The people's voice. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1939-1969, 1941-04-30
O'COnnOr Reads

cents day. If anyone can explain
how these workers can possibly con-
| tribute anything to the support of a
family under conditions such as this,
then | shall gladly accept the charge
that these workers are led by COM
munists; but my experience in deal
ing with communists, reds" and
radicals is that if you give a man a
job where he can raise his family in
somewhere near decency and health
he becomes poor material for a com
munist, red" or radical. It is my
studied opinion that he government
could do more to stop strikes and lock-
outs by making it their business to
see that he defense workers had a
decent place to live and wages enough
to raise their families in decency than
by any other method The govern
ment assists industry by furnishing
money for expansion. 1t is only rea-
sonable, then, that they protect the
human elemnt in industry by eliminat-
ing the deplorable living conditions
surrounding defense industries.
The members will recall on the be-
ginning of our defense program that
the industries practically refused to
proceed or went on a strike, so to
speak, until they knew what kind of
tax bill congress was going to pass,
until they saw the lid sort of being
taken off on the profits they were
going to make, and saw that their
expansion program was going to be
pretty well taken care of by the
United States government The news
papers, | notice, did not emphasize
that situation very much, but let us
watch the scare headlines of the news
papers all over the country saying
the unions are holding up production
and all that sort of thing"
Mr.. Cox. "Will the gentleman
yield ?"
Mr.. O'Connor. Il yield to the gen
tleman from Georgia"
Mr.. Cox. 81 am glad the gentle
man has read this letter from his con-
stituent. 1t gives us an angle on the
situation that we ought to have 1t
is very reasonable, temperate, and
moderate statement of his case
Mr.. O'Connor. There is little
more in the letter which | want to
read thank the gentleman for his
remarks on the letter and his contri-
button to what l am saying.
i am reliably informed that work
ers pay as much as $50 per month
just for parking space for trailer
in many areas around defense-indus-
try plants. The government alone
can stop this by building living quar-
tiers for these workers because GER
tainly private interests could not be
expected to provide housing for hun
dreds of thousands of temporary
workers who are being drawn into
defense-industry communities.
1t makes nice sounding patriotism
to proclaim that everyone should
make sacrifices in the name of ma
tional defense but it is just too much
to expect the worker to strip himself
and family of all decency in order that
landlords and industry can make a
profit.
Most newly hired adult male COM
mon laborers receive a starting rate
Oh pay ranging between 421a and 67 10
cents an hour, according to the bu-
reau OF labor statistics survey of en-
trance rates of common laborers pre-
yailing in 20 large industries in July
l94O. Nearly one-sixth of the work
ers started on the job for exactly 80
cents an hour = the minimum pre-
scribed by the fair labor standards act
for industries engaged in interstate
commensurate nearly third were
paid starting rate of less than 421b
cents.
think these figures should be
made public knowledge in defense of
strikes in defense industries. Ger
tainly the American standard of Iiv-
ing cannot be maintained on these
wage levels and the American worker
should not be expected to make all
OF the sacrifices.
Sincerely yours,
B. |. Steinmetz, President"
You cannot control what you do
not ouyY,t