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Show i THE BULLETIN Brucharfs Washington Digest Small Telephone Companies Hit By Application of Labor Law Again the People Are Made Victims of Too Much Government; Act Forces Small Industries Into Spot Where They Cannot Do Business or Hire Labor. After the War, Whither Spam? General Franco Won't Answer THIS Probably with King Seen Likely WEEK ernment While there are several lines of Industry about which I want to write in this analysis, the most flagrant misgovernment and the most damaging result, as far as I (fan see, is the application of the wages and hours law to the little known, but widely used, small independent telephone companies. I am referring to that type of telephone company which serves the small towns and villages and the farmers who live around those small, yet very essential, trading centers. Nearly 30,000 Independent Telephone Companies in U. S. When I heard that some of the subordinates in Mr. Andrews' agency were determined to apply the provisions of the wages and hours law to the independent telephone, I began Jo dig around for information about them. I am acquainted with those units of service. I know what it is to turn the crank on the big box that hangs on the wall in order to ring a neighbor on a party line; it is not an unfamiliar fact either to hear of how the switchboard, located in somebody's home in the village, closes down at nine o'clock at night, and no one is supposed to ring unless it is a case of sickness or other emergency. I was stunned, however, to realize that there are nearly 30,000 such companies in the United States. Nor was I prepared to understand, at once, that there are approximately 4,100,000 "stations" or subscribers to those companies. If we figure an average family as five, we arrive at the conclusion obviously that nearly 21,000,000 persons depend upon that type of service. The wages and hours administration does not propose to apply the law to all of these; it eliminated more than half of the total, but a bunch of the smart boys under Mr. Andrews have decided the law should apply to 12,461 such companies. They decided the law can be applied, even though the companies are entirely within the confines of a county, in most instances, because the little switchboards are able to make a connection with "long distance" companies. It may not happen more than five times a month, but the little company is doing "interstate" business. Hence, your'Un-d- e Sam, acting through the bureaucrats, proposes to tell the local companies they must pay the wages designated by the federal law and limit the hours of those who earn their living that way. Would Force Companies to Increase Their Rates Now, I am thoroughly familiar with the limitation of opportunities of employment for women and girls in the small towns. I know that the small telephone companies employ them as operators, or they employ somebody not physically able to do other types of work. The pay is small, but it provides a comfortable living in most cases. Perhaps, the pay ought to be higher, but if the pay is higher, the town and country subscribers will have to pay more. The reason those companies succeed and render the valuable service that is rendered is because they hold down expenses and provide service at a dollar, or around that figure, per month. One realizes better what that rate means when a comparison is offered of the five or six dollars per month charged in cities. .. Should the smart boys in the wages and hours administration get away with- - their program, it would mean that a small exchange would have to increase the pay for operators. The minimum for operators would be $2,190 a year instead of six-da- the "czar" on N'hit way out? IsBefore and since YORK. al Forces Industry Into Spot Where It Cannot Do Business If those little fellows have to meet wages and hours set for them by Miss Perkins, secretary of labor, to industry hires, instead, an "impartial chairman," with labor concurring, as he will represent both employers and labor. Is this a precedent, or is the title just a euphemism for "czar"? Granite-faced- FRAISCO A!SD FAMILY A rare photo of Insurgent Spain's leader with his wife and daughter, taken at government headquarters in Burgos. his first "banishment." In Franco was rushed back to the mainland to crush leftist revolts against the newly established rightist regime. It was then that and Catalonia dubbed him "the butcher," a resentment which probably accounts for the stubborn resistance those provinces offered in the civil war. But to rightist Spain Franco became "the man of the hour," certainly the strongest single figure in the fight Catholics, capitalists; monarchists and phalanxists (fascists) were waging against a growing Communist element The second banishment, to a dreary Canary islands outpost, came immediately after a leftist victory in the January, 1936, election. But six months later a mysterious civilian-garbe- d figure climbed into a British plane at Las Palm as, capital of the Canaries. Next day, July 18, Moroccans remembered the youth who had suppressed the Riffs. Within a few hours Moors were rallied under the insurgent flag and the war was on. Franco's Course Steady. lf The next two and years made Spain a common battleground on which all Europe's grudges were paraded. Communist fought Fascist, while democracies stood on the sidelines hoping vainly that each would slaughter the other. In far away lands the issue of Christianity versus paganism was held a vital issue in the war. The world's eyes were focused on a conflict where American fought Italian and German fought Russian, where religious, political and economic issues seemed at times to far outshadow the mere fact of civil war in