Complete Regulation of American Industries

Horowhenua Chronicle, 14 July 1933, Page 7

Complete Regulation of American Industries

- FORTYWUR WEEK.

ROOSEVELT’S REVOLUTIONARY PLAN

WASHINGTON, July 12. With President Eooseyfelt’s attached to the so-calied “Cotton Textile Code” approving ;a voluntary system for fair competition, agreed upon by members of this industry under the provisions of the industrial Recovery Act, the complicated machinery for regularisations of hours and conditions of labour in the chief manufacturing trades of America is believed to be finally in the movement. '

The Textile Code comes into operation on July 17. It a- lishes Child ilabour, and establishes a 40-hour week, .■fixing the minimum'wage at 13 dollars -4n the North and 12 in the South week,fy. Seventy-seven per cent, of the cotton textile industry comes under the regulations, and the remainde- must ac--cept, or it w . be licensed and forced to accept. It is computed that the code enacts ;An average mill wage increase of 30 per cent., and 25 per cent, reduction in hours. It is hoped that only moderate .increases in prices to consumers will result, and 100,000 more persons than in the peak year of 1929 will be employed in that industry. . Model For The ;st. The Cotton Textile Code is expected ■to be a model for the remaining 700 industries which are to come under control. -The Timber Trade Code, submitted yesterday, will probably be the -second to receive Presidential approval. It provides for reaforestation, the reduction of the maximum week from 48 to 40 hours, and a minimum wage of 224 to 424 cents per hour. Eighty-five per cent, of the forest industry has approved, and, whereas it is expected that the payrolls at the beginning of August will be increased by tea million dollars, it is not expected that much reemployment will result, although the industry was employing far below its -normal of 750,000. Now the bituminous coal industry lias agreed, upon a five-dollar a day but its code is not yet ready for submission to the President. The New York City needle trades, the most important of the country, T have completed their code, providing Jhor 35 to 100 cents an hour wage, and n 40-hour week. The code will probably shortly be submitted. There are under the process of drafting at the present time codes for such diverse industries and trades as steel, tobticco, petroleum, fur, retail grocers, optical goods, ceramics, jewellers, ■Chemist shops, lamp makers, printers, and paper makers. It is interesting to note that its basic code issued on June 21 by the .Administrator (Mr. Johnson) stresses that the codes should aim at re-em-pioying the numbers normally applied to each industry. Manufacturers should seek higher profits from increased sales rather than increased prices. Monopolies or the oppression of small enterprises and classifications of labour that t would then fix maximum wages as well .as minimum must be avoided. Imponderable Trades.

That imponderables in the vast recovery scheme for industry are already giying President Roosevelt and his advisers much concern can be seen by intimations to-day that, due to the lapse of time - necessary before the working out of even the first codes can be effective, it is proposed to press immediately for the blanket adoption by industry of a 35-hour week, and a 14-dollar :minimum wage. It took a fortnight to frame the Cotton Textile Code, and the great bulk industries have not yet even begun their consultations. The first hope to get the nation’s industry codified within GO days nas been virtually abandoned. Moreover, in the three weeks since the Recovery Act became law, business has a boom in anticipation of price increases to the extent which the Government considers dangerous since it is unaccompanied by an increased purchasing power of the public. 36-Hour Week for Electricians Received Thursday, Midnight. .WASHINGTON, July 12.

Two more codes were submitted to the Government to-day, the electrical manufacturers agreeing to a 36-hour week with 35 cents an hour minimum ■wage, and the shipbuilding industry offered a 40-hour week with 35 to 40 cents an hour.-

-Americans Seek World Adoption of Shorter Hours Received Friday, 2 a.m. LOUDON, July 13. \ The Conference Economic Com- , mission publicly discussed French proposals for the relief of employ-*-ment by means of public works. The American' delegations prescented resolutions favouring lessened hours of labour with a scale of wages increasing in proportion to the augmentation of-productiv-ity- ' " \