Evening star., 1947-11-04
World Suffering Due
To Work Shortaqe,'
Writer Contends
BIomes Logging Output
On Labor Disturbances
And Overtime Penalties
By David Laurence

4llIOOSilOut lLIc WOL1Q tIlcIC Is
frequent use of the term dollar
shortage" This, in turn, has often
been described as really a goods
shortage" More and more evidence
is piling up that what the world
really is suffering from is a work
shortage"
The work shortage" in America
Is due to several factors-labor- man.
agement disturbances in past
months, inability to produce civilian
goods in wartime, and penalties be-
Ing placed on overtime by laws that
require extra payments if production
is increased.
Thus, in one all-important COM
NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS. stoppages have
cost the loss of a tremendous amount
Of production. Admiral Ben Moreell
retired, formerly head of the Sea-
bees" and now president of Jones &
Laughlin Steel Co., in a recent
address, enumerated several causes
for the steel shortage and blamed
the strikes. in the coal and steel in
dustries since the end of the war.
This factor alone" he said,
"caused the loss of 100000 ingot
tons of steel production. This would
supply the automobile industry for
about 18 months at the rate at
which it used steel during the first
half of this year. 1t is safe to say
that If we had produced the 49,
600, 900 tons there would be few COM
plants today about shortage of
steel"
Real Work Shortage"
That's a real work shortage"
The radicals in Congress keep talk
ing about the need for increasing
steel capacity by 100000 tons
year and yet not word of criticism
has come from any of them that big
unionism was able to deprive the
postwar world of 100000 tons of
needed steel.
What is vital, however, Is that
interest be focused on ways and
means Of increasing production. At
tention was directed in these dis
patches recently to plan whereby
workers would get a tax exemption
for all hours worked at straight
time" instead of time and half"
over and above any existing sched-
ule of working hours even though
these already included some time
and a half" payments. Comment on
the plan is coming in from various
parts of the country. George A.
Sloan, formerly president of the
Cotton-Textile Institute, writes:
"Your proposed amendment to the
Wage and Hour Act strikes me as
being very timely In any event 1t
is thought provoking and I hope the
matter will be pursued.
"As chairman of the Cotton Tex
tile Industry Committee which sub
mitted the first code under the NRA
which included the 40-hour work
week proposal later followed in all
other codes, may remind you that
this was an emergency plan to
spread the work in the face of de-
pressed demand, bankruptcy prices
and waste of working capital result
ing from the necessity Of funding
purchases for volume Of produc-
ton beyond the capacity of the
market to absorb. Subsequently that
emergency action was made the law
of the land.
Calls Output First Need.
To-day in many basic industries
we have inadequate supply to meet
demand, soaring costs Of production
with resultant inflationary prices
and a crying need at home and
abroad for more and more Ameri-
can production. Having visited sew
eral European countries during the
past summer when I went over as
one of the American delegates to
the International Chamber of Com
merce meeting in MontreuX, I
should say that the greatest present
need Of England, France and Ger
many and, indeed, most of the Euro
~pean countries, is production and
still more production of the neces-
stiles. of life-both American pro-
duction and their own.
I'm the face of all Of this, the
Wage and Hour Act, enacted when
conditions in the United States were
the extreme opposite of what they
are today, tends to restrain and, in
some cases, even prohibit any in
crease in production.
''Unless I am badly mistaken the
working men and women are just as
fed up with the present high cost of
living and all of the ineffective
dipsy-doodle plans to correct it as
any other group of people in our
country. The intelligent worker has
long since learned-or should have
that the spiraling of wages with
out increased production gets him
nowhere and gets him there fast"
(ProductIon Rights Reserved)