Spain. Through all this General Franco has pursued a steady course, aided by Fascists, ignored by democracies for obvious reasons of political expediency. But when Barcelona fell in late January and the war seemed headed for an ultimate Insurgent victory, Franco began emerging in his true proportions the man of the hour. His will shall probably be done in Spain. He is obviously indebted to Italy and Germany. Rome admits 3,000 Fascist troops have been killed in Spain, and from Balearic island lands 1934 As-turi- as . one-ha- would merely delay the eventual showdown. Hints have already been dropped concerning Franco's governmental plans. Last year an order was issued restoring citizenship and properties to King Alfonso, the alleged inside story of that restoration being this: A monarchist delegation met Alfonso in Switzerland last summer, suggesting that his privileges and possessions might be restored if Alfonso would abdicate in favor of his third son, Prince Juan. Alfonso reportedly replied he might Healthiest Bourbon. Don Juan, not a great lover like the cabellero of ancient Seville, is a healthy young man of 25 who was brought up under English influence. He even served as a lieutenant in the British navy. Unlike his two elder brothers, the count of Cova-don(who died in Florida last year) and Prince Jaime, he shows no trace of the tragic maladies which have afflicted the rest of the family. He was married in 1935 to Marie, Princess of Bourbon-SicileThey have one daughter. Don Juan's appointment would be an important pacifier, since he would return to Spain as an outsider capable of arbitrating the differences between Insurgents and Loyalists. The selection might meet with Roman disfavor because of the strong influence England has played on the youth during his formative years. But H Duce rules "under" a king in Italy and seems to get along nicely. Certainly there is no reason to think Franco would retire without tasting the fruits of his dearly gained victory. He would probably become premier under such an arrangement Anyway Prince Juan, who has spent the past few years under close surveillance of Rome, probably bears stronger Fascist leanings than most people imagine. ga s. Wattcm Newspaper Union. Russia Discards 'Biggest9 Complex In five-ye- Neivest Plan ar Italy-Germa- re- com-partin- g Newspaper Unioa. Pushing 'Czar nd nowconfusion, the New Into Discard? but york cUy bases a giant Italian air armada Russia's "big" complex is disaphas operated against the Loyalists. pearing. Germany has been equally helpful The ambitious Soviet which once but neither nation has acted from decided to house its massive new of heart goodness industries in such centers as MosIberian Peninsula Important cow, Leningrad, Kiev and Gorky, First, the Franco campaign has has now decided to build a lot of offered a chance to fight Commu- little industries which in the aggrenism, but this has been more an gate will be even bigger than the JVLY 18 1937 Almost all excuse than an end in itself. More original "big" idea. This is the essence of the third western Spain (except north- significant are huge imports of Spanplan, being changed in mid western Aslurias) was under In ish iron by Italy and Germany, both suffering acutely from lack of metal stream by Dictator domination. surgent resources. Still greater is the IberiJoseph Stalin and an peninsula's importance in ItPremier Vyacheslaff M. Molotoff. Comaly's campaign to control the Mediterranean and force territorial conplete details are becessions from France. ing announced at the n services have been Communist party outright gifts to General Franco, congress opening in therefore he can honestly claim to Moscow March 10. owe them no monetary debt But "Gigantism" will how about the moral debt? Can he soon give way to turn on Fascism now that the war erection of manufacis won? turing plants closer He barely might, for one good to sources of raw Stalin reason. More than anything else materials and the now needs money for recon- Soviet Spain has plenty of such evidently struction, obtainable only from resources still untapped. By costly Great 'Britain, the United States and, Russia has found her big experience APRIL 18, 1938 Rebel tc s lesser degree, France. Great industries to be unwieldy, attracting drove to the sea, severing Cata- Britain is especially anxious to make more than was healthy population lonia from the rest of Loyalist these loans because Spain was once to a few centralized points while the an excellent customer. Now British rest of the went unaided. Spain. country coal exports to Spain have dropped One of the most important coming 37 per cent; motor cars, 95 per cent, developments is creation of a "secand machinery, 90 per cent ond Baku" oil base in middle Asia, Greater Spain Predicted. where American machinery will be This is the very logical reasoning used to open untouched petroleum behind current British-Frenc- h overreserves. Since Baku is located at tures to lure Franco from the dic- a strategic point wheje an invader tators. It is emphasized still more could easily nip off the Soviet's imby the growing belief that Spain will portant petroleum supply, the new some day assume new importance development has important military among European nations, holding a significance. The "second Baku" is whip hand over any potential Med- far removed from enemy planes. whom Mr. Andrews is subordinate, the steel people say they will go broke. Or, at least, they charged, they could get no government contracts because of failure to comply with the law. Since the government is spending billions of dollars to create employment and for general relief, I can not help wondering why it wants to force one segment of industry into a spot where it can do no business