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Show Merry-Co-Round By DKEW PEARSON and ROBERT S. ALLEN, WASHINGTON Neither A. F. of L. nor C. I. O. leaders will shed any tears if the wage-hour wage-hour regulation bill does not pass this session. Of course they are not saying this publicly. Thst would be impolite. But privately they will be just as well satisfied if action on the measure goes over until next year. There are two reasons for this attitude. First, the bill suspended in mid-air in the house, as a result of the refusal of the rules committee to allow it to be considered, does not suit them. Both labor camps consider it weak and too restricted in scope. Second, they feel the chances of putting through a more drastic measure will be a great deal better next year. The congress that convenes next January will hsve its eye cocked on the primary elections elec-tions in the spring and summer. That means thst a lot of the boys who have been cold to the legislation this session will be much more tractable tract-able next year. That always happens in election years, and particularly in a doubtful one, as 1938 is certain to be. Further, a farm bill is scheduled to be considered con-sidered next session. The rural members, for the most part either hostile or indifferent to the wage-hour bill, will want labor support. That will open the way for the pro-labor members to do some log-rolling in behalf of their measure. So the laborites are taking their apparent rebuff re-buff philosophically and biding their time for 1938. Mysterious Tactics The resistance of the southern Democrat-Republican Democrat-Republican coalition on the rules committee to enactment of the legislation this session is difficult diffi-cult to fathom. To begin with, the bloc can't stop the bill from being acted on next session. If the group persists in its obstructionism, the laborites can easily brush the rules committee aside by a petition pe-tition to discharge the bill from committee and bring it directly to the house. Moreover, the senate has passed the bill and the house labor committee has approved it by a large majority. With many congressmen facing uncertain election fights, they cannot afford to go into the campaign wide open to attack for not voting on the issue. Finally, dragging the bill into next session will giv labor an excellent opportunity to put on the heat to make it more drastic. The rules ommittee coterie unquestionsbly administered a stinging defeat to the president in axing his bill. But in the end it may find its' triumph a costly one. Sweatshop Schools In fact, the kick-back already has started. The works progress administration has made premptorv demands on a group of Mississippi communities for the return of relief funds, which they used to erect mills for northern manufacturers. manu-facturers. The mills employ school children at pay scales ss low as $3 and $4 a week, and complaints have poured into the W P A. The money was allotted to these towns for the purpose of erecting vocational training schools. When W P A investigated, it discovered that the buildings were not schools but factories. fac-tories. They had been turned over to northern concerns as an inducement, together with cheap labor, to bring their business to the towns. The latest instance of this was in Ellisville, Miss. W P A officials have- notified trustees of an agricultural high school and junior college there that unless they immediately return $24.-537 $24.-537 contributed by the government, legal action will be taken against them. The other cities under fire are Brookhaven, Columbia, Lumberton and Philadelphia, Miss-Eastman's Miss-Eastman's Boys Joseph B. Eastman, veteran member of the Interstate commerce commission, is renowned as an authority on railways. Appointed by President Presi-dent Wilson on the recommendation of Justice ' Brandeia, he was reappointed by Coolidge and Hoover and recently was given another six-year six-year term by Roosevelt. In the government service, Eastman rapidly is becoming famous on another count as a picker pick-er and trainer of talented men. There are now six high government executives execu-tives who began their careers as "Eastman boys." The latest to join this select band is John L. 'Rogers, whom the president has just promoted from chief of the motor carrier bureau to a member of the I. C. C. Rogers came to the commission com-mission 20 years sgo as a boiler inspector, and under the tutelage of Eastman worked up from Uit ranks. 1 " |
