Evening Star Newspaper, June 14, 1935, Page 37

LABOR LAW NEED CITED BY WAGNER Congress Ready to Guard Industrial Liberty, He Says in Forum. ‘Emphasizing the need for new leg- {slative machinery to aid the worker, Senator Wagner, Democrat, of New York, author of the controversial laber relations bill, last night told the country ‘Congress is now pre- pared to raise a sounder structure to safeguard industrial liberty.” Senator Wagner spoke in the Na- tional Radio Forum, arranged by The Star, and carried through WRC over a coast-to-coast network of the Na- tional Broadcasting Co. Passed Senate Already. This labor relations bill, which al- ready has passed the Senate, and is on President Roosevelt’s “must” pro- gram, is designed to supplant the col- Jective bargaining section 7 (a) of the national recovery act, now expiring. It has been bitterly fought by em- ployer groups. Affirming also that “Congress does not intend to surrender,” Wagner cited examples of abuses he explained had followed the invalidating of the recovery act by the Supreme Court, and declared that a remedial step is being taken in the passage of a new | law “This legislation will afford an op- portunity for additional study and reflection upon the mistakes as well as the accomplishments of the past | two years,” he said. “It will break the ground for permanent legislation, I hope -and trust, at this session of Congress.” Text of Address. | control. | at the possibilities of Nation-wide co- ing can ever erase from body or soul the scars of hunger or the humiliating brand of unemployment. Upon mil- lions of Iaboring people were visited trials and tribulations that can never be understood fully except by those whose own personal experiences have subjected them to poverty and its terrible insecurity. With 15,000,000 already unemployed in early 1933, 500,000 new victims every month were being severed from their source of livelilhood and flung heartlessly upon the streets. Many who retained their jobs were speeded up to the healch-shattering pace of 60 or 70 hours a week. The pay envelope be- came thinner and thinner, until in some instances it reached the un- believable figure of 3 or 4 dollars a week. In the search for the cheapest labor, children of 14 or 15 years of age were drawu into factories by the thousands. Ard at times these frail reeds for the support of whole fam- ilies were paid 2 or 3 cents an hour. As conditions grew even worse, pyblic morale was shattered, the strongest seemed powerless to act, and an entire nation descended into the gloomy vale of abandoned hopes. No Lack of Resources. When we ask ourselves the chal- lenging question why the forces of revival lay cold and still, what angwer suggests itself? Surely there was no lack of natura: resources. Surely the strength and energy and genius of our people had not perished. The main obstacle to recovery was an outworn philosophy of government that had been suited to the ox-cart era, but that was totaliy unadjusted to the machine age. This outworn philoso- phy insisted upon extreme individual- ism at a time when the individual had become the heipless victim of forces too big and tou powerful for him to Those people who clung to this philosopiay failed to perceive the need for national action, although our mighty indusiries had burst the bounds of conventional State lines and were country-wide or even inter- national in their scope. They scoffed operation, although co-operation was the only safeguard against social dis- integration on one hand or radical The text of Senator Wagner's ad- dress follows: i The recent decision of the Supreme | Court setting aside portions of the | national industrial recovery act, and‘ the conttroversy within Congress and | throughout the country regarding the future of that law, make it timely | to review the entire subject in the light of its surrounding facts. | In order to understand the spirit and intent of the Recovery Program, we must turn our memories backward | to the dreary days of early 1933. The | small business man was being bled | white by the cut-throat competition of an arrogant and heartless minority, and even the mighty corporation was groggy from the repeated blows of tre- | mendous losses. The farmer, after mortgaging His home to finance his crops and watering his fields with the sweat of his brow for wearysome months in the broiling sun, was find- ing the harvest less valuable than the seed. Thousands of evictions tore | families asunder and wrenched the home-owner from his long-cherished hearthstone. Savings stored up during a lifetime of struggle and self-denial were imprisoned in closed banks or vanished over night in the bursting bubble of the stock market. Banks and other financial institutions, bearing the cumulative burden of all these tragedies, moved onward toward that gloomy week in March, 1933, when confidence was killed and our whole monetary system came to an | awful pause. Average Worker Chief Target. Although his plight was long| obscured ty more speetacular events, it was the average worker who be- came the chief target for the slings and arrows of misfortune. The losses suffered by banker and business man | and farmer may be recaptured upon the return of better times. But noth: Give your or Dom A FAI soap and sof! Dirt . . their Regal FURNITU Cleaned Regal operates one of the finest upholstered = furniture cleaning plants in the country ——phone for an estimate! Regal specislizes in_cleaning curtains, draperies, blankets. rs _and other household articles. to retain their usefulness and good looks indefinitely The Regal Bond covers everything and is given to you when our Uniformed driver receives your rugs. healthfully