Evening star., 1935-09-24
FALLACY IS seen
IN SHORTER HOURS
Declared Danger as Pay
Rates for Labor Near
1929 Levels. ~
BY DAVID LAWRENCE.

Accurate information as to what
is happening to the pay envelope Of
the working people Of America is i'm
portant to an understanding Of
whether progress Is being made
toward q recovery Of purchasing
power.
The National Industrial Conference
Board, the best equipped Of the ma
tionally known statistical agencies,
has Just revealed that the rates per
hour for labor Of all kinds are vir-
tually back to the 1929 levels.
But the working man can't pay his
food bills or the rising cost Of living
with a certificate saying his rates
per hour" are higher than they have
been and are back to so-called pros
perity levels. What he has to have
is a pay envelope which totals up in
dollars and cents somewhere near
1929 or 1929.
The boards figures show that, un-
fortunately, labor today Is getting only
76 per cent Of the 1929 pay envelope.
FcWer Ddys "Vihcu'
So while the rate per hour has
gotten back to 1929 and in some in
stances has risen to is per cent
above the 1929 average, the number
Of hours or days actually worked is
too few to enable the working man to
feel he is as well of as he was in 1929
Thus the average earnings Of skilled
and semi-skilled workers dropped
from $3.50 per week in 1929 to $3.50
in 1892 and had risen to $24.5S in
July, 1885.
The big question is: When will the
working man get back to a $325s
weekly pay envelope? Business can
not pay him a higher rate per hour
than he Is getting today-that is,
speaking of averages and not particu-
lar industries. For to do so sends
the cost of production sky high and
this makes the prices OF the articles
sold too high and in the end cuts
down the public use Of such articles.
What. then, Is the answer? More
work. Not only are the working men
in need of more hours, but more days
of work In the week.
But many labor leaders are agitat-
ing for q 30-hour week. And some
unions are insisting on limited work.
week. Where such schedule inter
feres with health or overworks the
employe. there is no doubt that short
nr- nyk a
humanitarian measure. But there
are work schedules which do not inter-
fere at all with individual capacity.
Not Declared Practical.
The average workman, therefore,
has to make up his mind as tc how
much money he Is going to limit him.
self in his pay envelope. II he relies
on the statements Of labor leaders
that they are going to force up still
higher the rate per hour so he can get
a total pay envelope equal to 1929,
the employe may choose to rely on
that prospect; but from an economic
and practical standpoint, that's an
unlikely development. The consuming
public is likely to want lower and not
higher prices and 1t is no answer to
say this can all be taken out Of profit,
for invested capital has a way Of de-
Serting businesses and industries that
do not earn at least interest or a fair
return on equities invested.
It's simple matter Of arithmetic
for the working man to decide whether
he Is going to rely on the wage per
hour being increased or whether he is
going to depend on getting more hours
OF work. So far as the employers are
concerned, they are today looking for
more orders. If they get them, therell
be more work for those now employed
and for some Of the unemployed. But
the spread-the-work idea in 1882 was
bitterly fought by union leaders, just
as today they are relying on the agi-
tation for higher rates per hour to in
crease the total pay envelope.
Must Recognize FaIIacy.
1t is not improbable that the econ
omists in the labor ranks will recog-
niZe in due time the fallacy of con-
tinued emphasis on shorter hours
when the real need is to aid industry
In getting more stable situation on
which they can predicate longer hours.
In many businesses where two and
three days q week have been the total
available work, the question of a 30
hour or a 40-hour week has been
largely academic. When, however,
business improves, the question will
become concrete. In the meantime
the figures by the National Industrial
Conference Board are illuminating
though in many industries it has been
well known for several months that
the working men have become dis
satisfied because they are not able to
get pay envelopes big enough to meet
living costs, Notwithstanding the fact
that their rates per hour are now as
high as they were in the "horse-and-
buggy" days of 1928 and 1929.