Evening star., 1945-03-21
Guaranteed Pay Plan
Study Is Launched al
President S Request
BY the Associated Press.

az ehe AsauClhteQ fTSSS.
With presidential blessing, q
panel OF White House advisers
set out today to determine
whether guaranteed annual
wage should be added to postwar
job security plans.
The proposal is one which gained
prominence as demand of the
C1O United Steelworkers last fall
1t was rejected by the War Labor
Board as subjecting the steel in
dustry to such serious financial
risks" as to be unavoidable" in
the form sought.
President Roosevelt yesterday
asked the Advisory Board of the
Office of War Mobilization and Re-
conversion to undertake a Nation
wide study of existing ge-guar-
antee plans and recommend any
further steps in this direction
which may seem practicable and
desirable" f@
Plan Social Security Study.
Along a related line move has
been started in Congress for COM
prehensive study of social security
coverage and taxes.
A joint resolution to be offered
by the House Ways and Means
Committee will recommend that
that group join with the Senate
Finance Committee in the study
and . that $4,000 be appropriated
for ehe work.
This proposal would substitute for
that advanced by Senator Vanden-
berg, Republican, of Michigan, who
is sponsoring a resolution under
which the Joint Committee on In
ternal Revenue would conduct the
study with the assistance of an ad-
visory committee drawn from the
outside.
Both plans look toward expansion
of the social security program.
Little Reaction in Congress.
There was little immediate con-
gressional reaction on the wage
project.
The WLB said there appeared to
be only so or 60 plans of this type
in existence, although an undeter-
mined number had been tried and
discontinued.
Some of the existing plans, the
report said, had brought benefits to
employers as well as workers
rorr1I1o ri tim Nf
production and employment. All but
a few of the programs, however,
have been limited to consumer goods
or retail trades, in which rela-
lively steady demand prevails.
Senator Taft, Republican, of
Ohio said he thought such study
entirely proper, adding: 1T will be
difficult for some industries to guar
antee annual wages, but some OF
them certainly can do it."
Senator Taft expressed belief an
annual wage might be helpful in re-
ducing costs in mass production Of
housing.
Gardner Names Survey Groups.
o. Max Gardner, chairman of the
OWN1R Advisory Board, named four
members to conduct the survey:
Eric Johnston, president of the
United States Chamber of Com
merce; Philip Murray, CIO presi- |
dent; Albert Goss, master of the
National Grange, and Mrs. Anna
Rosenberg, regional manpower di-
rector at New York.
The survey, said Mr. Gardner, will
fit in with the boards work on re-
conversion problems.
CIO headquarters, voicing hope of
q favorable report, said such systems
should be ready for widespread
adoption when production declines
to peacetime levels.
In requesting the study, Mr..
Roosevelt carried out request of
William H. Davis, former WLB
chairman, in the steel case decision
last December l. Mr. Davis, now
Economic Sterilization director,
said at that time WLB could not. In |
view of the lack of information on
wage-guarantee plans, impose them
by Federal order.