The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1933-12-02

her story came TO me from an
interviewed, but I have verified the
facts through another person.
| A social economist well known in
Europe as well as in the United
States, Miss Byrd was employed to
advise the N.R.A. On Negro problems.
She found them by the dozen but
all that she can do about them is
write memorandum. She couldn't
even do that during her first four
weeks in the MA. because she was
deprived both Of Gl Office and Of
equipment. There we no facilities
for Negroes and the Negro expert
wasn't allowed TO use those provided
for whites.
She has discovered nevertheless, as
anyone who studies the Negroes new
situation, that under the MIRA. her
race has been handed these four
jokers:
1. MIRA. stepped up instead of
slowed down the displacement of Ne
gro by white labor, which began in
1929.
2. N.R.A.'s fixed policy OF sanction
ing sectional wage differentials I'M
der the codes, which means actually
racial determinations against Ne
groes.
3. Organized discrimination against
Negroes are occurring and are con-
sistently tolerated by enforcing agen-
cies on which not single Negro
Is serving anywhere in the country
4. Special determinations against
Negroes are the rule instead of the
exception in New Deal work relief
Couldn't Find An ONCE"
Miss Byrd was called to the N.R.A
from the University Of Chicago
where she was an assistant to Prof
Paul Douglas in the department Of
economics. Previously she had spent
three years in Geneva as a native.
labor expert in the international
Labor Office Of the League Of Ma,
tons. She taught economics al
Fiske, the Negro university in Ten.
nessee, and for several years organ.
lied the Young Women's Christian
Association program among indus.
trial workers. She is a graduate O.
the University Of Washington anc
has made special studies at the Uni.
versity Of Chicago.
When she arrived in Washington
last August, the first thing she learn
ed was that she would have to take
a desk with the Negro census tabu-
lators (who were already jim Crowec
on the top floor Of the Commerce
Department building, because, as
her superiors said, they "just couldn't
find an Office" for her. They tolc
her this though there are hundred,
of offices in the labyrinthine head.
quarters Of the NR.A., many Their
vacant.
Just as Miss Byrd settled down
to her desk, she received a telephone
call from the official in charge OF
personnel, advising her she'd better
not use any of the white stenograph-
ers in the "stsnograpIic pool" a
large group of secretaries supposedly
serving all MA. experts.
The chief task for which Miss Byrd
was employed was a first-hend study
in the field Of Negro problems under
the N.R.A. The tacit understanding
about it was confirmed after she be-
gan to work, and she enthusiastically
made her plans, packed her luggage
end bought her tickets for New Or
leans, Atlanta, Memphis and Nash
| vile. But just q few hours before
her train left, she was telephoned
orders not to go. Her superiors had
decided that the trip was mot feas-
ible." Much later it DEVELOPED that
/ the project had been souelched by
NR.A. Administrator Hugh S. John
ION and the Labor Advisory Board
Johnson had decided it would be
preposterous" to send a Negro into
the South to study Negro problems!
So Miss Byrd was ordered to do
her research work from WASHINGTON.
They discovered an office, and pro
Video her with private secretary
the only Negro secretary in the
MIRA. Correspondence brought her
some information. and she learned
much from the hearings on codes.
Discriminating Against Negroes
She knew that, from the beginning
OF the depression, Negroes had been
displaced through organized mothods
on a large scale-and she found that
N.RA. actually stimulated this pro-
cess by giving employers an excuse,
supposedly higher wages, for firing
Negroes wholesale. This has occur
red in the North and South alike,
Miss Byrd found, and unless the
MIRA. recognizes it and stops it, it
will hold down the wages of both
White and Negro workers.
The MIRA. has not yet officially
approved Of an open racial discrim-
nation, but it has given what
amounts to the same thing in Ok
ng codes providing big differences
between the wages in the North and
the south, for the same work Miss
Byrd found that the wide spreads
exist in industries where the labor
n one section is predominantly COL
cred. The laundry industry proposes
TO pay in the South, where most
aundresses are colored. $3.50 weel.
'or As hours. Similarly, the lumber,
he hotel, the iron and steel indus
isies placed in their codes difTeren-
ials far greater than those adopted
~ industries in which the division
otween white and Negro labor is
bout the same in all sections.
Now specific racial discrimina-
ion is proposed in the code presented
or the textile bag industry In the
South. This code proposes one soak
Of wages for normal" and another
Gale, much lower, for "subnormal
abor. And the codes definition Of
'subnornal" labor explains unmis-
! tskably that this word means Negro