Show 0 national topics interpreted L by william bruckart amk national press Wait hington D C A washington considerable doubt seems to be arising in many quarters whether doubt the new dealers arises are quite as much concerned over uplifting living standards of the poor as they are concerned over their votes in the fall elections these doubts which are arc now in the form of a flood of inquiries obviously arise from two incidents which have occurred here in the nations capital rather there were three incidents for it was the first action that made the other two incidents significant let us take them up in order to get a good view of the circumstances first president roosevelt lately has signed the now new wage and hour law under its terms wages paid employees and the hours which they work throughout the nation now become a matter of federal jurisdiction if the employers of those workers buy or sell anything outside of the state in which the plant or factory actually is located that is to say any business operating in interstate commerce must now comply with a federal law as to wages paid and hours worked and meet the regulations laid down by a washington bureaucrat after the law T becomes effective october 24 1938 ad none of these employees may jn more than 44 hours a w week eek blo 10 lo five and one half days of eight hours nor can they be paid less than 25 cents per hour during the first year of the law in the second year the number of hours is reduced to 42 per week and the rate of pay rises to 30 cents per hour thereafter the work week is fixed at 40 hours and the lowest rate of pay at 40 cents an hour the provisions naturally will apply to nearly all individual manufacturing es ments because few of them can exist by selling only in their home localities agriculture is not affected by the law so that farmers are privileged for once to pay for what they get in the way of services services and not be under orders from washington this is the law that was fought off so long by senators and depre senta tives from the southern states they demanded that some consideration be given the employers of the south where conditions are decidedly different from other parts of the united states they did not get a complete differential in the scales but they obtained a compromise that permits the new bureaucrat the wage administrator to consider the costs of living to some extent living costs in the south generally have been lower than elsewhere and some types of labor in southern areas are recognized recognize I as not being as efficient passage of the act with some leeway of flexibility was believed likely to solve these problems of the south that brings us now to the second of the incidents mr Roosevel ts signature to the wage and hour bill was affixed on a saturday on sunday harry hopkins chief of the professional reliever of the administration issued an announcement by the terms ot of the order he released all unskilled workers in the 13 southern states something like working on relief payrolls were treated to a pay raise in addition some other classes of workers were given a pay boost but the numbers were not disclosed certainly they are fewer than the class known as unskilled workers the action was taken mr hopkins explained in his announcement pursuant to a general administration policy of bringing income levels of the lowest paid workers of the south more nearly in line with the income levels of such workers in other parts of the country it will be recalled also that while the wage hour debate was at its hottest in congress hopkins mr roosevelt answers went into the deep south to lecture employers on the low wage levels he spoke at gainesville ga in v vigorous 19 i language to the effect that the south was being held back because employers were paying wages that were too low to maintain a satisfactory standard of living that speech came in the midst of argument by southern members of congress that even was pa paying y i ing lower levels in the south than else not be compelled to accept a new drain on their production costs thus we see mr hopkins has answered both arguments by increasing the levels of pay he has effectively sealed scaled the mouths ot of the southern op opponents portents of the and at the same time has forced the industries about which mr roosevelt ra ose complained to meet a new kind of competition tor for workers anyone who knows anything about the factors that govern wages and they are all very human conditions recognizes that southern industries will have to increase their pay rates or watch take over the workers for it remains as a fact that certain types of persons will prefer to go on than work regularly even if the regular work does docs ii provide a somewhat greater money return each week that condition results from the fact has had such a loose system of planning the work to be done and to the further fact that among the labor there has been absolutely no discipline no one who can compel a full days work for a full days pay it is one of the tragedies dark and dangerous of the present system of relief that men are taught to loaf on the job instead of working that their families may have somewhat more of food and clothes and things to enjoy life but as treacherous as the hopkins policy appears from what has been stated there is yet a very much worse angle it can be traced through most easily by raising the pay levels in the south mr hopkins thereby forced new levels of pay in the industries of the south I 1 have visited many parts of the south and I 1 believe I 1 can safely say that few manufacturing establishments have been able to avoid losses in their operations during the last eight years by raising the levels and bringing about a competition for the available workers professor hopkins saddled upon the industries an added burden of expense from some parts of the south I 1 hear that this added u payroll cost will mean the closing of some plants others are going to continue operation and try to get their money back by increasing the prices of their products that means I 1 the consumers will pay the bill it i causes me to wonder whether it will do the workers any good to have more money when prices of the things they use are hiked up at the same time the above explanation was given at some length as prelude to the real effect of the real boost and objective what I 1 believe to be the real objective of the new deal action it if and industrial pay levels are higher in the south then it becomes obvious that the exemptions and differentials ferenti als which the southern senators and representatives thought they obtained are absolutely and completely nullified the new dealers who have the presidents ear have whipped the devil around the stump they have accomplished by indirection that which congress rejected as a direct action and they have tossed the southern members of the democratic party straight to the wolves so now we can consider the third 11 movement of the symphony that has caused doubts to arise concerning the sincerity of the program this chorus was sung by aubrey williams assistant administrator no 2 man for mr hopkins he too made a speech it was addressed I 1 to the workers alliance which is an organization that has gone so far as to participate in strikes among workers to force the united states government to do its bidding the workers alliance bigwigs came to washington to fight against a proposed cut in pay for artists and actors they said they represented something like workers and naturally the workers must qt contribute something out of their pittance to support of the organization well mr williams advised the workers to stick together he urged them to discover who are your friends at election time weve got to stick together said mr williams weve got to keep our friends in power I 1 dont need to tell you you know your friends very well or must know them just judge the folks who come and ask your support at elections by the crowd they run with the same goes for painting and writing keeping up these things the men who stand for this sort of thing are the men you are going to send end to the elections by winning wi nn ing in in the primaries there were repercussions against the williams outburst and the senate investigating committee ma may call the speaker but I 1 doubt it the senate you will remember defeated four amendments to the borrowing lending spending bill that were designed to keep the distributors tribu tors of relief money out of politics it rather difficult to believe this money is being used solely for relieving the destitute 0 western newspaper union I 1 |