The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1933-03-03
FRIDAY. MARCH 3. 1898.
THERE IS A CURE


Restore buying power. This is the one cure for
the depression upon which all agree. On the other
reforms necessary, and they are many, opinions con-
fict. But every one, from the banker and the in
dustrialist down to the humblest laborer, favors an
increase in purchasing power.
There is only one direct and quick way to get
it. That is through wages. Somehow, pay rolls
must be increased so that money will flow again
from the worker to the merchant to the manufac-
turer to the banker, and continue to circulate.
The economists understand this. So do enlight-
ened business men.
Then why doesn't something happen? Why
don't the intelligent business men break this vicious
circle Of s~weatshop wages and layoffs, which is de-
~Stroying more mass buying power and sucking us
deeper into depression?
They can not. The intelligent companies are
fighting for their lives; they can not break the circle
alone. Under the competitive system they are
dragged down to the level of their short-sighted and
INSCRIPTIONS competitors. The longer the process
continues, the more factories and stores become
sweatshops-or close.
For protection Of legitimate business, the pro-
lection of labor, for protection of the farmer who is
dependent on labor as a market, for protection of
banks crashing under the general economic strain,
for protection of the country, minimum wages should
be decreed by law.
Governor Lehman, in a special message, has asked
the New York legislature to fix immediate mini
mum wage standards for women and children. His
action follows unanimous recommendations bv the
official conference of eight eastern states and the
United States department of labor. That confer
ence stated;
Unless a bottom level is fixed in competition, by
minimum wage laws, the downward spiral of lower
wages, low prices and lowered purchasing power may
continue until unemployment has wrecked the morale
and efficiency of our industrial population"
The movement started by this conference, and
now carried forward SO f~orcefully by Governor Leh-
man, is the most hopeful development of this crisis.
But it is not enough. Such protection for women
and minors is humane, though it is not adequate
TO the economic need. The problem engulfs all
workers, all business; the solution must include male
workers as we'll. Leave out male workers-the bulk
of labor-and purchasing power can not be APP
preciably raised.
Nor is state action enough. 1t creates unfair
competition between advanced and backward en-
ployerS. Governor Lehman stresses this point:
Il have, of course, no doubt that minimum wage
laws, as a means of eliminating unfair wage cut
tings, should exist throughout the nation to
the extent that congress has power it should exer-
else that power"
Only one objection worthy Of consideration has
been raised against a national minimum wage law.
Because of an earlier decision of the United States
supreme court, SOM believe that a new law also
would be declared unconstitutional.
To this fear Governor Lehman makes the peril
nent reply:
Il also am advised by competent constitutional
authority that present-day conditions are so changed
from those prevailing when the original statute was
before the court that a mandatory minimum wage
law, based not on living standards, but on the mini
mum value of the services rendered, we'll might be
upheld by the supreme court of the United States"
The supreme court, of course, on other issues
has reversed itself in face of changed conditions; a
necessary and proper course, if the law is to remain
a living thing.
This is no time for legalistic hair-spitting. Years
of rigid Interpretations of the Constitution should
not stop congress in its duty to bring relief. America
is not made for the Constitution, but the Constitu-
ton was made for America-for the protection, not
for the enslavement, of America.
Purpose of the Constitution is to promote the
general welfare of the people. Therefore, in every
supreme national emergency in our history the gov
eminent, under the Constitution, has invoked the
power necessary to protect the republic.
That was done during the war. 1t was done last
year, when the government resorted to the extreme
measure of the Reconstruction Finance Corporation.
1t can be done again. For the protection of
capital and labor ana in consultation with both, the
President should be given emergency authority by
congress to fix for different industries and localities
such minimum wages and maximum work periods
as ne deems necessary to restore public buying power
and conquer the depression.