The Butler County press. [volume] (Hamilton, Ohio) 1900-1946, 1931-05-22
Low WAGE
Advocates From Europe Fail
in u. S. Campaign
Fight to Win Chamber of
Commerce OK. for Pay
Cuts Meets Opposition and
Doesn't Even Reach First
Base.
By CHESTER M. WRIGHT


Washington, D. C. (ILNS)-Eur-
ope's low-wage propaganda came in
full force to the convention of the
International Chamber of Commerce
here, and didn't get to first base
Had the full force of the hurricane
of wage-cutting propaganda got out
of hand it would have swept the floor
and the reverberations would still be
the chief memory of the big gather
ing
Three things operated to stop the
storm before it got headway. One of
these was the record made by the
American delegation in the Interna-
| tional Chamber meeting in 1929, when
it wrote its own addition to conven-
tion resolutions and declared that, for
America "rising wages and continuous
employment create widespread buy
ing power"
Another was the fact that Presi-
dent Hoover's pre-convention blast
stopped tariff discussion, which helped
stop wage-cutting talk.
Newspaper Men Didn't Fall
The third was the fact that corps
of American publicity men, with
whom the working newspaper men on
the job co-operated, didn't "fall for"
the propaganda that was spread
through the conference.
This combination of circumstances
virtually barred wage-reduction
propaganda from the open discus
sions, save in the case of the head of
the European steel cartel. 1t did not
halt agents of wage-reduction propa-
| ganda from working overtime pri-
vately to spread the poison.
| One of the most active in the eff
fort to break open the wage reduc-
tion issue was the French publicity
representative of the International
Chamber of Commerce. 1t is safe to
conclude that he did not come to
Washington with that point of view
unless he had been made sure before
leaving Paris that his employers
wanted that point of view exploited
Encounters Unwilling Listeners
But he, like others, encountered un-
willing listeners among American
newspaper men, as we'll as the 1929
declaration for "rising wages"
Those who were at the heart of the
machinery around which the conven-
tion operated knew the European in
tent and moved rapidly to check its
development To a considerable ex-
tent the Europeans had planned to
open their fight with an attack on the
| American tariff, but back of their
planned attack on tariff was the
driving force of their determination
to start world movement to drive
wages down.
Naturally there were certain Amer
leans ready to assist in the drive, but
they were checked by other Amer
leans. One of the notable contribu-
tions to sober second thought about
| wage-cutting was the smashing ad-
dress delivered by Dean Donham, of
Harvard, in which he seriously and
calmly predicted consequences of the
most dire character unless present in
| equalities are rectified.
World Drive Stopped
The fact is that, while the Cham
| ber of Commerce ended in an almost
complete absence of constructive pro-
gram, the convention stopped a world
drive against the American standard
of living, partly by virtue of its own
record which it could not we'll aban-
don, and partly because of outside
forces which it feared
The wage-cutting drive was not
stopped without some cost. When
talk of wages was stopped other is
sues likewise were smothered. Among
these was the soviet issue, which was
billed to have an overhauling, but
which escaped, not because of lack of
conviction, but because adroit moves
closed the floor to that issue when it
closed the floor to issues that would
| have been destructive of every good
thing the convention might have ac-
complished.
For labor the stopping of the wage
cutting drive was worth all its cost.
/ IT. was perhapS tha most pnomantouS