The Omaha guide., 1933-08-05

League speaking for this group OF
Negro laborers, who are largely un-
organized, is in accord with the opin-
ion expressed by General Johnson or
July the 18th that "the hours of ser.
vice and minimum wages in these
regions are wholly unacceptable" anc
should in no case be approved 1t viii
require but little analysis to demon
strate the truth Of General Johnson's
announcement.
Numbers of Negro workers in the
seml-skilled branches of the industry
will be grouped with common labor
ers in the matter of hours Of service
and minimum wages But even if
these workers are disregarded and
only those actually listed as laborers
by the Bureau of Census for 1880
are taken as a fair index of present
conditions the record of the applica-
ton of the privisions of the proposed
code to this smaller group is start
ling. The 1856 Negro workers in
the Southern saw and planning mills
will under the code be required to
work 40 hours a week at 22a cents
per hour Of $1,000 a week. At the
same time white laborers doing the
same grade Of work in mills in the
Western Pine and West Coast Region.
will be required to work only 40
hours a week for which they will re-
ceive 40 cents an hour of SIG. 90 a
weeK
If these low paid Negro workers
are compared with a like number of
higher paid white workers of the
West the following results is obtain
ed: The Negro laborers will be re
quired to work 4,407,168 man hour.
weekly to receive a weekly pay of
$991,612 80; while an equal number
of white workers in the higher paid
districts will be required to work only
3,672,640 man hours weekly to receive
$1,469,0 56 90 weekly. The difference
Of yearly buying power of these two
groups will be $24,827 ,O46 40 in favor
of the white group. This is a variance
for which no reliable statistics on
costs of living in rural lumber camp
communities can be offered in justi-
fication even when a most favorable
Interpretation is placed on statements
made at this hearing concerning the
Utopian existence of the Southern
lumber mill laborer.
The keystone to the arch of this
national recovery program has been
stated again and again to be the
speedy increase of the buying power
of the entire buying public of the
nation. This is to be accompanied, and
in actual fact has been anticipated,
by a steady rise in prices. The rise in
prices Of the basic foodstuffs and
other necessaries of life has known
no color line. Is it fair, therefore, to
draw such a line between wages paid
in a region dominated by black labor
ers and a region dominated by white
laborers? Certainly such a 6scrimin-
alton in wage differentials-so point
ely directed at the Negro labor in the
industry-can not be said to be in
Keeping with an essential purpose Of
the Act.
In addition it must be borne in
mind that the minimum wages estab-
lished in Southern lumber regions
will in every case become the maxi
mum wages for this group. This fact
IN itself offers a cogent reason for
greatly increasing this minimum.
The code establishes no minimum
wages for .semi-skilled and skilled
operatives. Discrimination by race,
which has been characteristic of wage
scales paid in all southern industries,
IS not only wholly possible under the
code a proposed but is also highly
probable. Thus insofar as the code
affects the Negro the minimum wage
proposed for the southern section viii
represent the maximum for Negro
workers in all branches of mill work
in this region, regardless Of their
degree of skill.
There IS grave reason to doubt If
the $10.8O weekly minimum wage re-
presents even a "bare subsistence
wage. Certainly it cannot be LABEL
ed a decent living wage p The bro
pose minimum is lower than the IN
satisfactory minimum established in
the cotton textile code for an admit
tedly low pay industry Like the cot
ton mill worker, the lumber mill
worker, has been a victim Of the
%nauseous paternalism of the mill vii
lage already repudiated in strong
terms by the Administrator Of this
Act and the President of the United
States. The cotton mills are like the
lumber mills located in agricultural
communities away from cities, the
laborers in both industries are on an
equal footing in every respect Yet
it has been suggested that SO. 80 is
a decent living wage for lumber mill
laborers in the south, while $1,000 a
Unnk hoe hnnn cot for oo++nn mill