task of putting policyinto effect he ran not with the stream of his oratory, but with thestream of opinion and desire in the minds of the important anddynamic minorities which controlled the thinking of the nation.And so the President who denounced Hoover for his slight, fragmentaryefforts at control brought into existence the NRA and theAAA—two of the mightiest engines of minute and comprehensiveregimentation ever invented in any organized society. And themasses of the people who had cheered what Mr. Roosevelt had saidabout regimentation now cheered lustily when he proceeded to imposethe regimentation he had denounced, while labor unions andChamber of Commerce officials, stockbrokers and bankers, merchantsand their customers joined in great parades in all the citiesof the country in rhapsodical approval of the program.It is not necessary here to go into the details of the National RecoveryAdministration (NRA). It was based, not consciously butin fact, almost wholly on the principle of the guild or corporativesystem which Mussolini was in process of perfecting at that verytime. It adopted the Chamber of Commerce's favorite theory ofself-government in industry under government supervision. It suspendedthe anti-trust laws which the President had vowed to enforce.The codes of practice, which had been drawn up and approvedunder Mr. Coolidge and which Mr. Hoover had ended, weregotten out, polished up, and strengthened with all sorts of devices tocontrol prices, production, competition in the interest of scarcityand profits. Mr. H. I. Harriman, then president of the Chamber ofCommerce, had said a little before:A freedom of action which might have been justified in the relativelysimple life of the last century cannot be tolerated today, because theunwise action of one individual may adversely affect the lives of thousands.! 9 8