Evening star., 1935-08-11

In showing Risks vote far ahead in
places that had been strongly Demo-
cratic for long time was perfectly
obvious.
The Rhode Island election is re-
earded here as a rebuke to the party
in power.
While it is true that the Democrats
nominated their candidate, Antonio
Prince. only after a bitter factional
row, the very division in the party
indicated that things were not right" ="
Two reasons for the dissatisfaction
with the Roosevelt administration ap-
parently stand out. One is the dis
taste of the people for the A. A. A.
and its processing taxes and higher
living costs. The other is a New Eng
land dislike for great borrowing and
spending operations.
Have Not Forgotten Thrift.
The people in New England have
not vet forgotten their earlier les
sons in thrift.
They look forward with anxiety, to
meeting the tax bills to pay for
IIB NEW OCdl OpCllN1AAe PAO6A oAAA'
A reflection of this distaste for
borrowing and spending, and Incl
dentally, reflection of what happened
in Rhode Island last Tuesday, is found
in the action of the Massachusetts,
LEGISLATURE Friday. The House re-
fused to pass a $4,500,000 bond issue
urged by Gov. Curley for the con-
struction of a score or more buildings
for various State institutions.
At the same time the Senate re-
jected legislation authorizing the City
OF Boston to extend the Boston ele-
waited tunnel in both directions.
Gov. Curley has been great ex-
ponent of the Roosevelt spending idea
In Massachusetts,. He has gone to
Washington with proposals calling for
hundreds of millions to expend in pub
lie works.
The setback he met Friday when
enough Republicans and three Demo-
Gratis turned back his proposed bond
Issue caused the Governor to declare
that he would keep the Legislature in
session until he had obtained the
bond issues he demands. That course
may or may not work.
The Governor has succeeded in win
ming over Republican votes for various
projects in the past.
The idea is spreading, however, that
the Republicans may be a bit more
difficult to deal with in the future.
That goes both for State and ma
tional legislatures.
Labor Is Up in Arms.
New England organized labor is up
in arms against the subsistence wage"
offered by President Roosevelt on
work-relief projects, just as it is in
New York, Illinois and other parts
of the country In spite of assurances
from Gov. Curley. given at Springfield,
that the prevailing wage would be
paid on all building construction un-
der the w. P A., in this State. the
wage schedules announced Friday
ranged from $40 week for unskilled
labor in Dukes and Nantucket Coun-
ties to $2l Is week for skilled trades
men and mechanics in Boston. For
skilled workers in the towns about
the State, the rate is $1875
These rates are considerably lower
than the union scale. The Massa-
chusetts Building Trades Council is
going ahead with plans for general
strike in September against the lower
than-union scale pay.
The President and his advisers were
warned that. they would run into a
peck of trouble if they persisted in
what the President dubbed a Sub
eistence wage" for work-relief projects
Congress fought bitterly over 3he
McCarren prevailing wage" amend
ment to the work-relief appropriation
bill. In the end the President had
his way
The President held that work-reliet
workers should accept subsistence
wage and be glad to get it. He might
have said it was just another form of
charity. But the organized workers
throughout the country feared that
the adoption of this lower wage scale
on construction projects would, in the
end, bring down the union wage scale
generally.
1t is because of this fear that they
are now protesting. Further, there
are union men and women on work
relief projects, and they and their as
sociates feel that If they do work
comparable to that for which the
union wage is paid in private industry
they should be fully compensated for
their work by the Federal Govern
unent. AL of this tends to complicate