Evening star., 1921-09-14
|MERCHANTSAPPEAL
|. TO THE PRESIDENT
IN YARD WAGE CUT
Secretary DENLY Also Re-
quested to Grant Review
of Employees Case. Z

Petitioning President Harding to re-
view the cut in wages Of employees of
the Washington navy yard as ordered
by the Navy wage board, Philip King.
president of the Merchants and Manu-
facturers' Association. today addressed
Identical letters to the President and
Secretary of the Navy DENLY.
Text Of Letter.
The text of the letters follows:
THE board of governors Of the Mer-
chants and Manufacturers Association
earnestly appeals to the President of
the United States to exercise his good
offices in the direction Of a review of
the recent cut in wages Of employees
at the Washington navy yard.
This board has been supplied with
data covering the situation, and is of
the opinion tnat equity and general
welfare can best be served by a
further hearing in this case.
1T is our understanding that the
employees of the Washington navy
yard are conspicuous for their skill as
established principle that government
employees be- rewarded for their ef-
forts in consonance with their capac-
ity, performance and the current rate
Of pay.
government from rehearing in this
most important case. and we sincerely
trust that there will be a stay OF
execution to that end"
Cabinet Appealed To.
Dfrget appeals to several cabinet
members to use their influence to pre-
vent the reduction in pay also were
made today by a committee repre-
sentfng the machinists' union. The
employees representatives urged that
the wage controversy be taken up at
the next meeting of the cabinet
1t Is the intention of the committee
to lay its appeal before every mem
ber of the cabinet. Cabinet members
conferred with today are Secretaries
Hoover and Davis. The committee is
scheduled to confer with Postmaster
General Hays this afternoon
Herbert p. Leeman, president of
Columbia Lodge, ia, international
Association of Machinists, which COM
prises the machinists employed at the
Washington navy yard. is chairman
John Anderson, E. C. Davidson. Ed
ward r. Williams. James L. Johnston.
Hugh F. Rankin, T. J. Hughes, B. L.
Rhinehart, William w. Keller. R. d.
Coleman and William Mcintosh.
Six-Day Plan FIayed.
The announcement of Secretary
DENLY that plans are being made to
put the navy yard employees back on
a six-day schedule as a means of af-
fording more earnings. was declared
to be merely an attempt to cut the
coat at the expense of the workers" in
statement issued by the Columbia
Lodge.
This is in line with the recommen-
dations of the departmental wage
board of review, which clearly ad-
mitted that the IS cents per hour es-
tablished for mechanics was made
quate to maintain a standard of liv-
ing equal to that enjoyed BY them in
1913. or before the war;" the state
ment added.
THE board recommended that as
soon as possible the yards be returned
to the forty-four-hour week.
Earnings Would BE Less.
''The position of the navy yard
workers is that the return to
the forty-four-hour week is accepta-
BILE to them. but they feel that al
the same time the wage rate should
be high enough for them. to maintain
at least the pre-war standard of liv-
ing. 1t is pointed out that working
a full week Of forty-four hours, the
weekly earnings of navy yard me-
chanic. under the new wage scale
would be $1.48 a week less than the
total weekly earnings under the pres
ent rate for only five days work"
Further plans in their campaign
made by members of the Columbia
Lodge at their regular meeting in
the Naval Lodge Hall tonight at S
o'clock.