Detroit evening times. (Detroit, Mich) 1921-1958, 1942-12-27
Nothing New
About Ceilings
0nSa|drieS

- HE brand-new maximum high ard low wage ceilings
from the top of S25 900 year the low of whatever
Actually it goes back to the Seventeenth Century
what most Americans don't know is that the little
well as the big boys had to take il on the chinand like
it-back when The United States nothing than
thin strip Of isolated colonies strung along the
Coast.
Chairman William H. Davis of the War Labor Board
called the program the Government pretty
damn tough policy when it restricted the big of in
dustry and business to S25 Gee year.
But, perhaps Mr. Davis didn't about the
yes of rage which went up from the big and little
Of New England when the General Court of the Massa-
chusetts Bay Colony far back 1890 ruled that
and salaries generally subject to the stcest sort of
regulation. .
ordered" wrote the Legislators of the Old Bay
Colony that master carpenters, sawyers, rnasons clap
boardryvers brckelayers tylers joyners wheewrghts
mowers etc. shall not take above two shilngs a day
finding themselves dyet (subsistng themseYes) and not
pence day if they dyett found them
under penalty of five shings both to giver and receiver
for every day that they are given and received"
And, don't be surprised at such comparatively mild
neit wasn't mild then Because five shillings day
in the seventeenth century the equivalent of about
day There few people indeed in the north
eastern colonies who had enough cash hand to such
a many days infracton of the law. And in the
Southern colonies virtually all the currency in the
Also it is agreed" continued the old Massachusetts,
statute that all other inferior workbench of the said
paons apprentices etc) shall have such wages the
constabes OF the said place and two other inhabitants they
shall chuse, shall appoint"
Nor was that all the law by any means Not only were
held
other worker and salary affected well
The act continued to say:
agreed the of abourers shall
take above cghtecnpenoe "A day they dyet them
selves above oghpence a day if they have dyet
found them under the aforesaid penalty five shings
day."
But apparently in a day when clothing was less
sartoral distinction than matter of covering the
human form, taors not held legally in such impor
lance master carpenters sawyers, ETC. That
section Of the law which deals with taors reads
Master tayours shall not take above twelvepence
tone shingl day and the inferior sorte not above eight
pence they be dyetted under the aforesaid penalty and
for all other woke they doe at home proportonay and
for all other works that shall have been done by the create
(the big men of the day. by any other articles"
But the Massachusetts labor laws didn't end with set
ting wages by any Hours and conditions of labor
also were prescribed they today. The law
read codly and clearly:
Further be t ordered that all workbench shall worke
the whole day allowing rest"
And just what the whole day meant anyones guess
but is fair bet that in the days Of Cotton Maher
meant from slnup shutdown for candle light an
expensive item in the industrial overhead of the period
II isn't altogether surprising that the New Enganders
Of Massachusetts, early days should camped down
the cash wages and the "dyett' given wor<men
the create who employed them.
For after all there many skilled workers in
any Of the colonies Master carpenters, Wheel
wuehts and the like could make good wages and ordinarily
had snug homes in their own lands
Those who chose to make the daring adventure of
going wreched little ships subject
the dread scyy doomed the endure
the inevitable hardships of transatlantic voyage OF tho
period likely be desperate and Disguised with home
conditions Since they fairly well
the European populations not many Of them their
talents and training 10 the lands the
once they did they found themselves possossor OF the
tl Of the mechanical Sks in ther communities and
in natural position 20 dictate their terms
their And since human nature hasn't changed
then until now, those terms probably all
the traffic could bear and then
While the ancient New England labor laws often
quoted parts OF the famous blue laWs' of the
colonies they actually have nothing with them The
blue intended solely 20 give force the
precepts Of the period. The labor laws something
entirely different planned TO meet practical living condi
tons.
n noeo...I,o.. ~ Iofp