The Waterbury Democrat., 1938-08-13
Wages Hours Administrator Sees Labor Peace Ahead
Andrews Takes on Toughest Job"
By PAUL ROSS
NEA Service Stan Correspondent

NEA Service Staff Correspondent
 New York, Aug. 13--"I let 1t be known that was interested in the work. Word reached President Roosevelt"
 Thus straight forward, plain spoken Elmer Frank Andrews ex- plains how the president came to choose him for the highly important post of administrator of the new wages-and-hours law.
 Asked if people were focking in to congratulate him, he nodded and said, "Yes, mostly job-seekers.'
 Asked if he thought his new job was a tough one, he responded, "its about the toughest thing can think of"
 Filling tough jobs has been the lot of Elmer Frank Andrews since away back when. By now he says, T en- joy working on tough jobs"
 From 1883 until his selection by the president to be administrator of the wag-hour law, Andrews was in- dustrial commissioner of New York state. Here are few of the things he had to direct: Workmen's com- pensation, unemployment insurance, the state employment service, indus trial hygiene, minimum wage laws, labor welfare.
 While doing this work, he doubled in 1883 as adviser for the National Labor board in the thorny coal-min- ing regions of Alabama, Kentucky and Pennsylvania, and in 1884 as chairman of the U. s. delegation of observers to the International Labor conference in Geneva. AS a result of the delegations findings, the United States formally joined the International Labor office.
 From 1929 to 1883, Andrews served as deputy industrial commissioner Before that, he was manager of the bridges and highways bureau of the Queens Chamber of Commerce. was estimating engineer on the Seaboard Airline extension from West Palm Beach to Miami, made study of automatic train control systems for the Bangor Aroostock railroad which he also served as assistant mainten- ance engineer, worked as assistant engineer in the construction depart ment of the New York Central, built factories in New York state and had charge of constructing @ rail- road and a series of sugar ware houses in Cuba.
 Although Andrews nowadays says he las labor viewpoint" he be- gan on the other side of the fence He was born In New York city in 1890 into wcll-to-do family. In 1915 he graduated as civil engi- neer from Rennsalaer Polytechnic Institute and went to work for the aMryland Casualty company deal ing with compensation insurance problems. His engineering career was interrupted by the World war in which he saw service as a lieutenant and pilot in the U. s. Army After the war, he resumed his engineer ing work.
 Andrews has an imposing record as Q liberal. He has long been in the fight to prohibit child labor, has long urged the adoption of a mini-
 
 such as tn cone he is slated to ad- minister. Tn his role as industrial commissioner he tried to improve working conditions in the notori- ousIy underpaid laundry, hotel and ood-serving industries.
 Andrews is leaving a $12.000-a- year job for one paying $10,000 but he is happy for the opportunity and says with sincere pleasure, I'm glad to see from the press that both labor and industry approve of my wage-hour law"
 He looks forward to period of comparative industrial peace when the law gets going. "Thc history of progressive legislation shows that where progressive laws are in effect, labor relations arc very much bet ter" he says. "It is indicative that in New York state, where there are progressive labor laws, there were very few sit-down strikes"
 He regards the new Wage-hour law as the most important piece of legislation of the Roosevelt admin istration." and says, T fecl--and I hope business will fecl-that this is a very fine thing economically, be- cause, after all, the wages paid to labor constitute one of the greatest sources of purchasing power in the country"
 Mrs. Andrews, he reports, is cur renty excited about moving to Washington. The Andrews live in Flushing, Long Island. They have been married 9 years and have three children. Bill, IT. who Is about to start studying for a business career, Jean, IS, and Daphne, B, who go to school.
 Some species of cockroaches are