and employ labor. The whole thing, however, gets more cockeyed as time gones on. There seems to be no limit to the lengths to which bureaucrats, drunk with power, will go in abusing the nation. Who was there that did not express the greatest disgust at the assinine story which came out of New York city the other day. I refer to the problem before the New York state labor board which was called upon to decide whether a professional woman model was firm) because she had been active as a union organizer or because her hips were too wide. The woman claimed she had been fired because she was trying to organize a union of models. Her former employers said her hips were too broad to properly wear the clothes they wished to display. While the story is not lacking iu humor, it must be treated serious-l- y because the width of this girl hips may yet be a question of national importance. It is a fact, and not a witicism, that the national labor relations board may yet be Called upon to measure those hips JANUARY 30, 1939 and determine, as judges of fashion, s was complete, whether she can properly display movingconquetl a battleground and the latest mode of spring apparel. the war. Western e the elevation of Judge Landii and Will Hays we have hired benevolent in autocrats, w, Impartial Ump times of stress has lost more than 1,000,000 of its best men since July 18, 1936. The civil war becomes ugly history and then what? The man who can answer is Francisco Franco, a businesslike generalissimo known to his Loyalist enemies as "El Carnicero," the butcher, and to his Insurgent followers as "El Caudillo," the chief. General Franco is victor, thanks to superior military strategy, plus a whip hand over Spain's natural resources, plus help from Berlin and Rome. Spain's war needs repetition here only because things said and done since 1930 must be answered for today. Will General Franco pour awful vengeance on the Loyalist enemies who banished him to a Canary islands outpost in 1936? Will France Cannot See What They and England pay the price of their Are Doing to the Country indecision these past two years by all prestige in Spain? Will losing these smart cannot see Why boys what they are doing to the country, dictatorships rise, or fall, when is a question which I cannot answer. Spain's final die is cast? Man of the Hour. Either they are utterly dumb or they are promoting the organization work Too many answers rest with Franof the C. I. O. which is responsible co, a shrewd military-politicgenfor passage of the wages and hours ius who became a cadet in Alcazar's law. The C. I. O. certainly has "West Point" at 14, won mild fame demonstrated it does not belong in fighting the Moroccan Riffs at 23, the list of real American organiza- and became the army's youngest tions, but it still has political power. brigadier general at 34. Since April, The connection with C. I. O. agita- 1931, when King Alfonso fled the tion might be traced through the country after republican election fact that the law contains a provi- victories, Franco has been closely sion permitting a worker to sue for enmeshed in Spain's officialdom as damages if the employer (in this a man to be reckoned with. case the telephone company) com- , Once chief of the foreign legion pels violation of the law by forcing and head of the war college, his overtime work. allegiance to the deposed Alfonso The political phases of the situa- was so renowned that the jittery tion are quite important because of young republic quickly made him the vast number of voters directly military governor of the Balearic is- affected. I do not mean to say that Senator Herring and Representative V1CTORTS COURSE Harrington, both of Iowa, have introduced bills to exempt the local companies, from purely political motives. But I suspect that the political pressure will cause many members of the house and the senate to favor passage of those bills. I have mentioned heretofore how often the "unelected" officials of the government those appointed by the President or his subordinates either have ignored political history or they know nothing about political history. The case of the independent telephone companies is a splendid illustration. Lately, the little independent steel companies have felt the dead hand of government through the same JVLY 18, 1936 Insurgent law. I am not informed as to all revolts, long planned, broke out details of their case, but there were simultaneously at cities shown 44 eastern independent steel companies appeared recently before the above. propaganda spreading temporary national economics committee, seeking relief. The independent steel companies are to the great steel manufacturers as the little independent telephone companies are to the Bell system. The wages and hours law will wreck them, they told the national economics committee which has come to be known as the monopoly investigation. LEMUEL F. PARTON Bj blood-drenche- could work more than 42 hours per week a seven-hou- r y day of a week. And what would that mean? Every one of those companies would be forced to collect three or four times as much per month from the subscribers, or close down the system. Then, to show how widespread the effect would be, let me cite the number of exchanges in a few states: Iowa, 802; Illinois, 917; Alabama, 167; Arkansas, 299, Indiana, 695; Maine, 128; Michigan, 351; Minnesota, 578; Missouri, 776, and Texas, 898. It is to be remembered that these are purely local companies. Whatever number of exchanges are operated in those states by the Bell Telephone company are in addition. But we are not concerned with the Bell system. That outfit is big enough to fight its own battles. NEWS Continued Fascist Rule, By WILLIAM BRUCKART By JOSEPH W. LaBINE WNU Service, National