Evening star., 1914-07-23
Labor Unions Represented at
Navy Yards May Offer Sub
Stitute for Measure.
AMENDMENTS PLANNED
TOOTHERS IN CONGRESS
Great Interest in System of Arriving
at Wage Scale, Especially in View
of Increased Work.

Representatives of labor unions
whose members are included IN the
various trades at the Washington navy
yard. as well as other government navy
yards and arsenals throughout the
country. are preparing amendments to
different bills which have been intro
duced in Congress affecting their IN
terests, and it was stated today that
they may cause a new bill to be IN
troduced in Congress to supplant the
so-called Maher bill, favorably report
ed to the House Monday
The latter bill does away with the
present wage board system" in use at
the various navy yards and arsenals
and gives the duty of collecting in
formation on which wage scales shall
be based to the Secretary of Labor.
n. p Alifas. legislative agent of the
International Association of Machinlsts
at Washington, today informed re-
porter for The Star that his organiza-
tion does not want to be put in the
position of opposing the bill favoraoly
reported Monday 1t is good bill, IN
way. he said. but it is believed that
better bill can be framed.
Mr.. Alifas said that the presidents of
the International unions whose workers
are employed at the navy yards and ar
senals of the country have approved in
general terms new bill. as we'll as
amendments to bills now in Congress,
designed to straighten out all difficult
ties of the union labor men.
Interest in Wage Scale Here.
We have refrained from having any
thing to say for publication on This mat
ter for some time. Mr.. Alifas continued.
"as are deeply appreciative of what
every one seems to be trying to do for
US: but | suppose there is considerable
public interest in the subject OF wage
scales the Washington navy yard at
this time, view OF the fact that the
yard is running. approximately, on
full time. with 2.2u men employed, and
is likely To do SO for some time TO come,
in view Of the fact that three dread
oughtS have been authorized. and are to
have built Ior them thirty fourteen-lpcn
guns. many of which will be built at the
gun factory OF the Washington yard
Under the bill reported Monday the
present wage board system at the navy
yards will be done away with, and the
bureau OF labor statistics of the Depart
ment of Labor under the Secretary OF La
Dor. will collect all the information on
which wage scales are to be based. That
information will be furnished to the Sec
retary of the Navy for navy yard wage
scales and the Secretary of War for
arsenals. In case OF dispute between the
men and the government as to what the
wage scales snail De Cne scales GStdD-
lished are to be subject to further revi-
sion by the Secretary of the Navy or the
Secretary of War, as the case may be,
with the Secretary of Labor acting in
an advisory capacity in such dispute.
Would Delegate Work to Others.
This is good as far as it goes, but it
will be found that the Secretary. the
head of a department. will be too busy.
personally. to take up such subject as
a wage scale, and the logical thing for
him to do will be to turn it over to
subordinate, who, naturally, in the case
of navy yards, will be the conmandant
of the yard affected. This will result in
the commandant calling together a board
of officers at the yard to act, and the
final effect will be that we Will, after all,
have a wage board from the yard set
Ting the wage scales. That is how 1t
will work out
Instead of this, what We want is rep
resentation of the unions on any wage
board empowered to fix scales or gather
data on which they are to be fixed Also,
We want the data made public The pres
ent system is for the wage board to
go out to other plants in the United
States and get data on which wage
scales are made in the yards and
arSenalS.
For the last few years we do not be-
Eeve that we have been getting entirely a
square deal. Ihe wage Dodfd mas re-
fused to show us the data gathered, on
which our pay has been based, on the
ground that it has been furnished in con-
ndence by the various private plants from
which it has been obtained. In conse-
uuence we may offer amendments an
entirely new bill may be brought in
Not Ready to Discuss Bill.
Capt. Jones, commandant at the Wash
ington navy yard, said today that he was
not prepared to express an opinion as to
the value of the bill reported Monday
which bears Mr. Mahers name, as he had
not studied the measure.
The question of the wage scale being
decided by the Department of Labor how
ever Capt Jones said has been
brought up. and it has some merit. There
is apparently great interest in the subject
at this time. especially because of the
three dreadnoughts that are to be built
for the navy. They will have thirty IA
inch guns. and at least sixteen of these
guns are to be built at the gun factory at