The Key West citizen. [volume] (Key West, Fla.) 1879-current, 1937-12-23
WILCOX POINTS
OUT DANGER OF
WACE-HOUR Bill
PROVISIONS EXEMPTED IN
MEASURE BY ITS sPoN-
SoRS SHOWED IT TO BE
BAD LEGISLATION

WASHINGTON, D. c., Dec. %.
Pointing out its sponsors must
have realized the wage-hour bill
was bad legislation because they
exempted from IT'S provisions such
a large portion of the working
population such as agricultural
workers and those employed in
canning fruits and vegetables,
Congressman J. Mark Wilcox told
the House that the wage-hour bill
eonstituted ''the most serious
threat to representative demo-
cracy which has been produced
in this generation"
h This bill proposes a bureau
cratic control of business and in
dustry and dictatorship over la
Dor which, if enacted, must ulti-
mately result in a destruction of
the right of collective bargaining
and which may easily reduce la
Dor to state of economic Slav-
cry" Wilcox told the House. cit
proposes a federal bureau with
autocratic and dictatorial powers
beyond any ever attempted in a
government of free people. 1t
would place in the hands of lit
tie group of federal bureaucrats
the power to regulate the earn
ings of millions of American citi-
zens."
Wilcox predicted that if the bill
were passed, private enterprise in
this country would be subject to
the whims and caprice of a gov>
ernmental agency and that labor
would have sold its birthright
without getting in return the pro-
verbal mess of pottage.
Citing his unbroken record in
support of all labor legislation,
Wilcox added:
1T is most remarkable to
me that a bill purporting
to be in the interests of
the underpaid working people Of
the country should exempt from
its operations SO many groups and
classes of workers. 1t does not
extend its benefits to all classes
of workers. The trainers of this
bill have been very careful to
provide that it shall not apply to
agricultural labor. The farmer
still must go to work with the
crack of dawn and labor into the
night six days a week and take
his chances on the weather and
the Quotations of man-madc
market.
And then the measure says it
shall not apply to those who are
engaged in the canning or pack
ing of fish, fruits and vegetables.
1t does not apply to retail mer-
chants or their employees. It leaves
out those who gin cotton but in
cludes those who spin the cotton
into thread.
why. if this is a good law, are
those Hndeother groups of work
9eFs sleft out2d Why have they
omitted 40s0Oo 600 workers from
the bill ifIdtiisva good thing for
labof2p fssauuoaGs 81
[ Pointing out that the bill would
bring chaos. because it would
force regulation of some business
but provide no regulation for 9TH
er businesses "on the other side
of the street., Wilcox also recall
ed the situation which would
arise with respect to Negro labor
in the South.
There has always been a diff
ference in the wage scale of white
and colored labor" he pointed
out. so long as Florida people
are able to handle the matter. this
delicate and perplexing problem
can be adjusted; but the Federal
Government knows no color line
and of necessity il cannot make
any distinction between the races.
We may rest assured that when
we turn over 10 a Federal Bureau
Continued On PAGE Fixsa3