Evening star., 1945-02-24
Report to the President

Report to the President
The War Labor Board has made
report to the President which states
the case for retention of the Little
Steel formula with clarity and with
convincing statistical support.
Two main questions have arisen as
result of efforts by organized labor
to break the formula. One has to
do with the relationship which has
been maintained between wages and
prices. The other concerns the effect
which the reconversion period will
have on the earnings of workers.
Labor spokesmen have sought in
creases in wage rates beyond the
permissible limits of the Little Steel
formula on both grounds. They say
that wage increases should be
granted now to offset an alleged rise
in living costs that is in excess of
wage advances and also to protect
the living standards of workers
against an anticipated def1ation in
the reconversion period.
The public members of the board,
whose sympathetic attitude toward
legitimate labor aspirations is hardly
open to challenge, but whose pri-
mary duty is to avoid imitation, have
recommended against preaching the
formula on either ground.
The evidence in support of the
position of the public members in
the matter of wages versus prices is
overwhelming. They show that
there has been an increase since
January l, 1941, of 367 per cent in
average straight time hourly earn
ings of workers who have remained
In the industry in which they were
customarily employed. For those
workers who have moved to higher
paid industries the percentage in
crease is still higher. And in the
case of average actual weekly earn
ings, in which overtime is included
and which might serve as a better
test of the average workers ability
to maintain his living standards, the
increase since January /, 1941, has
been 1853 per cent. AS against this,
the public members reported that
the average rise in living costs over
the same period, including an appro-
pirate allowance for hidden" in
creases, has been 29.5 per cent.
On the basis of these figures, no
amount of argument can support
the contention that the increased
cost of living justifies a further gen.
eral increase in wages. To assert the
contrary is equivalent to saying that
Industrial workers, as a class, are
entitled to wholly disproportionate
improvement in their living stand
ards at the expense of the rest of
the country.
In the other matter-the demand
for higher wages as bulwark
against postwar def1ation-the pub
lie members were sympathetic, but
not to the extent of preaching the
Little Steel formula. Suggestions
OF a helpful nature were advanced,
but the main ground of the boards
opposition to seeking a solution
through general wage increases was
we'll stated in these words: plan
ming for prosperity is by no means
solely, or even primarily, a matter
OF increasing wages but must neces-
sarily call for comprehensive pro-
gram on all economic fronts. If
action is taken now on wages alone
and if price increases were to follow,
we would have to face the same
problems in the reconversion period
but at higher level and with more
inequities between various labor
groups and among the other seq
ments of society"
Because that is so manifestly cor
rect, and because of the favorable
position which labor has been shown
to enjoy in the matter of wartime
wage increases and prices, the first
reaction of labor spokesmen to the
boards report is disappointing. It
seems clear that they are putting
short-range selfish interests ahead
OF what in the long run, will be good
for the country and good for labor.