Evening star., 1938-06-26
Wages>Hours Administration
Hopes to Avoid n. R. A. Errors
Labor Officials Applying New Law Aim to Avoid
Personnel Spoils and Top.Heavy
Operating Costs.
Operating Costs.
BY JOHN C. HENRY.

BY JOHN C. HENRY.
TULLY aware Of the complexities
X which almost surely will attend
administration Of the new labor
standards law-"wage and hour"
legtslation-the Department of Labor
hopes, nevertheless, to avoid the morass
OF personnel spoils and the topheavy op-
Grating costs which turned the N. r. A.
into an unintelligible and expensive tumble
Of cross-purposes.
The hopes are based, briefly, on the
following circumstances:
l. Since the administrative responsibility
Is being vested in the department. although
special section is to be set up to assume
principal control, the facilities of the vari-
Gus bureaus in the department may be
freely employed
Full Application by 1945.
,. The law does not become operative
In its most extreme stages for more than
seven years from now; in other words,
the comparatively easy" provisions Of
25-cent-per- hour wage and a 44-hour week
to become effective next fall should not
require as much compulsion as would the
1910 formula. And by the time the 1910
scale is applicable to all. in ls45, industry
should have adjusted itself to these terms
and have removed much Of the need for
further compulsion; also, the enforcement
machinery should have reached 4 most
effective level.
3. The wage-hour administration need
concern itself only with interstate indus
state commerce. The NJ r. A., by con-
trast, attempted to encompass all industry
with 600-odd codes
4. The law requires appointments in COM
pliance with civil service regulations, start
ing just below the administrator and going
right down the line. This requirement
should bar the way to padding the pay
rolls with hundreds Of political transients.
5. Tho department., under its present
head. took on the task Of administering
the Walsh Healey Public Contracts Act,
. bigger job than it sounds even II it may
not compare with the wage-hour law. and
has required fewer than 180 new employees
TO do the Job.
Must Promulgate Standards.
Undertaking the Walsh -Healey admins
tration is, it might be pointed out that it
involves promulgating labor standards COM
parable to those involved in the new law
for each firm entering into a contract of
more than $4,000 value to the Govern
ment. To establish such standards, public
hearings have been held in many cases
and routine followed which Approximates
that looming for the wage-hour rulings
For single year, 1887, these promulga-
tions applied to firms handling 5,227 Gov
S56e37. The public contracts section
divides these contracts among the follow
ing industrial groups:
Textiles, petroleum and coal, iron and
steel, electrical machinery, airplanes and
parts, other machinery, stone, clay and
glass, chemicals and allied products, foods
and kindred products, paper and allied
products, leather, automobiles and equip
ment, non- ferrous metals, lumber, printing
and publishing, finished lumber products,
rubber products, tobacco and miscellaneous.
Obviously, not many industries will be
affected by the wage-hour law which have
not fallen In some degree under the public
contracts act.
Bureau Chiefs Do Spake Work.
Thus far the spade work incident to
getting the whole experiment under way is
being done by the bureau of chiefs. who ex-
pect q continuing responsibility in connec-
ton with the law, all under the casually
careful guidance of Gerard D. Reilly, solici-
tor Of the department. and Rufus G. Poole
assistant solicitor The latter two were in
close consultation with the legislative
sponsors of the wage-hour law, particularly
In the final weeks when compromises were
being worked out and 1t was decided to
place administration in the Labor Depart
ment. Their objective now Is more to dc
the administrative job than to become
patronage dispensers.
Among the preliminary activities already
under way without waiting either for the
President to sign the law or to name ar
administrator is that of assembling data or
wages hours and other working conditions
in several major industries. These are
likely to be given earliest consideration In
determining standards better than the
basic minimum.
Most Of this work Is being undertaken
BY the Bureau Of Labor Statistics, which
expects eventually to add between 25t
and 800 employees and to require an oper.
asng budget increased by about $4,000
annually as q result Of the added obliga.
ton. In the original 100000 asked tt
finance administration Of the new Law
through next March /. the Bureau Of Labo
Statistics was allotted 10000.
Task for Children's Bureau.
Another Of the existing divisions which
will take on a major task under the nev
act Is the Children's Bureau. specificall.
intrusted in the law with the administra
ton Of the child labor provisions and what
ever investigations and inspections ar
necessary to carry out this duty.
The extent Of this responsibility is ap
parent from a mere reading Of the chill
Labor section, directing that no produc9l
naAufactlrer or dealer shall ship or delivA