Evening star., 1942-11-13
Plans 10 Suspend
||M.Hour Week Gain
Ground in Congress
Byrd Says Time Hos Come
When Fighting Must
Be Pressed Stronger

Proposals to suspend the 40
hour week were reported today to
be gaining ground in Congress.
Necessity for speeding supplies to
American troops in North Africa
and the South Pacific was one of
the impelling forces behind the
drive to lengthen working hours to
48 or 81 week in an effort to reach
maximum production.
"The time has come when we
must press the fighting stronger and
stronger every minute" Senator
Byrd, Democrat, of Virginia de-
clared. I'VE have to utilize the
manpower strength of the country
to the fullest extent, and We are not
doing that with the 40-hour week."
Railway unions and labor leaders
have said they are willing to sus-
pend the 40-hour week to reach
maximum production. Labor lead
ers say that before the 40-hour week
is suspended, however, other meth
DDS Of obtaining full utilization Of
the labor forces should be attempted
The Brookings Institution has
urged the suspension. After an ex-
haustive study the institution said
war industries were now averaging
42.5 hours a week, but in order to
reach maximum production, work
schedules should be increased to 48
hours in many plants.
Senator Byrd stressed that he was
not advocating the abolition of over
time pay in war industries, believing
that wage rates%could be reAdjusted
to maintain the present pay levels.
Agreeing generally with this thesis,
Senator Taft, Republican, Of Ohio
said he believed 1t might be well to
suspend the premium overtime pay
provisions Of the A0-hour week for
essential civilian industries where
labor already was becoming short
and employers could not afford to
pay wage increases because Of price
ceilings on their products.
The Senate Defense Investigation
Committee recommended the sus-
pension Of the 40-hour week in a
report made public yesterday.
Senator Pepper, Democrat, Of
Florida told his colleagues yesterday
that the manpower problem had
been "muddled Administratively" by
the 28 Government bureaus he said
were stumbling over each other in
attempts to handle 1t.
The result is" he declared. that
the Federal Government has not
comprehensively viewed the man.
power problem and has not set up
comprehensive machinery to deal
with it,"
Senator Pepper urged creation of
an agency which would exercise
overall control Of the economic
program, insisting that lack OF ma
terials was often as great a deter
rent to production as was a shortage
Of workers.
Meantime, officials of the Consoli-
dated Aircraft Corp. today emphati-
cally denied the statement made be-
fore a Senate Labor subcommittee
yesterday that bombers were flown
AAAeo AVA v NVO1 UAl W IuAkc u SHOWING
and deceive the President during
his visit there.
Controlled by Army.
All movement Of Army aircraft in
and out of the Fort Worth plant is
controlled by the Army and not by
Consolidated, 1t was asserted.
Consolidated officials also denied
charges of any "manpower overload
ing at the Fort Worth plant. The
company is building up large force
OF employees to meet the accelerated
production program, hundreds of
people are in training on the assem-
bly, line here, and to brand these
"trainees" as loafers Is obviously
misleading and untrue, officials said.
Harvey w. Brown. president of
the International Association of
Machinists, made the charges
against Consolidated when he Ap-
peared before the Senate subcom-
mittee yesterday.