Show Bruc karfs karts washington digest small telephone companies hit by application of labor law again the people are made victims of too much G government ov ern ment act forces small industries into spot where they cannot do business or hire labor by WILLIAM BRUCKART service national press washington D C washington on president Rooe Roosevel veits ts list of must legislation a year or so ago was a bill that h w when hen it eventually become became a law was wa s c called ailed the fair labor stand standards ards act of 1938 it was made to apply to all business crossing state lines or to products product s thus manufactured that went into channels of trade outside of the state where they were produced it set certain rates of cf minimum pay and established a limitation on the number of hours workers could continue on the lob job everyone refers to it now as the wages and hours law at the time of the appointment oi of elmer F andrews as wages and hours administrator I 1 discussed the potential success or failure that lay ahead tor for such a law in looking over my flies files of the time I 1 found that I 1 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 laws provisions I 1 said also that he must use great care in the selection of subordinates all of which leads into discussion of a 11 s situation tion that has arisen re spelt ejecting n g application of the law to several industries generally too it forces a conclusion that here is just another law under which government ern ment is interfering in the normal U living ing of people As usual the people are the victims of too much government ern ment while there are several lines of industry about which I 1 want to write in this analysis the most flagrant misgovernment government and the most damaging result as far as I 1 can see is the application of the wages wage and hours law to the little known but widely used small independent telephone companies I 1 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 val trading centers nearly independent telephone companies in V U S when I 1 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 1 began to dig around for information about them I 1 am acquainted with those units of service I 1 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 no an unfamiliar fact either to hear of how the switchboard located in home in the village closes down at nine at night and no one is supposed to ring unless it is a case of sickness or cr other emergency I 1 was stunned however to realize that there are nearly such companies in the united states nor was I 1 prepared to understand at once that there are approximately stations or subscribers to those companies if we figure an average family as five we arrive at the conclusion obviously that nearly 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 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 ter state business hence your uncle sam acting through the bureaucrats u proposes to tell the local companies they must pay the wages designated by the federal feder a I 1 law and limit the hours of those who earn their living that way would force companies to increase their rates now I 1 am thoroughly familiar with the limitation of opportunities of employment for women and girls in the small towns I 1 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 ay 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 expense sand and provide service at a dollar or around that figure per month one realizes better what that rate meins means when a comparison is offered of the th ellve five or six dollars per month chang charged ed in cities should thi the smart wrt boys in the wages and hours administration get away with their program it would mean thata that a small exchange would have to increase the pay for or pera opera toi ioia S the minimum for operators operator would be 2180 2190 a year instead ol of whatever rate now is paid and it would mean moreover that there would have to be three or lour four operators era tors that Is to sa say Y fia no operator could work more than 42 hours per week a seven hour day of a six day week and what would that tha t mean every one ot of those companies would be forced to collect three or tour 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 ol of exchanges in it a few states iowa illinois alabama arkansas indiana maine michigan minnesota missouri and texas it is to be remembered that these are purely local companies whatever number ot of exchanges are ppe operated rated 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 cannot see what they are doing to the country why these smart boys cannot see what they are doing to the country Is a question which I 1 cannot answer either they are utterly dumb or they are promoting the organization work for passage ot of the wages and hours hour s law the C 1 I 0 certainly ha has s demonstrated it does not belong in the list of real american organizations but it still has political power the connection with C 1 I 0 agitation might be traced through the tact fact that the law contains a provision permitting a worker to sue tor for damages if the employer in thi this s case the telephone company co compels m violation of the law by forc forcing ing overtime work the political phases of the situation are quite important because of the vast number of voters directly affected I 1 do not mean to say that senator herring and represents representative tive harrington both of iowa have introduced bills to exempt the local co companies m from purely political motives but I 1 suspect that the political pressure will cause many members of the house and the senate to favor passage of those bills I 1 have mentioned heretofore how often the officials of the government those appointed by the president or his subordinates either cither 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 law I 1 am not informed as to ell all details of their case but there were 44 eastern independent steel companies appeared recently before the propaganda spreading temporary national economics coan committee attee 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 hour e law will wreck them they told th the e national economics committee which has come to be known as the me monopoly investigation 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 ot of labor to whom mr andrews is subordinate the steel people say they will go broke or at least they charged they could geano get no government contracts because of failure to comply with the law since the government is spending billions of dollars to create employment and tor for general relief I 1 can not help wondering why it wants to force one segment of industry into a spot where it caw can do no business and employ labor the whole thing however gets get more cockeyed as time gones on there seems to be no limit to the lengths to which bureaucrats drunk with power will go to in abusing the nation who was there that did not express the greatest disgust at the assitine assi nine story which came out ot bf new york city the other day I 1 refer to the problem before the new york state labor board which was called upon to decide whether a professional fess ional woman model was fired 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 in humor it must be treated d seriously because the width of this girls hips may yet bi be a question of n national importance it is a fact a and nd not a that the national labor relations board may yet be called upon to measure those hips hip S end and determine at as judges ot of fashion whether she can prop properly eily display the latest mode of spring apparel 0 newspaper valon union |