Evening star., 1939-07-30
War Between States Goes On
Over Wage Law Amendments
Souths Bleak Forecast Fails to Materialize,
Yet 1t Is Being Repeated Without
Substantiatine Evidence
BY Raymond p. Brandt.

The bitter dissension within the House
Rules Committee the past week over
amendments to the Fair Labor Stand
ards Act, better known as the Wages
and Hours Law, is continuation of
the political and economic War Be-
tween the States" which has been rag
ing almost continuously since the South
began to welcome-or allure-Northern
industries below the Mason-Dixon line.
The Rules Committee struggle, al
most as intense as the fight last year
over enactment of the law itself, dis
closed a new alignment. Several North
ern Republicans joined with the South
ern anti-Roosevelt Democrats in the
hope of embarrassing the President AS
often happens in political controversies
and deals, the merits and dement's OF
the issue involved were generally ig-
nored or exaggerated, as fitted the argu-
ments of the debaters.
The sole question is: Has the law,
with its present minimum wage of Is
cents an hour and its maximum of "A
work-hours a week, benefited or harmed
Southern industry? The bare question
iloo 1lOU DCCll dlloWCICu Will oOCAdoeS
evidence by either side.
1t will be recalled that last year
the Southern opponents of the wages
and hours bill painted bleak picture
of what would happen to the economy
of the South if this New Deal pro-
posal was placed on the statute books.
Twice the Southern members of the
P,11ec Conopoitteo refuSeS IN renOrt q
rule permitting a vote in the House.
After the committee had been dis
charged from further consideration of
the bill the House passed it by 3to-1
majority. The same baleful predic
tions of last year have been repeated
this year, again without substantiating
evidence.
Studies DisprOve Forecasts.
Although specific statistics are not yet
available, studies by the Labor De-
partment and the Wages and Hours
Administration disprove the calamitous
forecasts last year of the Southern
opponents of the bill These studies,
however, do not afirmatively prove that
the South has geratly benefited by the
law W. P A. officials declared there
has been no discernible increase in
the relief rolls in the South as re-
suit of the 25-cents- an-hour minimum
and the 44-hour week maximum, as was
predicted by the Southern Senators and
Representatives
In fact, some of the former opponents
of the bill now inferentially concede that
the law is helping the South Thus,
the recent minority report of the Textile
Industry Committee, While arguing
against 32l2 cents per hour national
minimum for the textile industry, con-
cluded:
IF the act is carefully and realistically
administered with due regard at every
step to all of the economic and competi-
tive conditions intended by Congress to
be taken into account, it can and should
operate to the lasting benefit of the in
dustry, its employees and the public. II,
on the other hand, its objectives are
approached in an overhasty or super
fetal or irresponsible manner-without
due consideration to clearly relevant eco
nomic and competitive conditions-the
result is easily foreseen. Mills will be
forced to close down Thousands, now
employed, will lose their jobs and take
their places on the relief rolls. And
finally Congress-noting the failure of
the law to work-will repeal it and the
cause of higher wages and better living
conditions will receive another setback"
Former Predictions Unsubstantiated.
The signers of this report were repre-
sentatives of the Southern textile mill
operators. 1t is significant that this re-
port, while it forecast dire consequences
If textile weges were put at minimum
of 3215 cents an hour, presented no evil
dence to substantiate former predictions
that 25 cents an hour minimum, which
went into effect october % last year,
would cause many marginal" mills to
close and thus throw thousands on re-
lief rolls. Last year these Southern op-
orators demanded a wage differential
for the South, contending they could not
nav even the same minimum wages as
the North.
The majority report of the Textile In
dustry Committee recommended to
Wages and Hours Administrator An
drews that there should be Nation
wide minimum wage of 32l2 cents an
hour in the textile industry rather than
the 30 cents minimum which will become
effective october "a this year, when the
weekly maximum will be reduced to AZ
hours. This report, signed by repre-
sentatives of Northern mills, union labor
leaders and one Southerner, George Fort
Milton of Chattanooga, Tenn, who
served as a representative of the public.
declared that the 32la cent minimum
would not disturb the present regional
distribution of the textile industry to any
significant extent.
The wage recommendation will have
1airly marked effect on the relatively
small group of low-wage mills that
operate on the periphery of the industry"
athe report said. 1T is precisely this