Evening star., 1935-03-10
BY MARK SULLIVAN.

eress and the President.
The particular issue on which the
Senate went against the President
was an amendment to the work relief
bill having to do with the wage rate
to be paid to workers on relief prof.
ects. On that issue the President was
right, the Senate wrong. The Presi-
dent wished a rate which should be
below the rate prevailing in industry,
so that there should be no temptation
to workers to remain indefinitely on
relief Stated the other way round.
the Presidents purpose was that the
prevailing wage rate in private in
dustry should always be higher than
that on relief works, so that private
industry. as it revives. should be able
to take workers off the Governments
hands.
The Presidents way was the only
way that. granted we are to have re-
lief works at all, America could
avoid am inclined to put it thus
strongly-the only way that America
could be certain to avoid becoming
socialistic state. For if the Govern
ment were paying the same wage rate
as private industry, the greater at
tractivenesS of Government work. the
easy-going conditions of it, would be
temptation for workers to remain
on the Government pay roll rather
than go on private ones. If all the
unemployed now in the country. or
even very large proportion of them
were put at work on Government
projects with the rate of wages the
ta ND,
it is doubtful if the number could
ever be decreased. Indeed. it is likely
the number of Government works
would be increased, for private in
dustry. unable to bid higher for
workers, would tend to Shrivel up even
further than it already has.
FaIIacy of Labor Leaders.
Yet on this issue many of the con-
servativeS in the Senate, including all
the Republicans except two New Eng
landers, Hale of Maine and Metcalf
OF Rhode Island. voted against the
President. The number of conserva-
tives voting this way, added to the
number who voted for the prevailing
rate" for demagogic reasons. was
enough to make ma ajority adverse to
the President. There were A votes
for the prevailing rate as against 43
for the Presidents proposal of a Gov
ernmental wage rate lower than the
private one.
Some Senators who voted against
the President on this issue may hold
honestly to fallacious theory Many
labor leaders hold the fallacious the
ory, and many workers hold it. Their
fallacy about wage rates is part of
larger fallacy about price The idea
that price makes wealth-ignoranc
OF the fact that wealth consists not
OF price but of goods-iS general in
all quarters. Many workers, especially
IN the building trades, are led bv
union heads to think it is better to
remain idle at let us say a dollar an
hour than to have work at so cents
an hour. This fallacy is at the bot
tom of the failure to get the building
industry under way. Until we free
ourselves from obsession about price.
price of labor included, we shall not
get the resumption of building ac-
tlvlty that Is essential to renewed
prosperity.
On the amendment involving the
issue that the Government should pav
the same wage rate as private indus
try, with Mr.. Roosevelt favoring
lower Government wage rate, the SEN
ate delivered a blow to the Presidents
leadership. But it would be a mistake
% look too narrowly on what was done.
Justifying the Conservative Vote.
Some Senators, the conservative
ones. who voted against the President
did so, as respects this narrow issue.
against their own convictions It can
be argued, nevertheless. that. as
parliamentary maneuVer. their action
was justified. If defeating this one
proposal was step in defeating or
modifying the bill as whole. the vote
Of conservative Senators takes on a
different light. Their primary wish
may have been to reject Government
works altogether, and reduce Govern
ment relief to the much less expensive
form Of direct gifts. Also the bill was
much more than bill for Government
relief. Much more was involved than
the money. the four billions.
The bill as written went afield from
q mere appropriation. 1t included the
President that Congress has yet made
or the Executive proposed. The powers
conferred by the bill were really start
ling-so much so that even the COM
plaisant House deleted two of the
powers that the bill as originally
written would have conferred on the
President. This condition, the extent
of the powers surrendered by Congress
to the President, was a perfectly ten
able reason for conservative Senators
to defeat the bill by any legitimate
means. So far as voting against the
amendment involving the Presidents
standard of wage rate was means Of
calling the country's attention to the
bill as a whole, and of causing it to be
modiied-to that very important ex-
tent, the vote of the conservatives can
be explained, and to a large extent
justified.
"Normal Relation" Resumed.
The Importance Of what the Senate
did about work relief lay in part IN
the fact that it marked resumption OF
the normal relation between Congress
and President. Probably we have
reached that stage of recovery from
panic, from the need OF emergency
action. in which it is best that Con-
eress should resume it's prerogative. In
those days in which Congress was
passing bills literally as delivered to
the body by the President or his aides,
the President or some of the radicals
in his administration rode" Congress
too hard. Some of the radicals who
were permitted to write drafts OF meas
ures for Congress to enact may have
been moved by zeal to use an emer-
gency condition for the purpose OF
bringing about permanent change IN
the American system of society and
Government. Certainly some OF the
legislation thus enacted by Congress
In 1893 and 1884 contained provisions
which Congress would not have put
upon the country had Congress under
stood fully what it was doing.
Congress will not now pass bills