The potters herald. [volume] (East Liverpool, Ohio) 1899-1982, 1943-02-18
LITTLE STEEL WAGE FORMULA


THE SO-CALLED Little Steel' wage formula
has been much in the news lately. That is the
plan by which the National War Labor Board
presumed to limit wage increases to Is per cent
above the prevailing rate as of Jan. l, 194l, fol
each group concerned.
is, of course, in the opinion of many responsible
economists, strictly unsound, economically; 1t Is
highly unfair to many groups, favors others, ano
its rigid enforcement would not be in keeping with
the seven points for economic stability, as enun-
ciated last year by President Roosevelt
No plan or theory is sound, or just, which
seeks to hold people down, merely because they
may happen to have been down on a given date
The correction of inequities and adjustments OF
relative values, in specific cases of proven merit
is regarded by many, in and out of the labor
as essential to real economic stability
to progress and to plain justice.
The visit of AFL President Green and CIO
President Murray to the White House, to demand
real doar-and-cents price control, and the state
ment of John L. Lewis that coal miners would
seek nominal wage increases this Spring, ARE
IN THE SAME WIND.
The rapidly advancing prices and taxation
have seriously affected many low-paid groups, the
largest of which merely happens to be coal
miners.
Living costs have advanced an average Of
over % per cent in the last two years. Prices fol
farm products show an average advance of slight
ly over 100 per cent since August, 1889, being
now we'll above so-called "parity." The miners
also happen to be group which many responsible
people believe have never received adequate pay
in proportion to the SKILL risk and nature of serv-
ice demanded of them Their work is hard and
dangerous, and the various jobs around any coal
mine do require certain skills. Yet the annual
earnings of coal miners, over the years, average
among the lowest of any group of male workers
in America
Several groups of workers, notably the organ
lied building trades, have made few wage de-
mands, and then only to adjust inequities, espe-
cially since Pearl Harbor. Those groups, too, have
been hit hard by increased living costs and taxes
and the necessity of buying war bonds and con-
tributing to many war and public services. But
such labor groups that have been able to bear
up, even at considerable sacrifice, have been do
ing SO with patriotic fortitude.
1t may be well to remember that the War
Labor Board has not rigidly followed the Little
SteeP' wage formula; and there is no certainty
that the formula, or any other plan, will be fol-
lowed with absolute rigidity in the future. Each
case is considered on it's merit. The board is
posed of honorable and intelligent representatives
of labor, industry and the general public. The ad-
vice of Sterilization Director Byrnes, of the
Treasury Department, and of Others has been
and is being sought by the War Labor Board
Labor, industry and the general PUBLIC still have
faith in ultimate justice.
We may wobble a little and we may muddIe
through some knotty problems, presented by the
vast economic upheaval of the greatest war in al
history, but the people still have faith that Amer
lean common sense, and the inherent respect here
for right and justice, abridged only by absolute
public necessity, will solve ALL problems that
may arise 1t appears to be still true that some OF
our most profound worries concern things that
never happen.