Evening star., 1938-05-08
The Wage.Hour Bill.

The Wage.Hour Bill.
BY signing petition to discharge the
Rules Committee from further consid-
Grafton Of the wage-hour bill a majority
of the House on Friday decreed that
measure shall again come before the
House and presumably that it shall pass.
The bill upon which the House will be
called to vote differs in material respects
from both the bill which passed the Sen
ate and the bill which the House recon-
mitted last December by vote of ZIG to
1913. 1t had been 50 rewritten in order to
win the support of the American Fedora
ton OF Labor leaders and of some of the
members of the House from the North
and West, both Republican and Demo-
cratic.
The new wage-hour bill provides that
the minimum wage shall begin at Is
cents an hour and go up by stages until
it shall be 40 cents an hour three years
hence. The maximum hours of labor per
week starts at A and is reduced at the
end of two years to 40. There is no pro-
vision for differentials favoring the South
or any other section of the country The
law is to be administered by the Secre-
tary of Labor instead of a new board,
and to be enforced through the Depart
ment of Justice.
The passage of the bill finally into
law-which is now expected in many
quarters-threatens to bring further un-
employment in this country. 1t will not
increase the confidence of business and
industry, which has been sadly lacking
due to the constant attacks of admins
tration spokesmen and to the fear of
more and more legislation designed to
give Government still greater control
over industry. Labor, which is directly
and principally affected, should have
clear understanding of the implications
and the probable effects of this legisla-
ton.
The minimum wage proposed is ad-
mittedly low as the operation of the law
Will get under way. Three years, how
ever, is brief period. Those who vote
for the new bill are in reality voting for
Accent minimum wage. Due to differ
ent standards of living and different liv-
ing costs, wages vary in this country as
between sections. Here is a hard and
fast proposal that would disregard all
differentials and impose a fiat minimum
wage for labor which goes into the pro-
duction of goods for interstate commerce.
The South, which has benefited from
wage differentials and has been able to
build up its industries, naturally will
suffer If wage-hour law is enacted that
makes no provision for differentials.
The North and the West, on the other
hand, expect to benefit. This accounts
Tor the support given this wage-hour
legislation by industrialists of those Sec
tions. They expect to overcome the COM
petition of the Southern mills and fac
tories, which has been disastrous to nany
mills in the North.
The wage-hour bill is a companion
piece of the Roosevelt crop-control
measure, now a law. The wage-hour
bill-like the crop-control act-wiu cur
tail, not increase, labor. It will curtail,
not increase, production. It is an at
tempt by law to change the economic
laws of supply and demand. 1t is, more
over, an attempt by Government to fix
wages instead of having wages arrived at
by bargaining, either collectively or in
dividually, between the workers and the
employers. Eventually it will mean gov
ernmental regimentation of the indus
trial workers, just as the crop-control
measure already is regimenting the
farmers of the country.
II the Government is to fix wages-and
it is not long step from fixing minimum
wages to fixing wages otherwise once the
system is installed-the usefulness of
labor unions is largely over, unless the
unions are used eventually to repeal
these binding laws.
Yet the labor unions have demanded
the passage of this kind of legislation.
Admittedly the proposal has an appeal
ing aspect. It is the kind of proposal
that the New Deal philosophers have
been most adept az popularizing. It is
the kind of proposal that gets the votes
of the masses It is the kind of proposal
that will shove this country still further
down into the Roosevelt depression.
The House bill has been written frank
ly in an effort to get measure of some
kind before that body. It may be
changed in conference with the Senate.
But that it will be finally blocked by the
Senate does not now appear probable.
1t is, presumably, to become law.
The United States Senate does not de-
sire war and gives evidence of regard.