Evening star., 1940-05-12

The Wage-aour Act is working. It Is
not working as well as 1t might or ~
well as It should. But 1t Is working. The
Wage-Hour Act has brought dement's to
the country. It has not brought as many
benefits as 1t Is capable Of and 1t has not
yet helped nearly all those for whom It
was intended. But it has significant 90
cial and economic gains to its credit.
On the basis Of performance during the
18 months Of its life, the law and its ad-
ministrators are entitled to the support
Of employers, the appreciation Of em-
ployes and the sympathetic understand
ing Of the public.
These are fair conclusions, In the writ
er's opinion. on the experience thus far
with the National Fair Labor Standards
Act Of 1s3S-frequently referred to as
the Magma Carta Of marginal workers in
America, certainly . legislative embodi-
ment Of the fundamental humanitarian
philosophy Of the New Deal.
They are conclusions arrived at after
talks with the laws administrators and
members Of Congress who have been de-
batting changes in it-and after a trip
through the South to inquire into the
actual operation Of the law in the section
Of the country which. so it was said by
many Of the laws opponents two years
ago, would be seriously disadvantaged by
application of national minimum wage
and minimum hours standards.
Not Unanimous.
They are not conclusions with which
every one will agree. The field trip
through the South-the itinerary includ.
ed Virginia, North Carolina, South Caro-
lima, Georgia, Alabama, Tennessee and
Kentucky-produced radically differing
opinions:
The best thing that ever happened
to the South"
"It's swell for me and my family"
"A fine idea being defeated by lax ad-
ministration."
I'm not as well OF as before"
THE wrong way to do the right thing"
1T gives the decent employer protec-
ton against the chiseler."
THE worst Of the damn fool expert
ments of the Roosevelt crowd"
So the reaction runs from one extreme
to the other. But taking them all to-
gether, shaking them up and settling
them down, the three conclusions stand,
this investigator is convinced. The
WagerHour Act is working. 1t is doing
good and 1t Is entitled to public support.
This. Of course, Is not to say that the
law Is perfect, that changes are not
needed, that the administration should
not be improved. Changes are needed
and 1t Is most unfortunate that the
recent debate should have produced q
parliamentary situation which virtually
precludes perfecting amendments at the
present session.
Burdened by Amendments.
But, thanks to the strategy Of the Rep
resentative from North Carolina's veg
etable raising and canning coastal plain,
the central issue became whether emas-
culatory amendments exempting some
100000 agricultural Gamers and other
professors Of food products should be
adopted. With this to the fore, the need
ed relaxation of the hours provisions
for workers paid well above or several
times the minimum, and other desirable
changes, went by the boards, as the op-
posing sides loaded down each others
bills with amendments which neither
side could accept.
And so the law stands. Its main pro-
visions are simply enough stated. From
october "a, 1888, to October "a, 1899, the
least that an employer could legally pay
q worker in an industry in interstate
commerce or in the production of goods
for interstate commerce was Is cents an
hour. And a hours was the maximum
which the employer could legally work
that employe without paying for over
time at the rate of time-and-a-haf.
Under the schedule of periodic changes
which the law set up, the minimum wage
rate increased to 80 cents last October
"A and the work-week dropped to a
hours. The minimum wage will rise to
40 cents an hour in 1945, but it may be
increased above 30 cents before 1945 by
industry committees working with the
Labor Departments Wage and Hour
Division, as has already been done in
several industries. Next October "A the
maximum work-week-again the work.
week to be paid for at the employees reg
ular rate Of pay-will be still further re-
duced to 40 hours.
As did the old N. r. A., some of whose
other gains the Wage Hour Act seeks to
retain. the law prohibits outright child
labor products In interstate commerce.