Evening star., 1933-08-20
TENNESSEE GETS
BUSY TO ENROLL
FOR BLUE EAGLE
Entire State Will Be
in Line august 81,
Is Forecast.
BY THOMAS FAUNTLEROY,

special Dispatch to The Star.
MEMPHIS, Tenn, August 19.--More
than II per cent of the business firms
IN Tennessee have voluntarily adopted
the national blanket Industrial recovery
code in the little more than two weeks
that the campaign has been under way
Between 500 and 600 agreements are
received daily, and the Tennessee ONCE
Of the N. r. A., located In Memphis
predicts that by August 81 the entire
State will be in line.
The total agreements received have
passed $4,000, and the number Of en-
ployes affected Is $4,000.
Memphis, being the largest city ir
the State. leads with $500 agreements
reported 1888 agreements affecting 49,.
329 employees; Chattanooga, 1899 agree.
ments affecting 1899 employees, anc
knoxville. l.709 agreements affecting
l2.007 employees. The rest Of the State
reports 9,344 agreements affecting 27,.
767 employees.
The campaign to bring the industries
Of the State under the code has beer
pitched largely upon patriotic grounds
with many Of the industrial LEADER
frankly admitting that they do moi
know what the benefits to general busi.
ness will be. For many of them thu
signing up Is something Of q leap II
the dark. though all of them are deter.
mined TO see It through II the prospect
Of Q permanent return to prosperity \
In sight.
Criticise Labor PrUvidons.
One Of the chief criticisms Of thl
code Is that 1t does not provide . sum
cient di6erential between labor In the
South and labor In the North. This 4
particularly true Of the lumber ant
saw milling industry around Nashville
and Memphis. In these industries mucl
common Negro labor Is used and here
tofore the average price has ranget
| around $l.25 and $l.50 . day. tn,
proposed code would almost double this
Similar objections have been raised b.
| other industries which employ much o
the common labor.
The Government. itself, Is setting tn
! pace Of a 30-hour week in a regulation
issued several weeks ago governing tn
| spending Of the recently allotted 81,
Cairo and New Orleans. The Fedora
plan calls for q 30-hour week. NJ
| laborer Is to work more than thre
days a week, and he is to get 80 cent
an hour or 50 for the week. The pur
| pose of this Is to distribute the worl
among twice as many people as wer
| formerly employed. Since this plan
to be effective only as to new contracts
its benefits cannot now be determined
The resumption Of work along the rive
means the swinging into action of man
contractors under their old incomplete,
contracts.
Feeling of Good Times Ahead.
With the general signing up Of tn
recovery act code, the distribution Of mil
State for plowing up their cotton, an
the beginning of the public works pro
gram. there Is a feeling of good time
ahead. The people of Tennessee ar
entering the busy Fall season with NOR
hope than at any time since 1929, witt
the prospect that farm prices will b
good and that there will be plenty o
employment on both private and publ
projects.
Col. Harry s. Berry's appointment a
chief engineer of the public work
board In the States gives assurance Of
speedy and wholesome response to tn
:. requirements of the public works ac'
Col. Berry, the operator of one Of tn
finest farms in the Cumberland VALLEY
Is q West Pointer, served Is colonel Q
1a Tennessee Artillery regiment Il
France. and IS a former highway com
missioner Of Tennessee. When he wa
at the head Of the Highway Department
the road building program went forwar
to completion at a rapid rate. He
regarded as one Of the most energeti
and competent men that ever heade
the department.