The potters herald. [volume] (East Liverpool, Ohio) 1899-1982, 1947-04-10

luTDdIlCeS anu ldDOf unrest, III
nation as a whole. But the LIE
be averted, predicting that "calmer
counsel in the Senate will recover
some of the House cuts" in funds
for federal labor agencies.
Before the House action is
crystallized into permanent law,
every employer, worker, union Of
fetal, and member of Congress
should know its actual as well as
possible effect" the Letter warns.
Fund Cutting Orgy
The Letter says that liquidation
of the Labor Department is a big
step nearer. "The House," it says,
"by cutting off $13,714,000 left it
only $17,436,200 for its operations
(balance of budget merely passes
through the department on its way
to the states and veterans). Com
pare that with a billion dollars for
agriculture, many billions for the
armed service.
Anarchists, it seems, could not
have started wiping out govern
ment with more delight than the
House exhibited. Cancellation was
guillotined. BIS was disemboweled.
NLRB lost toes and fingers. USES
was stripped to the bone. The
Labor Standards Division died in
the gas chamber.
Then the Letter shows that the
House action is a deadly menace
to the present economic system,
explaining:
preservation of the capitalist
system depends more and more
upon accurate knowledge of the
trends in wages, prices, hours, en-
ployment, productivity, and gen
eral working conditions. Industry
and labor, economists and stats
ticians, Congress and every politi-
cal administration, have worked
together to make the Bureau of
Labor Statistics a reliable fact
gathering agency. 1t was a stabi-
lizing factor in war and reconver-
sion periods.
Basis of Vital Planning
"The work Of BIS experts must
be the basis of the economic plan
ming necessary to avoid future
serious economic depressions.
Future arbitration and media
tion agencies set up by Congress-
whatever they may be-must look
to BIS for the facts to make
sound wage determinations
Continuity of price data is
necessary in any emergency action
necessary to check infationary
spirals."
A long list of services discon-
tinued and of others curtailed
shows that the BIS would be only
a ghost Of itself under the House
cuts.
Cancellation Hard Hit
The Letters analysis emphasizes
that deep cuts in Cancellation
Service funds would greatly inn
pair the agency's efficiency in set
Ting labor-management disputes
and would force changes in the
policy recommended by the Presi-
dents Labor Management Confer
ence of l945 for reorganizing and
strengthening it.
Discussing the effect of House
cuts on the highly important u. S.
Employment Service, the Letter
notes it suffered severely and con-
tinues: "Its administrative budget
was cut from $3,9l2,900 to $780,
900. That will enable it To do lit
tie more than do the bookkeeping |
job Of transferring $7l ,72S, 900 to
the states for state employment |
offices.
Blow at Manpower Mobilization
"USES will be unable to let
Congress know whether the states
spend the money in accordance
with the requirements, il will be
unable to maintain standards of
efficiency and uniformity. Move
ment of labor from state to state
will be handicapped, exploited.
Some states will like this; farm
labor can be frozen to jobs more
easily. Interstate clearance Of
labor will be broken down in food
processing, housing, scientific, and
categories."
"House action breaks down the