Evening star., 1936-03-03
CONTRACT-WAGE
BILL INTRODUCED
House Measure, Modelled on
Walsh Principles, Would
Protect Labor.

A bill embodying the basic prin-
ciples of the Walsh bill by including
In Government contracts wage and
hour standards and provisions for
bidding employment of child or con-
vict labor, was introduced yesterday
by Representative Arthur d. Healey
Of Massachusetts,.
He is chairman Of special sub
committee of the House Judiciary
Committee to which the Walsh bill
was referred for study after its pass
age by the Senate last session.
Enactment of the substitute bill
this year." Healey said, sis imperative
to prevent gains accomplished by labor
under the N. R. A. code from being
entirely wiped out by the growing
tendency on the part of many en-
ployers to abandon wage and hour
standards"
He argued that unless such bill is
passed, "the Government will remain
In the paradoxical position of exhort-
ing private industry voluntarily to
maintain decent labor practices while
itself encouraging breakdown of
the wage and hour structure by award
ing its own contracts to manufacturers
whose treatment of their own en-
ployes offends all enlightened stand
ards"
Wage Cuts Disclosed.
Representative Healey referred to
. report by the Government contracts
division transmitted last week to his
committee by the Secretary of Labor
which showed many firms having
Government contracts have departed
from the wage and hour standard of
N. r. A. OF 3,507 firms investigated.
the report reveals that 81 per cent
of them had increased hours and
that AZ per cent had reduced wages
previous to the reports being made.
He cited monthly reports of the Bu-
reau of Labor statistics which have
appeared since the decision of the
Supreme Court invalidating the N.
r. A. and which, although showing'in-
creases in total pay roll and total
employment, have nevertheless in
dicated a definite trend toward lower
hourly wages.
In the Healey redraft of the Walsh
bill, the retroactive conditions have
been deleted to meet the criticism that
such conditions were impracticable
to enforce and would have had the
effect of making many firms forever
ineligible for doing business for the
Government.
Provides Contractor Pledge.
The new bill is simpler than the
original. The first section requires
ell specifications for Government con-
tracts in excess of $4,000 to contain
representation by the contractor
that he will employ neither child
labor nor convict labor and will con-
form to a maximum hour and mini
mum wage schedule referred to in
the invitation for bids.
A new section would prevent pro-
visions of the bill being circumvented
by the device of bid brokerage. Evil
dence before the subcommittee re-
vealed that many persons bidding on
Government contracts were not manu-
facturers themselves, but undertook
. to perform Government contracts by
getting the award and subletting the
productive portion to sweatshops or
factories in low-wage areas.
The most drastic change is the
omission of provisions in the original
Senate bill requiring agencies making
grants and loans of Federal funds to
secure covenants from borrowers and
guarantees that they would conform
to labor standards. These provisions
have been assailed as cumbersome and
1t was pointed out to the subcommit-
tee that the Federal loaning agencies
had power to make their own labor
regulations.