THE AMERICAN CODE

Evening Post, Volume CXVI, Issue 62, 11 September 1933, Page 8

THE AMERICAN CODE

ITS SPIRIT AND INTENT

(From "The Posts" Representative.) . NEW1 YOBK, August 17. , A man who started life as a newsboy ] is organising employers of the United ; States, from the mammoth iron and steel corporations of the big cities to f the log-shack storekeeper of the re- j motest rural hamlet, towards a national ■ objective to drive away depression. , Tlio wartime conscription of industry ; is under way again, administered by • Gcnoral Hugh Johnson, and backed by i President Eoosevclt's dictum, "I have faith in unified action." The nation has now become familiar with tho word "NIBA" ("National , Industrial Eccovery Act") just as the ; people of the Motherland came to know and obey "DOBA," and as_ Australians and Now Zcalanders, in tho post-war years, respected "BAWEA" as a potent influence in marketing their wool. ' . . The "Blue Eagle" is- the award or honour to employers who sign the President's "Blanket Code" or Beemployment Agreement. Ho is taking a unique stand in asking them to sign it first and confer about it afterwards. For those employers or industries for whom a modification of. the. code is necessary the Eagle will carry a white streak on which tho terms of modification will be embossed. FOURTEEN POINTS. As much will be ' heard about the Blanket Code, we present a paraphrase of the text of its fourteen points, mainly comprising "Dont's":— I. Not to employ persons under 16 moro than three hours a day outside school hours. 2.' Not to work employees, other than in factories or workshops, moro than 4U hours a week. 3. Not to employ factory and workshop hands more than-35 hours a week, or eight hours a day. 4. Clauses 2 and 3 do not apply to small firms iv small towns, or to professions or' higher-salaried employees. 5. Not to pay less minimum wage than 15 dollars a week, ranging to 12 dollars in small towns. 6. Not to pay less than 40 cents (Is 8d) an hour. 7. Not to reduce pay that is now in excess of the minimum, even if hours bo reduced. 8. Not to use subterfuge to frustrate the spirit and intent of.tho agreement. .0. Not to increase the price of merchandiso more than is made necessary by actual increase in production, or by taxes or other coats resulting from tho farm relief law, and "to refrain from profiteering." 10. To patronise establishments which have also signed the agreement. 11. To co-operate in submitting^ a fair code of competition for his industry before September 1, 1933. 12. To adjust prices of goods contracted for before June 16, 1933, to meet any increase in cost caused by the seller having signed tho agreement. 13. The agreement shall cease upon approval by the President of a code to which the employer is subject. 14. "Where great and unavoidable hardship, because of peculiar circumstances, may be worked by signing the agreement, he may, apply for a stay of some particular provision pending investigation." , RISE IN PRODUCTION. Production in the United States has already increased by 15 per cent, between the time of President Eoosevelt's inauguration on March 4 and the end of June, according to the Federal Eeserve Board's, index numbers for a dozen leading industries. This rapid rise in production may, in the opinion of tho President and his advisers, be accompanied by a corresponding increase in consumption if the Blanket Code, for shorter working hours, maintenanco or increaso of wages, bo universally adopted.