Evening star., 1933-10-08


nations.
The increase In the labor costs, re-
hected In higher prices. would reduce
consumption by workingmen and N
others. An increasing portion Of .
diminishing product would 60 abroad to
pay for indispensable imports. Foreign
peoples, with longer hours and lower
wages, would undersen US in all markets.
Still higher tariffs would be necessary.
further increasing the cost of living.
Add to the 30-hour regulation q legal
minimum wage and see a sinister social
situation. develop. The productive EN-
cheney Of millions of workers is tragically
low. All Of US deplore a 81 wage for .
60-hour week, but this unhappy condi-
30-hour week with stiff minimum wage
would breed a growing mass of perma-
nent unemployables. We would end up
with that social canker, the dole.
In the face Of these sobering facts the
Senate, on April last. passed by .
vote Of So to 80 bill establishing the
30-hour week In all manufacturing in
supported the measure with these words:
Il am definitely in favor Of the principle
of the bill. President Roosevelt ike
wise is in sympathy with the principle
and purposes Of the measure" william
Green, president of the American Fed
Grafton of Labor, objected that the bill
did not cover. all industry in America.
Of Df oil fh4 -
Americas greatest electrical manufac-
tory gave his approval, with the sug-
gestion that the hours be changed to 81,
while the leader of the greatest auto
mobile enterprise gave his approval Of
the legal 32-hour week, but wanted this
to be averaged over six months, with 48
hours permitted in any one week. This
latter proposal, later adopted in many
N. r. A. codes, is an unhappy arrange
ment calling for weeks of 48-hour labor
followed by, weeks of unpaid idleness.
The bill escaped passage by the House.
Some members discovered the obvious
truth that its passage would close all
our factories exposed to European COM
petition, and their insistence on an
amendment stopping our remaining i'm
ports blocked the bill.
where economic reasoning is futile,
1t is apparent that if the millennium
could be achieved in this fashion the
magic would have been discovered be-
fore the Senate found it in 1898. The
sensible English or the practical French
would have hit upon it before this They
have been struggling with poverty for
thousand years.
Do not be misled by the apparent
prosperity Of industries on very short
hours and high wages. Henry Ford's
famous recipe for permanent prosperity,
a seven-hour day and $6 minimum
wage, has become 40 hours week and
so cents an hour for many of his en-
ployes. II an industry can grant excep-
of monopoly or other favorable condi-
tons and the favored workers have
their advantage at the expense of the
consumers, including other workers. The
short hours and extraordinary wages in
the building trades have caused unem-
ployment for the workers themselves,
and paralysis of the construction indus
try, while other workers live in tene-
ments for lack of housing.
Gen. Hugh johnson wrote that a
restoration of consumer power might
possibly be accomplished by IAN aver
age work week of 80 hours with a mini
mum wage of IS cents an hour for the
lowest paid type of labor" But the first
code approved under N. R. A. called for