The potters herald. [volume] (East Liverpool, Ohio) 1899-1982, 1947-12-04

n Joint Committee of the Congress
I - recommend the passage of an
act to set minimum wages and
maximum hours. 1t was all too
evident at that time that unfair
competition, with its sweatshops
and underpaid labor, must be elm
mated if our competitive system
was to flourish and workers with
weak bargaining strength were to
be assured a standard of living ap-
preaching the requirements of de-
cent American citizenship.
The need for adequate minimum
wage standards is as urgent now
as it was ten years ago. AS long
as we operate under a system of
free enterprise and competition and
refuse to put industry under the
shackles of regimented economy
that need will be urgent.
For some time the minimum
wage provisions of the Fair Labor
Standards Act were effective in
prodding inefficient or reluctant
employers along the paths follow
ed by the vast majority. That time,
however, has long since passed. The
40c statutory rate is obsolete, and
the aims and hopes of the Con-
gress that passed the Act have dis
sipated with rising price and wage
levels.
For all practical purposes, we
have now no minimum wage legis-
lation, and large numbers of work
ers are again tagging far behind
fAhe rest of the country with respect
10 living standards.
Responsible employers favor ade-
quate minimum wage standards.
They do not wait upon government
prodding. Those industries or estab-
lishments that consistently take the
lead in technical advances and eff
cient management have no Difficult
ty in maintaining high minimum
wage levels, whether they happen
to be located in the south, the
north, the east or the west. For
those industries, which employ
millions of workers, no statutory
minimum wage is necessary. There
are, however, some employers who
must feel the prod of the trade
union organization or government
edict at their backs before they
submit to the nations need for ade-
quate minimum wage standards.
The establishments that pay low
wages today are generally the ones
that paid low wages in 1888. These
will be most affected by an increase
in minimum wage standards, just
as they were most affected by the
standards embodied in the Fair La
Dor Standards Act. There is, how
ever, one important exception-the
cotton textile industry. The ad-
vance. in minimum wage standards
made in this industry during recent
years merits careful consideration,
for it carries a most significant
k'nessage.
u During the past few years wage
adjustments in the cotton textile
industry have centered about the
minimum rate. The Fair Labor
Standards NAct provided initially
for minimufAo. rate of 25c an hour
and for 40c minffNum not later
than October 1945. However, sue
cessive increases, established thru
the industry committee proceddte9
provided for in the Act, raised !
the minimum rate to 32.5c an hour
in October 1899, to 37.5c in June
1941, and to the 40c level by April |
1912. During the period in which |
the Natl War Labor Board was in
operation, additional increases in
the effective rate occurred through |
Board orders in dispute cases and
through the approval of voluntary /
applications for wage adjustments.
This Board and it's successor, the
Natl Wage Sterilization Board,
either directed or approved in
creases in the minimum rate to