The Omaha guide., 1937-07-03
EDITORIAL PAGE
Testimony Of H. j. Ford at Labor
Committee Hearing on COnRery-
Black Wage-KOur BiII-June IA

We believe that the sponsors of
the wage-hour bill now under con-
s~ideration were actuated by desire
to do the greatest good to the
greatest number of persons, and
not to w~illfully do harm to any
class or group of American citi-
zens. But in their zeal to do good
they have overlooked a condition
which will operate to tho disad-
vantage of the minority group in
our midst-the Negro worker. We
are hopeful, however, that in call
ing your attention to the defects
as we see them it will make pos
sible such changes hat will rem
der the bill fair to the minority
group without affecting its lofty
purpose, if this is possible to do.
it isn't so much what the bill says,
but the things that the bill fails to
say are the things that hurt. We
are, therefore, registering our OBJ
lection to the bill in its present
form and suggesting several rem
edial changes for your considera-
ton. General Hugh S. Johnson in
a recent article characterizes the
bill as "a mess Of words obscuring
the absence of any standard, and
limit OF any rule at all-and a
complete passing of the Dusk to a
board with plenary power
With the purposing of so stabil-
izmg the wage level that the liv-
ing conditions of the working peo-
pie of America will be improved,
the bill should demand the general
support of the masses, but the man.
ner in which these ends are to be
attained well concerns the vari-
Gus criticisms directed against it
by those who have taken time to
study the provisions of the bill in
its present form.
Custom, actuated by prejudice
and race hatred, has decreed a low
salary for the Negro worker. AS
a result, Negroes in large numbers
inhabit tenement houses and alley
DWELLINGS,. A proven economic theory
is that slums, tenement houses and
alley dwellings are the result of
low wages. Section .V-(a) Of the
proposed bill empowers a Board in
establishing a minimum wage to
take into account the cost of living,
~hich would lower the wage level
of the aforementioned Negroes,
whose living conditions are al
ready low because of low wages.
This provision should be stricken
from the bill. The sterilization of
wages should tend also to stabilize
living conditions and not penalize
the poor by keeping them poor.
Every Negro who works viii be
affected unsatisfactory except in
a few cases in the extreme North.
In the service trades exempted
which number over one half million
according to a Census Bureau COM
pilation hundreds of thousands of
Negroes + employed and of
course, received a low salary. The
wage and hour sterilization of the
proposed bill will naturally cause
an increase in price of the every
day necessities of life. Workers in
these exempted trades and millions
in the agriculture group, will be
hard hit by an increase in price and
no increase in wage.
Section " (a) further states
THAT in establishing a minimum
fair wage the Board shall take into
account "all other relevant circum-
stances affecting the value of SER
vice or class of service rendered"
This clause could be stretched to
Ecover anything the regional advis-
DRY board might care to recommend
and our experience with some To-
cal advisory boards cause US to
look forward with alarm to what
might happen to Negroes in the
South.
The same section empowers the
Board to classify employees in es-
tablishing a fair minimum wage.
This clause could be used to place
Negroes and white men doing the
same kind of work, in q different
classification with the Negro, of
course, receiving a lower salary.
Could the Negro enter a grocery
store and state his classification
and get a loaf Of bread cheaper
than his white co-worker? We sug-
gest that the bill so read that no
classification be made because of
race or color of the worker.
CONCERNING the T.ahoY Standards