Evening star., 1938-06-19
BY OWEN L. SCOTT.

wise would be out of work. But, more
important, the P. w. A. administrator is
busy trying to generate profits and orders
for manufacturers and material suppliers
and contractors who otherwise would be
in the industrial breadline. He, too, is
bolstering prices, but of steel and cement
and lumber more than of labor.
be speeded up with new billions OF Gov
ernment spending-is vastly important
to the future of the country.
Take the case of w. P. A.
Harry Hopkins is giving jobs to work.
ers who otherwise would be without jobs
of any kind. Under rules laid down by
Congress, Mr.. Hopkins offers jobs for
the otherwise jobless at an average wage
of so cents an hour He offers some
workers as high as 50 an hour because
that is the prevailing" or union, wage
No w. P. A. worker, as result of an
action just taken by Congress, will re-
ceive less than the minimum hourly pay
private industry.
Furthermore, Harry Hopkins offers his
workers an annual income This income
40 INV oltstAClLJ SQl ouG llOtu ullUSI W
P. A. workers because orders run out, or
because new machine is brought in or
because an economy order is issued by
the front Office. The annual income of
w. P. A. worker averages nearly S70O
and in many cases rises above $1,000
Very few private industries offer any
thing comparable.
Many workers in industry and agri-
culture earn less than Is cents an hour
Very many earn less than 40 cents an
hour, which now becomes the goal of this
countrys new wage and hour law. Yet
the average w. P. A. wage-paid to work
ers who lost out in private industry-is
SO cents an hour.
In private industry the new maximum
work week is set at A hours, and the
estimate Is that more than 1000, 900 pres
ent employees will be affected Yet the
average w. P. A. work week is 25 hours
and for some it is as low as 10 hours.
The net of this situation is that the
Federal Government through its work
relief program, offers employment that
is much more attractive than that Of
fered by an important segment of pri-
vate industry and by much of agriculture
This employment serves even more than
the new wage and hour law to bolster
wage levels and labor standards gener-
ally. 1t is type of employment that is
likely to appeal even more than ever
before to workers. because of their ex-
perience in recent years with what
turned out to be highly unstable pri-
vate employment.
The third economy" as it affects labor
has its other side in comparable effect
on industry.
Many employers who are inclined to be
critical OF Harry Hopkins and his w. P.
A. will discover on reflection that their
position is not vastly different from that
OF the w. P. A. worker himself These
employers are living directly on checks
out OF the Federal Government Treasury
In much the same manner as the indi-
vldual on relief is living on those checks.
Harold Ickes and his Public Works
Administration supply this relief.
Government survey is reported to
show that three-quarters of the new or
ders being received by the steel industry
are orders from the Government. A very
large portion of new cement orders are
Government orders. Contractors f1nd
that about half of their construction
work Is provided by the Government
The lumber and many other industries
are heavily dependent on this form of
Government relief
And again the Government is gener-
Gus. 1t permits a profit to the employer
and today provides the only profit for
many employers. Its orders help indus
fyyy m, fy,{o lit
many OF the Governments own econo-
mists claim to be the biggest single bar
rier to recovery. When an attempt is
made by the Government to require the
cement industry to compete for its part
OF the relief, the industry refuses, offer
ing no bids rather than meet the Gov
ernment's terms.
*+ **
Thus, the example OF W. P. A. workers
striking because they object to terms of
their employment in the third economy"
is duplicated by the example of industry
striking because it objects to the terms
laid down by Government for its relief
In the case Of both p. w. A. and w. P.
A., the Government is establishing stand
ards of wages and prices that make re-
covery along old-fashioned lines COM
pIetely impossible. So long as that type
of aid continues, there is not a chance
for the recovery that once came through
def1ation of prices and of wages that had
moved far out of line with other prices
and wages, hampering exchange.
The alternative to recovery through
def1ation of too high wages and of too
high prices in some industries is recov-
cry through relation or imitation of other
prices and wages. This second course
actually is the one that must be fol-
lowed by President Roosevelt and Con-
gress unless they can make up their
minds to sweat through the type of defla-
ton that proved to be even too much for
Herbert Hoover and the Republican
party.
Advocates of the policy of letting busi-
ness alone and Of budget balancing by
cutting relief costs and of getting the
Government out of business really are
advocates of return to the deflationary
approach to recovery which the Nation
tried between 1929 and 1888.
How difficult would be return to that
approach is seen from glimpse at the