Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1934-04-02
Postal Telegraph Advocates
Action in Interests
of the Public"
PRACTICES OF INDUSTRY
ATTACKED AT HEARING
Howard L. Kern Says A. T. T.
Policy Is Having Disas-
trous Effect.
BY the Associated Press.

BY the Associated Press
The president of Western Union to-
day challenged N. r. AS right to pro-
duce a code for the telegraph COM
munications industry, while a repre-
sentative Of Postal advocated this &C
ton in the interests of the public"
R. B. White, Western Union presi-
dent, contended at an N. r. A. hear
ing for formulation Of a code that
his company would not benefit from
the proposal. He added, however,
I'VE are here to cooperate under the
law"
Howard L. Kern, representing the
Postal Telegraph Co., attacked trade
practices in the industry, saying they
were adversely and injuriously affect
ing the interests Of the public, of the
companies themselves and Of their en-
ployers."
Urges Hour Reduction.
Kern said code should be put into
effect reducing the hours OF work
from 48 to 40.
This. he added. would bring in
creased employment to 1000 or 5000.
However, he said 1t would not be
possible to increase wages and reduce
hours unless the industry was re-
lieved of excessive financial waste.
which he attributed ito unsound and
discriminatory competition"
He urged that a control by the code
authority Of the telegraph industry
be established over leased line faciN-
ties.
THE American Telephone & Tele-
graph Co." he said, has been extend
ing its leased wire service with a lib
erality which has a disastrous and
discriminatory effect upon companies
rendering general public telegraph
service"
He also demanded cancellation Of
all exclusive contracts, saying they
were definitely against public policy.
He specified Western Union contracts
with the railroads and Radio Corpora
ton Of America contracts with foreign
governments. As for the latter, he
pointed out that under present law
the cable companies are not allowed
to make such contracts abroad.
OtnerS NOT Affected.
White told N. r. A. officials that
Postal and Western Union for code
purposes are substantially all there is
to the telegraph industry and that the
cable companies and R. c. A. Com
munications. Inc. are not substan-
TALLY affected because of their small
number of employees.
He said Western Union has roughly
three-quarters of the domestic tele-
graph business; that Postal's compe-
tition has existed since 1888: that
under the policy of conflict this COM
petition must continue and the COM
panieS may not merge as railroads
and telephone concerns are allowed
to do
so far as we are AWARE he said,
"our company has engaged in no un-
fair competitive practices, and we
have no complaint of that nature to
make against Postal Co."
The Western Union official outlined
the method by which his company
had dealt with employees for is years.
with arrangements for arbitration,
which he said never had to be used
because all disputes had been ad-
justed satisfactorily.
Some Pay Cuts Restored.
Last July, he said. the company re-
stored some of the depression pay cuts
and later restored some previously
Cancelled vacation time.
Employees again are demanding
further increases, he said, and nego-
tiations will begin April 9. He said
he hoped it would he possible to giant
the increases.
TIE hearing was opened by Leigh
ton H. PEBBLES, deputy N. p. A. adj
ministrator.
Aides of Hugh S. Johnson have
attempted for weeks to obtain from
the telegraph companies a CODE salts
factory to N r. A. Those submitted
were termed by johnson wholly I'M
satisfactory" He called today's hear
ing to force an agreement.
Hearings on two codes for the teie-
phone industry have been set for
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