Press BIdg., Washington, D. C. The scene: Spain. A final On President whatever rate now is paid; and it WASHINGTON. bullet ricochets from the sunRoosevelt's list of "must" legisla- would mean, moreover, that there d wall. tion year or so ago was a bill would have to be three or four op- baked, that, when it eventually became a erators. That is to say, no operator Peace returns to a land which law, was called the "Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938." It was made to apply to all business crossing state lines, or to products thus manufactured that went into channels of trade outside of the state where they were produced. It set certain rates of minimum pay and established a limitation on the number of hours workers could continue on the job. Everyone refers to it now 'as the wages and hours law. At the time of the appointment of Elmer F. Andrews, as wages and hours administrator, I discussed the potential success or failure that lay ahead for such a law. In looking over my files of the time, I found that I wrote, concerning the law, that "Mr. Andrews can either make or break it" by the policies he adopts and the interpretations he makes of the law's provisions. I said also that he must use great care in the selection of subordinates. All of which leads into discussion of a situation that has arisen respecting application of the law to several industries. Generally, too, it forces a conclusion that here is Just another law under which government is interfering in the normal living of people. As usual, the people are the victims of too much gov- WHO'S iterranean conflict. But just as France end Britain look rather foolish in recognizing Franco after he has won his battle, so would Franco look foolish if he tossed his Fascist friends into the ashcan. For every nation concerned it would be an unnatural alliance based on immediate expediency, and Other small industrial developments are planned in the Ural mountains, while a large metallurgical base is being built in central Asia where the Soviet claims it has all facilities for building machinery. Most such plants are being built near coal deposits or potential power sites. , tight-lippe- d Ed- ward P. Mulrooney gets the umpiring job, at $25,000 a year. He also is now entitled to bis (8,000 yearly pension, as a former police commis- sioner, withheld while he held public office. In 1933, he became chairman of the state alcoholic beverage control board, and later state commissioner of correction, from which office he will resign to accept the hotel post He started pounding a beat In West street forty-eigyears ht ago, when Theodore Roosevelt He was police commissioner. first hit the headlines by rescuing women and children in a small boat when the Slocum ," burned. As a "waterfront he was known as a "cop's ' cop," always having his mind on bis work. He became police commissioner in 1930. He gave his men orders to shoot to kill, and set shotgun squads patrolling the city. He roughed up the racketeers a 'lot and, when he was switched to the Albany liquor control job in 1933, the word was out that certain antielements had desired social, anti-co- p the transfer and helped bring it flat-foot- about At 88, his reddish hair b tarn-lu- g brindle. Ills ferrety eyes reveal a penetrating- - alertness of mind. He looks a great deal like General Pershing. It would seem unlikely that anybody la the hotel business here will be giving the umpire any from Havana are N1 that reports when Colonel Fularencin Batista, Cuba's strong man, visited Mexico, he was regarded by some of bis conserva- - Cuban Business uVe supporters Frowns on Left as having gone Turn of Batista "wrong side of the tracks." There was particular displeasure over his fraternizing with President Cardenas of Mexico, and business representation at his ceremonies was conHe told the spicuously lacking. crowd of cheering workers that "if capital does not wish to respect the desires and rights of the people, the resulting confusion will work against its own 'aspirations." This is one of several recent welcome-hom- e e signs that the barber, buck private and stenographer who bow runs Cuba Is veering left, after a wide swing to the right Soon after his sell are of power, with the downfall of Machado In August, 1933, he reassured the "law and order" elements, and have been pasting him as the 'Hitler of Cubs." He made peace with foreign and native Industrialists, and, from all accounts, they are Jolted considerably by his getting clubby with Cardenas, the "Expropriator." He Is circulating much more than he used to, and there Is talk that he aspires to be the "Napoleon of the Caribbean.'' His is the army, which he commands efficiently as chief of staff. A big, reticent swarthy man, 37 years old, he says little and keeps a sharp, wary eye on his soldiers. one-tim- cane-rustl- er, left-winge- rs hole-car- d WITH a bullet in his shoulder nnm iaa1 Vit Oswaldo Aranha, foreign minister of Brazil, is an effective emissary Aranha Thinks western It Tune to Stow sphere, hemi- and the wh" hPe of Shooting Irons our stata de partment as he visits this country. He was the leader of five revolu tions in eight years, including the one which established Dr. Getulio Vargas, the present president of Brazil His present mission Is mainly financial. It Is possible that a central bank of Brazil will grow oat of It. with the United Stales supplying $50,000,000 capital. He Is 43 years old, the son of a wealthy hidalgo In Rio Grande do Sol. Ilia life activities have been the army, law and politics. When President Vargas set np bis one-ma- n slate last year, Loctor Aranha's was taken In this country as reassurance against European fascism In that country. 6 ConaolMnlpd News Features. WNU Service. |