Evening star., 1943-06-15

mulgated. Some
secret instruc- ~
tions have gone David Lawrence.
forth to the collectors of internal
revenue about it, but the employers
who must work out between now
and July l formula for withhold
:as taxes of their executives do not
yet know what salaries are legal OF
illegal.
The Bureau of Internal Revenue
has written its regulations and 1t is
understood they have been ready
for some time. But somebody is
holding them up. Latest report is
that they have been held up in the
Office of James F. Byrnes, Director
Of War Mobilization.
Some of Mr.. Byrnes' "brain-
truster" associates wrote the orig
nal limitation of salaries which dis
regarded and broke pre-war con-
tracts between employers and en-
ployes on salaries and actually re-
duced them arbitrarily. Have the
new regulations been submitted to
these brain trusters again so that
they can find some way to defeat
the will of Congress? This question
Is being asked because the law is
very brief and it should not take
two months to write the necessary
regulations.
What the Law Says.
The law says:
mo action shall be taken under
the authority Of this act the law of
October 3, 1942) with respect to
wages or salaries for the pur-
pose Of reducing wages or salaries
for any particular work below the
highest wages or salaries paid there
for between January /, 1912, and
September Is, 1912"
This did away with the tricky
stuff whereby the administration, al
though promising Congress through
It's spokesmen on Capitol Hill last
October that it wouldn't use anti
imitation powers wrongfully, never
theless did use phrase concerning
the correction of gross inequities'
to justify it's limitation and reduc-
ton of the salaries of executives.
The new law specifically says that
salaries received during the period
between January l, 1912, and Sep
tember Is, 1912, cannot now be re-
duced no matter what they were
before that date. Neither can wages
be reduced below the highest earned
In that January-September period
of 1912.
Another Aspect of Law.
But the new law affects another
aspect of the salary question, ire
spective of what the salary happens
to have been. 1t concerns the hir-
ing of new employees. If an en-
ployer, for example, had task from
January to September Is, 1912, that
paid some one a ,0O0-a-year sal
ary, he can hire a substitute for
that job now at that salary. But
even if he did not have such a job
and now creates one due to the
expansion of his business, he may
presumably hire an executive at
$4,000 or promote some one to that
position because he will be paying
for particular work"
The Senate Finance Committee in
It's unanimous report to the Senate
defined particular work" as follows:
THE words any particular work
refer to the particular work of a
particular employe and not merely
to a particular type of work. For
example, this section, as amended,
is not intended to invalidate or
prohibit any wage-stabilization order
establishing a maximum wage for
any particular type of work, so long
as exception is made allowing the
payment of wages higher than such
maximum wage to any particular
employe for that particular type of
work where. such higher wages were
being paid to such employe for such
work at the time the order was
Issued"
Too Plain for Difficulty.
It would appear that with a def
milton furnished by the Senate
Finance Committee by unanimous
vote, there would be no difficulty ir
. writing regulations to conform to
the intent Of the law.
The new statute does not, oi
course, permit any increase in sal
ary above the January /, 1912, to
September IS, 1912, level unless
the Treasury Department or War
Labor Board approves. The meas
ure passed two months ago merely
forbids reductions below certain
level and specifically prohibits the
administration from discriminating
between citizens, Furnishing some
and immunizing others. The use OF
anti-infiation legislation for puni-
tive purposes among citizens was
really disapproved by Congress. 1t
will be interesting to see whether
Congress had its way or whether
new regulations" will contradict
the law.
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