Evening star., 1937-08-08
No Chost-W alkinx
for the N. r. A.
BY OVEN L. SCOTT.

the Federal Government goes back
into the business Of telling employers
how little they may pay their workers
and how many hours those workers can
be kept at their jobs.
Memories Of the blue eagle can con-
| tinue to fade. "Crack-downs" are not
| on the new schedule. The intriguing
idea of industrial self-government,
with its antitrust law exemptions is
| not to be revived. Neither will there be
any drive to force all employers under
codes by Christmas. Codes have no part
| in the revival of wage controls.
The truth is that, once the shooting
| dies down in Congress, most of the Ma
| ton will be expected to forget quickly
| that the Government in Washington
| has retaken some of the territory given
up on order OF the Supreme Court in
| May. 1885.
Like so many controversies, this one
| has involved maximum Of heat and
| a minimum of light
But, as with other controversies, some
light is available for the looking. Part
| of that light is afforded by experience
| in this country during and after N. r. A.
| days. More is afforded by the expert
! ence of Great Britain with wage boards
| during the last 20 years. Still more can
be provided by the researches of those
who are preparing the way for the Fed
eral Government to undertake some
wage regulation.
Essentially, what is seen is the highly
| intricate and difficult nature of the
task that the Government intends to
undertake.
But also disclosed is the basis on
which the argument rests for venturing
into this most difficult field of regula-
ton. The very difficulties involved lead
to assurance that no attempt is to be
made to jack up wages overnight in a
bootstrap-lifti operation that would
bring a return of the wild experiences
of N. r. A.
To start with, only about one out of
is or II industrial workers in this coun-
try would be affected by the wage pro-
visions of the proposed law. Leon Hen
derson, economic adviser to Harry Hop
kins and one of those who has pre-
pared the groundwork for the new plan,
sets the number affected and earning
less than 40 cents an hour at about
100000. But about one out of every
six workers is employed for more than
40 hours week and might thereby be
affected. The number in this category
is 5,000,O00
Does the Government intend to set
about Immediately forcing the wages of
the 100000 low-paid workers up to 40
cents an hour and to force the hours Of
the 100000 loneer-hour workers down
to 40 in one week? Not at all.
Rather. the machinery Of the plan 60
H.
deliberate approach to the whole prob
lem Of ordering any changes in wages or
hours. There will be hearings and in
vestigations by advisory committees and
application Of policy standards laid
down by Congress, narrowing the field
OF action. A sample of what lies ahead
was afforded during the past year by
experience under an act passed in 1896,
governing wages and hours of workers
filling Government contracts. In the
months that have followed just seven
wage orders have been issued. and those
affect relatively few workers. Several
of those orders called for minimum
| wage standards Of less than 40 cents an
hour The same deliberate and careful
approach is planned under the new
set-up.
likely to be anything but spectacular?
X
Those back Of the legislation point to
what they regard as several convincing
answers.
One is the experience Of Great
Britain, where wage boards have been
used on voluntary basis over the last
20 years to help bolster wage rates for
workers in the industries not covered
by collective bargaining between en-
ployers and organized workers. Several
million British workers are affected by
agreements in this field. and experience
during the depression showed that the
minimum wages held we'll.
Another answer. and the one that did
most to guide the President and Con-
gress, was given by Isador Lubin. the
Governments commissioner of labor
statistics. Mr.. Lubin deals in facts and
figures of which he has more available
than any one else.
The facts and figures offered by him
show that, after N. R. A. codes were
upset, the hours of work in major in
dustries shot up sharply. Those facts
and figures disclosed, too, that. in in
dustry after industry, a small group OF
employers reduced wages once the codes
were gone, and employers who did re-
duce wages received the larger propor-
ton of the increase in business. The
greater the cut the larger this proper
ton of business going to the wage
cutter. Studies which brought out this
point covered number Of important in
dustries.
The moral seemed to be that low
prices attracted business. but low prices
apparently were being effected at the
expense Of labor.
At this point the figures appear to
present a convincing argument for the
old thesis that reduced wages and re-
duced prices provide the formula for
increasing the volume Of production and
thereby the number Of Jobs. But the
answer to that argument offered by Mr..
Roosevelt and others is that the expert
ence after 1929 showed that wage cut
ting did not solve the depression riddle,
because price cutting did not follow
automatically and evenly.
So now the theory is that the Govern
ment should put a bottom under wages
below which an employer cannot 60 in
playing the competitive game. That
theory has been at work in w. P. A. and
P. w. A., with the Government using
its spending power to keep surplus labor
off the market. Now 1t is to be applied
directly in those industries that In any
way affect interstate commerce.
Why the strong stir of opposition from