Evening star., 1940-06-23


pean war the United States finds itself
in far more favorable situation with
respect to the status of labor than in
1915 and 1916 This is the claim of
persons directly concerned with adminis-
tering the Wage-Hour Act, the Walsh
Healey Government Contracts Act, the
employment service and similar reforms
established under the New Deal.
They point to the fact that through
the employment registration service a
clear idea of the known labor supply
and its geographic location is constantly
at hand. They emphasize that the wage
and hour and similar regulatory laws
have put floor under wages and in
the event of wartime boom might we'll
be used to put a ceiling on wage scales
to prevent exactly what happened in
the boom that built up through 1916.
In contrast to '16 and IT, they
stress, the labor market is fully known
and carefully regulated under law Dur
that led up to it, grave problems grew
out of the migration of labor from one
part Of the country to another in search
of higher wages. Soaring wage scales
made for delay and confusion.
Drive Against Labor Laws Seen.
Their argument is aimed, of course, to
foreStau the present drive to wipe all
laws guaranteeing labor standards off
the books. This effort is likely to con-
tinue throughout the summer or at least
CO ic ;.,
promises to be heated controversy that
will have far-reaching effects not only
on the politics of campaign year but
also, and far more important, on the
whole outcome of the defense drive.
Many voices have been raised in re-
cent weeks to say that no standards of
any sort should be allowed to stand in
tain of these critics have, of course,
been sincere in their concern to achieve
the speediest possible rearmament. Even
within the New Deal there are those
who would be willing to see the Wage
Hour Act and the Walsh -Healey Gov
ernment contracts law put aside.
But among those who have clamored
for abandonment of labor standards leg
islation there have been many who have
seized on the present emergency as an
excuse to wipe out the gains that union
labor has made during the past five or
six years. They include ancient foes of
the laws enacted under the New Deal
The French Case.
Much is made of a supposed analogy
with France. There, it is argued. the
8-hour day and the 40hour week, which
were made law under the Popular Front
government of Leon Blum, proved
major obstacle to swift rearmament.
Whatever the situation may have been
in France, the analogy has little point
Neither the wage and hour nor the
Walsh -Healey law provides for an in
flexible 8-hour day or 40-hour week
Administrators of these laws have
pointed out, however, that there is no
bar to working more than 40 hours so
long as overtime is paid
For the United States, faced with an
emergency resembling in kind if not in
degree that which confronted France
after the downfall of Blum the example
Is highly significant. Organized labor
naturally will have to make broad con-
cessions to the armament program, as
will every other group in the country.
But any blanket abrogation of labor
standards established in recent years
might conceivably produce reduction
similar to that in France, feeding the
disastrous fires of disunity. 1t is an
axiom as old as Machiavelli that citi-
zen does not miss what he has never
had, but to take away from him privi-
lege that he has enjoyed is hazardous.
L. Metcalfe Walling administrator of
for fair labor standards on Government
contracts, recently completed a survey
of labor reserves throughout the country.
He reported that with very few excep-
tions there was no shortage of skilled
workers in the airplane or other indus
tries that have been stimulated by war
orders. At Hartford, Conn, and Pater-
son, N. j., airplane manufacturers re-
ported that they had virtually exhausted
the known supply of skilled workers in
their areas with their plants operating
on a 24-hour basis. But in other CEN
ters of airplane manufacture plants were
working only one shift, according to Mr.
Walling, with an ample reserve of skilled
men.
with the vast reserve of unskilled and