The daily monitor leader., 1945-12-14
. BEHIND THE SCENES
m WASHINGTON .
dustry each was able to speak

dustry each was able to speak
for.
Preliminary results Of q tex
tile survey by the Civilian Pro-
duction Administration fail to
show there is any evidence OF
stockpiling or q management sit
down in the industry, says CPA
Administrator Capt. J. D. Small.
PLENTY OF SIDE ISSUES TO
COMPLICATE 1T
The whole question Is compli-
Gated by side issues involving
minimum wage and labor poll
o,es, strikes in some parts of the
industry, lack of manpower.
broken-down, war-weary looms
that need replacement and an in
satiable demand from the buying
public for more, more, more Of
everything.
Principal points in the Textile
Workers Union charges that the
producers aren't producing at
capacity are these:
1. Most of the southern tex
tile mills are running only 40
hour shifts, refusing to pay over
time for sixth-day operation,
even though the workers want it
to keep up their take-home pay.
It Is further charged that the
mills are refusing to operate the
third shift because it calls for
six to seven cents an hour extra
pay.
To this the mills reply that
there is still shortage of labor.
2. Textile Workers Union Of
ficials say they have plenty of
evidence of warehouses filled
with goods being held from the
market in anticipation of lower
taxes and higher OPA prices.
The mill owners say, SHOW
US where" To which the union
replies that it will give names,
dates and places to a responsible
Congressional or OPA investiga-
tion. This answer weakens the
union case considerably.
It is also weakened by first
results of the Civilian Produc-
ton Administration investiga-
ton. In a spot check of rs lead
ing mills said to be good geo.
graphic cross-section of the in
dustry, CPA found that mills
which normally averaged q six
weeks inventory before the war
now have only a two weeks in
ventory. In some of the rayon
yarn mills, inventories were only
two or three days supply.
At the converter and finish
ing mill level, CPA investigators
did find that inventories of goods
in process were high. Much of
it was explained by the fact that
there has been a strike in the
New England finishing mills,
and therefore the goods have
not been moving.
SURVEY OF GARMENT
MAKERS UNDER WAY
CPA's survey of garment and
clothing makers is now in pro-
gress. It is admitted that some
cases of boarding inventories and
refusing to sell may be found
here because the industry Is so
scattered and so diversified. Mail
order houses, for instance, have
built up stockpiles before 1t is
safe for them to offer items in
catalogues. Many firms are now
making spring and su m m r
goods, when the retain demand
Is for winter apparel.
3. Final point of the Textile
Workers Union argument is that
the mills refusal to sell yarn or
cloth is really part of an organ
lied effort to force down the
price of raw cotton and force
down wages so that U. s. mills
will be able to compete with for
eign production. This Is tied in
with industry efforts to prevent
increase of minimum wage rates
from IS to IS cents an hour, now
before Congress.
Few people can understand
what goes on in the world cotton
market. AS a farm and mill wage
issue, the question Is more COM
prehensible. But the arguments
here are impossible to prove, one
way or the other.