The Waterbury Democrat., 1945-08-06

Edson lem is in cotton textiles, wool and rayon playing rel atively minor parts. Production of cotton textiles has dropped 18 per cent since the record high of 1943 and the main reason is that the number of people working in the mills has dropped about IS per cent. Textile workers have simply gone off to other war jobs where pay is higher and working and living con- ditions are better.
 Te textile industry is one of the lowest paid in the country. Three fourths of the mills are in the south.
 About 15 per cent are union or ganized. Last February, the War Labor Board handed down an award affecting 55 of the union mills, g of which were in the south. VILE raised the minimum wage from 50 to 55 cents an hour, with an extra nickel an hour on the third shift, and vacations with pay. Many of the other mills have now raised pay to this standard, but it still isn't enough to attract as many workers as are needed.
 In May, the War Production Board launched campaign to re- cruit more mill workers It is just getting started. It has checked the usual 10 per cent summer employ ment slump. By next fall it hopes to have all the 18 per cent back at work
 The mill operators say the trouble is that OPA price ceilings on tex tiles are too low to encourage management to pay higher wages and produce the necessary yardage. TEXTILE MILLS EARN
 HUGE PROFITS
 OPA counters this with the asser- tion that cotton textile mill profits are seven times pre-war earnings and the mills are plenty prosperous without having to raise price ceil- ings. Further, under the Bankhead Amendment to the Price Control Act, OPA must raise the price on textiles as the price of raw cotton goes up. OPA will soon announce a revision of the cotton textile price structure to meet the rising parity price of cotton.
 But even with wage and price angles solved, there is still the prob lem of getting production of the right quantities of the right kind of cloth. The mills naturally want to weave the higher-priced fabrics on which they make the most money.
 To take care of thest twin prob lem children, Judge Fred M. Vim son, as Director of Economic Stabil- ization, last January launched a double-barreled attack.
 First the War Production Board was directed to put in priority system to control the output of the textile mills. It hasn't worked to perfection because the mills were supposed to put ratings on their own output and there seems to have been a little imitation of ratings, to put it politely.
 LOW-PRICED APPAREL
 NEXT PROBLEM
 OPA'S job then was to see that the textiles were made into low-priced apparel To do this it put out its highly controversial maximum av- craze price, or MAP order, which requires clothing manufacturers to produce apparel lines that will aver age out in price with their 1943 output.
 MAP brought an outcry from the apparel industry. The whole thing was called impractical and unwork- able.
 OPA and WIPE between them are now working out notifications of their orders to take the bugs out of the system. They have already an- nounced changes affecting the manufacture of wool and rayon tex tiles. In the near future they will announce revisions affecting the production of cotton textiles and cotton clothing. They have two lines to follow - relaxing the MAP con- trols or strengthening the WIPE pri- ority system.
 But they aren't giving up on try ing to make the thing work.