Evening star., 1940-04-27

VldeS for almost uniform application
of wages and hours. Now, after
nearly two years of operation, the
pressure for exemptions and amend
ments is rather substantial, but the
demand is coming from curiously
opposite influences. Members of
Congress representing certain
Northern districts, which face high
production costs, want to see that
Southern industries that compete on
a lower wage scale are brought up
higher. Differentials in freight that
give one section an advantage over
another are in the background of
the effort to see competition
equalized:
Agricultural professors are fight
ing for exemption. They see mount
Ing costs in certain areas as des-
troying their opportunities. The
wage and hour law never took into
consideration the differences within
the United States of wage conditions,
but blanketed all under the same
rule. That is one reason why, for
example, Republicans from textile
States supported the legislation
originally and why some of them
are fighting against amendments
that would bring certain exemptions.
Administration Strategy Shifted.
The whole situation is complicated
by the fact that the so-called agri-
cultural amendments originally were
coupled with the amendments de-
sired by businesses which employ
white-collar workers. Support for
revision came from both groups.
Last year the House Labor Commit
tee reported a bill under the spon-
sorship of Representative Norton
which would have permitted certain
amendments especially with respect
to white-collar workers in the high
income brackets. Certainly there
was no intention originally to cause
officials who get more than $4,000 a
year, for instance, to be paid time
and-a-half for overtime when the
same money might we'll be used to
improve the lot of those whose wages
fall far below $4,000 a year. But
while there was general agreement
last year as to these amendments
and the President himself approved
them, the administration now has
shifted its strategy. Mr.. Roosevelt
now indicates that It is too early to
change the law, and that it is piece
OF experimental legislation which
should have more time for study by
the wage and hour administrator
Even Republican members of the
House are conceding that the new
administrator is doing better job
than his predecessor, and some of
them are really saying, in effect, that
they prefer bureaus to write the laws
of the land. The regulations of the
wage and hour administration and
other bureaus are definitions de-
rived from the vague language of
the statutes. With due regard for
the sincerity of those who write the
regulations, Congress might have
different ideas as to what the law
should cover. To embody these ideas
IN statutory amendments is now con-
sidered by the administration to be
unWise.
Bureaus Rule on Fundamentals.
There has been tendency of late
to assume that the bureaus and
boards know more about what Con-
gress intended than Congress does
itself. Privately, the average bureau
crat hasn't much use for members
OF Congress and the next technique
Is to get statutes written in such
broad terms that the boards and
bureaus can fill in the details" when
Congress has gone home. But these
alleged details touch fundamental
issues, and long after Congress has
abdlcated its laW-making function,
the small businesses of America
suffer because they are saddled with
Increased expenses that only their
big competitors can finance.
The wage and hour law has truly
become weapon of economic COM
petition between different sections of
the country and between large and
small businesses. The cry that the
bill was supposed to put a ceiling
over hours and a floor under wages
is a good slogan, but in actual
practice the wage and hour law.
while raising many workers in the
low income groups to decent levels.
tends, in other directions to prevent
wage increases in the middle group
OF wage scales and causes unem-
ployment by forcing small businesses
to llquidate. The President is right
when he says that the legislation is
experimental, but unfortunately the
cost of the experiment must be born
by the businesses and not by the
Government, and it is business man.
agement which is compelled to pay
for work not done or for work that
does not represent a corresponding
increase either in output or eff
cheney.