The Daily Alaska empire., 1937-08-14
Wages and Hours
(New York World -Telegram)

If the Wages-and- Hours bill is acted this ses- sion of Congress it should be given sufficient time for thorough discussion and the further simplificaon that should be brought about order to make the act really effective Otherwise it would be better to deal with the subject either after in the next session
 Should the heat to go home bring about only a half baked consideration of the question: of the most important obectves growing out of the depres- sion might fail through being given "a lick and a promise" If there ever occasion for applying the adage that what is worth doing at all is worth doing well, this wages hours subject is It involves attempted correction of of the worst of economic maladjustments- s-low-wage and long-hour competition with fair standards compet-
 ton that penalizes decency and exalts meanness that opens the road for the chseer and the sweatshop pro- pretor and the expoiter of child labor, and in turn ruins the who would recognize that after all life calls for humanitarian concept rather than mere money-making at the expense of those who work for less than living pay.
 f Furthermore, it brings into focus the fact that purchasing power must be steadily increased in a approximation civilization possessed of such great natural resources ours, and augmented by such abor-Savng devices to make production major problem until such time consumption has caught up.
 On the simple proposition that you can't sell un- less you have market; that you cant depart ment store in the Congo;" that if you do have ket you can sell and enlarge; that the multiplication of human wants supports accompanying increase in the capacity to satisfy those wants-on that proposition stands opportunity for continued and expanding prosperity And that is found the importance of the idea contained in the Wages-and- Hours bill
 But the bill which set out to accomplish what seemed simple aim ended up with an original draft that contained some II 900 words, and which in its ramfications grotesque hall of mirrors on a midway.
 In committee the considerably though hastily, clarified But it stands it is nothing to kiss off without debate and then go home It is still highly complex It sets up system by which the exceptions would come first and the rule last and only in astronomical terms could the number of claims for exceptions be computed. That exceptions to paying a forty-cents- -per-hour minimum and linn iting hours to forty a week should be asked is no fattering commentary national progress toward abundance but nevertheless the fact that the Labor Standards Board which would have to police that large portion of the nations industry where task that believe could not be performed working under the bill as now set up
 So we Say--this thing is vital. The aim should be achieved But the purpose should not be allowed tc fail by creating iEsufficiently considered, slam bang contraption that won't run.
 Take time to do it right. If not now then after recess, when Congress convenes next January i The problem here, in its essence, is the problem MIRA attempted to solve. That fell because it was top-heavy and too intricate and too sam-bang. A nation should be able to benefit from it's mistakes.