The Waterbury Democrat., 1938-10-19

AAAQA n C. 4AOVCbNAO AAAAAG6VOAAO but to begin with it will bl As a result of sabotage by con- gressional foes of the law, it will get underway with funds sufficient only to apply it to a small fraction of the millions of workers whose pay and work-week were to have been bettered.
 The White House asked for $1,- 50O,000 to administer the measure. That sum would have permitted employment of an adequate staff of experts and lawyers in Wash- iugton, and establishment of the state and regional field offices ne- cessary to enforce the law. But in the confusion of the closing hours of congress, the die-hard oppo- nents of the bill succeeded in slashing the. appropriation to $400,000.
 Even this drastically cur tailed fund had strings tied to 1t. Earmarked for the Children's Bureau and Bureau of Labor Statistics was S105,000 to cover the cost of preliminary surveys, thus leaving only $295,O00 for administrative purposes. s . THUS, although every industry affected by the law is required to comply with its wage and hour provisions from next Monday on. Administrator Elmer Andrews will actually be able to tackle only two textiles and garments.
 Two others. shoes and tobacco, may come later, but that will be the limit of his range until addi- tional funds are provided by the new congress. Even this limited activity is overtaxing the small staff Andrews has been able to as- semble. It has been working nights and Sundays steadily for weeks.
 PWA Let-Up
 Before leaving Washington on his western inspection trip, Secre- tary of Interior 1ckes called his PWA workers together and warmly congratulated them for their dispatch in getting the new building program under way.
 "Tve always been proud of PWA," he said, but I'm prouder of 1t today than every before. It's wonder to me that more of you have not broken under the terrific strain. However, now that the rush Is over I've asked your superiors to let up a little and to gear the pace to normal activity"
 The announcement was greeted with burst of cheers.
 Remember. now," Ickes said, smiling, II said normal activity mot sub-nOrmal."
 Again there were cheers. Ickes laughed.
 q think" he said, "that you are deliberately trying to mlsun- derstand me-"
 EGG Fireworks
 There will shortly be more ax- ings in the Federal Communica- tions commission. The furry the other day was just the beginning A broad housekeeping of the long -muddled agency is under way, and the man behind 1t is Franklin Delano Roosevelt.
 It was the president who per. sonally gave Chairman Frank Me- Ninch the nod to fire General Counsel Hampson Gary, after Gary had turned down a recent offer of a 5000 job on the legal staff of the REC. The White House attributed Gary's refusal to Commissioner George IT. Payne who has consistently bucked Me- Ninch ever since the president transferred the latter from the Power commission to clean up the EGG.
 The president is thoroughly dis gusted with the EGG and has told intimates he is prepared to ask the resignations of certain com hASoiohSio VI put HlS iIltO UTE agency. McNinch was ordered to start yielding the axe before the president departed for the Pacific coast last August. but McNinch became i'll before he could act and everything was held up until he returned last week.
 There Is strong resentment in the administration against Payne and Commissioners T. A. M. Craven, who was appointed ex- pressly to aid McNinch to reor- ganize the commission. Instead he has lined up with Payne. Before the voet to dismiss Gary, the White House called Craven and asked him to support the move. He promised. But on the showdown in the commission he echoed Payne's no.
 There is no government agency in Washington more urgently in need of a housekeeping. A con- fidential aide who made a study