The Butler County press. [volume] (Hamilton, Ohio) 1900-1946, 1942-04-03
FACING
THE -
FACTS
With PHILIP PEARL


retain vengeful memories of those
who feed them live cigar butts. 1t
now seems that the reactionary press
and the labor -haters in Congress feel
the same way about the truth.
Within the past ten days, President
Roosevelt, the heads of all government
war production agencies and the lead
ers of labor have given Congress the
plain truth about the current labor
situation.
If the gentlemen who are yelling
for labor's scalp are sincere about
wanting to win the war, if they are
honest in saying they are only seeking
the nations welfare, if they are actu-
ated by no secret, hidden, selfish mo-
tives, they should shut up right now
But they haven't. They're still yelp-
ing and shouting and ranting away at
full blast. They are not only ignoring
the truth but they seem to be just as
enraged by it as the bull or elephant
we mentioned while ago.
They have been told by every in
formed government official from the
President down that the 40-hour week
does not limit production, that it
should be retained as a standard Yet
they are still bowling for it's abolition
PLAYING the NaZi Game
They have been told by the same
official experts that overtime pay is
not increasing war production costs,
that it is necessary as an incentive
for higher production. Yet they still
are demanding that overtime pay be
wiped out.
They have been shown official rec
ords proving that labor's no-strike
policy has been almost 100 per cent
effective and they have been told that
labor's voluntary cooperation is
bringing far better results than any
restrictive laws could produce Yet
they are still screaming for a measure
OuJlaWlng SCflkeS.
No wonder many people are begin
ming to ask themselves whether the
enemies of labor are not deliberately
trying to sabotage the nations war
effort and give aid and comfort to
the enemy! War Production Director
Nelson and Wage-Hour Administrator
Walling have warned that the sense
less, endless, baseless, smear cam
paign against labor is doing that very
thing playing into the hands of the
Nazi propagandists.
The New York Times in an edi-
torial expresses the view that it is not
good form for government official to
accuse the enemies Of labor of being
the enemies of America The New
York Times in it's editorials has been
completely cockeyed about the entire
labor situation. We often wonder
whether the men who write these edi-
torials attacking labor read their own
paper.
We say that because we found
buried away in the financial section of
the Sunday issue of the New York
Times of March % an article by it's
business editor, C. F. Hughes, which
completely refutes the insufferably
pompous and thoroughly misinformed
statements which have appeared in
the editorial pages of the same paper
with regrettable regularity.
The Times Contradicts Itself
Here is the record:
The New York Times said in an
editorial March 81:
"The statistics of the National In
dustrial Conference Board show that
the average actual hours per week per
wage Garner in January in 25 manu-
featuring industries were 424."
But Business Editor Hughes wrote
on March %:
Authoritative figures show that
war industries are operating on weekly
schedules up to SIS hours, as in ma
chine tools. The airplane plants were
operating 48.7 and shipbuilders at
48.2 hours in January"
The New York Times said in ar
editorial March 13:
"The very purpose of the hours pro-
visions of the Wage-Hour Law was
to make it all but prohibitively costly
for employers to maintain a working
week of more than 40 hours"
But Mr.. Hughes wrote in the same
paper March %:
"If that schedule (57-hour week.
were adopted here there would be ar
increase over the 40-hour basis of AZ
per cent in hours and still greater
increase in actual production. The in
crease in pay over the basic rate would
be Is per cent. Reduction in overhead
and other fixed charges might offset
this almost entirely. And it is to be
remembered that corporation profits
last year were "a per cent above 1910