The Connecticut labor news., 1921-10-14
PRICE AND PAY CUTS
 DIVIDE CONFEREES
 ON UNEMPLOYMENT
Majority Favors Report Urging Pro- duction While Gompers Bares
 Wage Plan.

| Washington, Oct IA division of l opinion developed in the national un- employment conferences Committee on Emergency Measures by Manufacturers as to the scope of the report 1t shall render when the general conference re- assemblies next Tuesday afternoon. One of the chief points at issue, 1t IS said, 1 isis whether a recommendation shall be made that readjustment of wages and | prices downward IS essential to indus trial revival.
 The majority membership of the sub | committee that was appointed was re- | ported to-day to favor such a recOmmen- l dation Objections to introducing the | question of wage reductions into the un- | employment conference was said to have | been voted by Samuel Gompers, Presi- | dent of the American Federation of Labor, and Mrs. Sarah Conboy, another representative of labor on the committee. Announcement had been made that l James A. Campbell, Chairman of the | committee since the retirement of w. H. | Stackhouse, would have a statement to make, following the committee meeting | to-day. When the time arrived, however, MT. Campbell said that the statement would not be made public at present. The understanding here is that Secre- ! tary of Commerce Hoover, on learning that MT. Campbell intended to make a statement which probably would incor- porate the recommendations of the ma jority of the committee, sent for him nouncement Secretary Hoover has been consistently opposed to bringing the problem of wage reductions into the con- ference deliberations, as such a step, it has seemed probable, would result in a | controversy between the representatives of industries and the labor leaders. MINORITY REPORT EXPECTED
 As the situation shapes now, it would appear that minority report will be made if the majority membership of the committee finally makes public it's report in the present form. A draft of the majority report has been prepared, and 1t is said to contain the reco1nmenda- tion for wage and price cuts, as we'll as other features on which there was a division of opinion in the committee meeting.
 Mr. Campbell, in stating that an- nouncement of the committees findings conference reasseribles, admitted that there was such a division. He would mittees deliberations or his conference
 
 Emergency Measures by Manufacturers, he said, would meet again next Mon day and report to the general confer ence the following day.
 MT. Gompers also withheld comment when he learned that Secretary Hoover was opposed to giving publicity at this time to the conclusions reached by the committee.
 Among those who were reported as in favor of a recommendation that wage and price reductions must precede any effective readjustrnent of the industrial situation was John E. Edgerton, Presi- dent of the National Association of Manufacturers and a member of the Manufacturers Committee.
 The discussion in the committee was said to have covered broad scope. Re duction of railroad rates was one step held to be essential to industrial revival. Other questions taken up were tax re- vision along lines that would not strangle industry, the advisability of the repeal of the Adamson act and the proposed legislation to assist in the funding of the railroads indebtedness to the Govern ment SO that financial relief might be more readily extended to the roads.
 If themajo jority element on the com mittee had its way, it is said that all of these matters, along with the question of wage decreases and a reduction in prices by manufacturers and retailers would have been included i'll the report and made public at once. This course would have made inevitable a minority report.
 KIRBY FOR PRICE AND WAGE CUTS The importance which IS put on the problem of wage and price reductions was emphasized by a statement made public tonight by John H. Kirby, Presi- dent of the Southern Tariff Association and a member of the Committee on Emergency Measures in Construction of the conference His utterances were not restricted by the restraining hand placed by Secretary Hoover on the members of the Committee on Emergency Meas ures by manufacturers.
 We must get the farmers out of the bread line before we can completely solve the unemployment problem in cities, said MT. Kirby, flor the farmer purch ases one-half of the products of those who toll in our cities and 1t is not pos sible for our industries to dispose of their normal production when the pur- chasing power of the farmers is des- troye or seriously impaired. Before normal labor conditions can be restored all prices and all wages must be reduced tO~ normal and the price of agricultural products raised to normal.
 The emergency tariff measure IS keeping the wolf from the door of many of our agricultural industries and an early enactment of the permanent tariff measure protecting the American pro- ducer against the pauper labor of for eign countries will do much to restore this country to normal conditions.
 The uncertainty of our tax program and the weight of our tax burdens are re- tarding industrial progress and are fru1t- full courses of unemployment because they discourage the establishment of new enterprises and halt the extension of old ones. Congress should pass the tax bill at an early date, and it should be so levied that the least possible burden rests upon productive industry and the least possible Encouragement upon un- developed enterprises, for we must keep the fountains of wealth flowing and open new fields of business endeavor or we will soon have nothing to tax and no money to pay our tax bills.
 "The disarmament conference, ii 1t succeeds, will become a potent factor III reducing the expenses of the Federal Government, for we are informed from authoritative sources that 93 cents ot every dollar we pay into the Federal