Evening star., 1939-04-25
Andrews Cites Curb
On Pay Abuses Under
Wage-Hour Progress
Administrator Reveals
In Forum Talk How
Law Operates

VI CIlC wage dIlO E1OuI 0lVlSlOIl
U. S. Department of Labor, spoke or
six Months of Wage and Houl
Progress" last night in the Nationa
Radio Forum, arranged by The Star
and broadcast over Nation wide
network of the National Broadcast.
ing Co. The text of his addres.
follows:
BY the light of smoking coal OF
lamp In the kitchen of a tenement
home IN a New England factory
town, a young woman, whom we may
call Mary Jones (Which isn't hel
name). told to the accompaniment
OF tears how she had lost her Job
Mary worked in a shoe e-stitchine
factory and had been making a.
little as IS or $6 for a 44-hour week
She had heard of the Fair Labo,
Standards Act, which had gone into
effect a little while before, and she
had looked forward in excited ex.
pectancy to the Is cents an hour she
would receive under its provisions
The workWeek was to be pegged al
A hours, and for full time she woulc
make not less than $ll a week, be.
sides time and a half when she
worked overtime.
Time Gard Altered.
But In Mary's case it hadn't
worked out that way. There in the
kitchen she said: The boss told
me, If you want the Job, you will
get your IS. If you want $ll, you
can get out He changed my time
card by re-marking with ink, and
after he changed it, 1t only showed
me working three days from 7:3O to
4:3O, even though I had worked a
hours. He gave me $1O.47 when I
cried after he changed my time card
Then Joe, the floorman, came up to
me and said, I'm sorry. 1 should
have told you this a week ago-you
can't work here any more Joe
handed me the new time card for
me to sign, but I would not sign 1t
l signed my right time card showing
A hours worked"
Mary had Spunk. She knew her
rights and she meant to have them
But fear shook her resolution. After
all, wasn't IS a week better than
nothing at all?
Il went to my boss many times, "
she confessed, land last Monday
offered to give him back 81 if he
would give me my job and prom
lsed to punch the clock as he wanted
me to. I was told he had no lob
for me. am one of five children
with a stepfather and a stepmother
and I have to work"
Present in the lamp lighted kitch-
en- that winter night were two in
spectors of the Wage and Hour
Division OF the Department of Labor
The following day they went to the
plant and checked over the records.
They seemed to be in order. though
1t struck the inspectors as curious
that so many of the employees were
working short hours-in some cases
only a day or two q week. It was
hard to reconcile that fact with
the employers bland statement
that he was experiencing great Diff
Guilty in getting help.
Maintain Vigil.
The inspectors stood in the snow
outside the plant and watched the
workers as they came and went.
And they found that many of them,
after putting in all day at the fac
tory, returned at night, though no
overtime appeared on their time
cards.
Away from the factory, inter-
viewed behind drawn curtains in
their own homes, employees told the
sordld story Of their exploitation
Ihey had been forced to delay
checking in on the time clock until
hours after they already had been
at work and to check out hours
before they quit.
That employer was indicted bv the
Government and pleaded guilty to
violating the Fair Labor Standards
ACT. He was fined 81 500 and today
ne IS making restitution of back
wages under pain of still SITTER
penalties. Mary Jones has her lob
oacK and is receiving the pay to
which she is entitled.
A manufacturer in another State
showed up in the guise of a public
benefactor, deeply concerned about
the problems of youth in a troubled
world and determined magnani-
mously to teach them useful trade
Immediately after the wage and
hour law became effective he re-
named his factory school" Those
OF MS employees who were unable to
make rs cents an hour at the piece
rates he wanted to pay were dubbed
students" and he didn't charge
Them cent for tuition. They con-
tlnued to work at the same ma
cnlnes they had tended before
making stockings for sportswear-
ana the philanthropist sold the
stockings in interstate commerce
The Wage and Hour Division ended
that practice, and this employer
also is making restitution to the
students" whom he had defrauded
Lumber Manufacturer Baked.
A lumber manufacturer had heen
the subject of many complaints. His
BOOKS seemed to be in proper shape
but ne was buying the output of 65
nelghooring sawmills at a price Sc
low that 1t made it impossible for
them to pay Is cents an hour. A
Federal court in this case, at the
instance OF the Wage and Hour
Division. has enjoined the shin
ment In interstate commerce of two
ana a half million board feet of fin
!sneo lumber and railroad ties pro-
duced for this company. The lumbe,
Is valued conservatively at x50 ooO
and the manufacturer may be stuck
with most of it. It would have beer
cheaper to have made sure that the
lumber was produced in conformity
with the law in the first place.
ThlS is our first hot goods" case