clean...Expels Moths, Germs and . restores your fioor coverings to largest Rug Cleaning and Storage overthrow on the other. Finally, with the advent of Presi- dent Roosevelt, there came to power a leadership which grasped the realities of the situation, which knew that we must sink or swim as a ‘The record of that program is writ- ten indelibly into the lives of our people. Systematic and sympathetic relief has redeemed the pledge that no one in America shall be allowed to starve. Comprehensive public works have gone even further by recognizing the principle that in so far as possible the willing worker shall have the right to work. The farmer is again rejoicing in the fruits of his efforts. The home owner, hav- ing secured loans to refinance lLis in- debtedness, is agr.in securs gnd happy in the wérmth of his domestic circles. One Act Outstanding. ‘The average citizen with a thou- sand daily cares may have found it hard to grasp all the complexities of governmental machinery. But there has been one parcel of legislation standing out like the sun at high noon, visible to all except the blind. This legislation was fundamental be- cause it came to grips with causes as well as results. It appealed to thought- ful business men because it provided an opportunity to create order out of chaos, to manufacture and sell goods with a better knowledge of the mar- ket, and to restrain the demoralizing of the price slasher and the this | workers because it recognized that wage cutter. It appealed equally to worthwhile unless it meant the re- habilitation of the workers of this country. With its promise of tuller employment, shorter hours, better wages and the right to bargain col- lectively, the national industrial re- covery act drove its appeal to the hopes and aspirations of nameless men and women from coast to coast. Oue does not have to delve into volumes of statistics to prove that the recovery act has been helpful to business. Every observant person knows that the last two years have changed losses into profits and con- verted despair into hope. It will be enough to mention that the earnings of 1,435 representative industrial and trading establishments rose from $640,000,000 in 1933 to $1,071,000,000 in 1934, showing a gain of over 64 per cent, Benefits Widely Known. The benefits that have been con- ferred upon the common man are known wherever working people con- gregete. If we glance at random at a cross-section of industry, we find that employment has been increased by 100,000 in cotton textiles, by 50, 000 in the clothing industry, by 30,~ 000 in- hoslery by 90,4 000 in iron and steel, and by 180,000 in the retail trade. In all, not less than 3,500,000 people have been trans« ferred from the pavements to their customary occupations. A quarter of & million children have been with- drawn from the sweatshop. Hours of labor have been notably reduced. Forty or fifty cents an hour, low though that may be, are now being paid in occupations where 3 or 4 cents an hour was the rule two years ago. | u The annual volume of wages has in- creased by $500,000,000. The "greatest gains, however, cannot be conveyed by cold figures. They are evidenced by the renewed faith that our Govern- ment has returned to its original pur- poses as a humane instrument for the protection and advancement of all the people of the country. It is unthinkable that in the face of these results, we should return to the destructive planlessness which existed two and 'a half years ago. ‘Yet that is precisely the direction in which the captains of reactions are trying to steer the country, If they advanced concrete proposals to cure the imperfections that naturally exist in any new experiment, we should welcome their advice. But not one | for a better distribution of oppor- of them has a single constructive sub- | tunity among nameless millions of On May 27, the SBupreme Court of the United States handed down its de- cision in the Schechter case, invalidat- representing language of the Supreme Court and of the Constitution itself in truly are. ‘We do not utter & word of disap- proval of the decision of the Supreme Court in the Schechter case. We dis- approve only of the erroneous con- structions that have been placed upon | 1t by designing people. We retain our enduring faith in constitutional gov- | ernment and our confidence in the wisdom and statesmanship of our highest court. It is our intent to fol- low the Schechter decision, not to dis- in ruins? Until the Federal Govern ment acted two years ago, the States were utterly powerless to prevent the trend toward complete social dis- integration. These people know that = return to State action will mean no action at all. They are opposed to Federal action not because it has failed, but because it has B-17 cbey or circumvent it. We recognize that the court, in its uver’s criticism of the delegation of legisiative power to a wide variety of private agencies unanswerable to the people, has taught (Continued on Eighteenth Page.) —— e Tou CANNOWE. 7. TALK 7O <% /° ASHEVILLE FOR AFTER 7 BM. INSTEAD OF WAITING FOR 8:30 STATION-TO-STATION CALL succeeded in laying the foundation HOTEL -\I| TAFT! 2l [mannaTTaN J’l 1S AN ISLAND SURROUNDING THE TAFT 2000 ROOMS WITH BATH FROM $2.50 ou Renresents I Serrs MatiiR? Distct 4800 ' ORIENTAL estic RUGS R CHANCE n Of ppar v fault or & & % n factio! ¢ Comples satitane deiiver? g st all times i demn! . complete 1ter. smoX® At Regal volumes of pure t water, thoroughly rinsed —so original brightness and beauty! operates one of the newest and plants in the East . . . and the most perfect scientific ‘ cleaning systems known . . . 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