HOURS AND PROFITS

New Zealand Herald, Volume 79, Issue 24250, 16 April 1942, Page 8

HOURS AND PROFITS

LEGISLATION PROPOSALS INVESTIGATION IN AMERICA WASHINGTON, April 14 The Secretary of the Navy, Colonel Frank Knox, testifying before the House of Representatives Naval Committee on the proposed legislation for limiting hours and profits, said the suspension of the 40-hour week law would result only in confusion and delay. He opposed a flat percentage limitation of war profits, which would he best dealt with by taxation of excess profits, and he urged the cessation of industrial disputes over the closed shop issue. Colonel Knox said labour legislation was unnecessary so far as the Navy was concerned. He was of the opinion that the matter of changing the 40hour week was only a question of wages, which would mean a 10 per cent cut to workers' incomes. He urged for both industry and labour a psychological appeal to arouse and acquaint war workers that their own personal security rested upon the production of war tools, and thus stimulate production by patriotism rather than by legislation. Colonel Knox believed that the force of the profit motive was diminishing and would further diminish as the war continued. He said the nation needed the type of spirit engendered immediately after the Pearl Harbour raid and added that a considerable part of that spirit remained. He emphasised that the production loss since Pearl Harbour had been practicaDy negligible. Ho hoped that war industry machinery would be used seven days a week, but said men should not be worked more than six days. He opposed double time pay under any circumstances.

SYDNEY LIGHTING RESTRICTIONS TO CONTINUE CANBERRA, April 15 The brownout lighting restrictions in Sydney or any other city in Australia are not to be relaxed. That was made clear by the Minister of Home Security, Mr. H. P. Lazzarini, commenting on the criticism of the brownout in the New South Wales Parliament- Army chiefs, said the Minister, had recommended the brownout to reduce sky glow, and while the army held that view he did not intend to relax the present lighting restrictions.

MAGAZINE BANNED ALLEGED ESPIONAGE ACTION IN AMERICA (Reed. 8.15 p.m.) WASHINGTON. April 14 The Post Office Department has revoked mailing privileges from Father Coughlin's magazine, Social Justice, and has banned it from the mails. The "radio priest" has been ordered to appear in Washington on April 29 to give his reasons why revocation should not be made permanent. The Attorney-General, Mr. Francis Biddle, has written a letter to the Post Office Department citing instances in which Social Justice has violated the Espionage Act of 1917, and under which Father Coughlin would be liable to fine and imprisonment. Mr. Biddle stated that the magazine had made a substantial contribution to the systematic and unscrupulous attack against the war effort in the "United States, both civilian and military, since America's entry into the war. He added that the matter contained in the magazine since then showed a close relation to the major themes which had been broadcast by the Axis. Mr. Biddle also said that there was a striking similarity iu an article which appeared in Social Justice in December, 1938, to a speech made by the German Propaganda Minister, Goebbels, three years previously. He made the charge that whole portions of GoelP bels' speech were published in Social Justice as an original article. On April 4 a cablegram .stated that ex-Judge Goldstein, of Brooklyn, United States, had filed a petition with the Postal Department praying that the magazine Social Justice be banned from the mails on the grounds of treasonable and seditious incitement to riot.