The Plan for National Industrial Control

Report Outline
Hearings on Cotton Textile Code of Fair Compettion
Evolution of National Industrial Recovery Act
Industrial Control Provisions of the New Law
Industrial Recovery Act and the Antitrust Laws
Industrial Control and National Economic Planning

Hearings on Cotton Textile Code of Fair Compettion

Closing of public hearings at Washington, June 30, on a proposed code of fair competition for the cotton textile industry foreshadowed early application of the Roosevelt administration's industrial control program. Hearings on codes submitted by other major industries are scheduled to follow in short order—in an effort to fulfill the President's hope, expressed when he signed the National Industrial Recovery Act on June 16, that “the country can look forward to the month of July as the beginning of our great national movement back to work.” General Hugh S. Johnson, Recovery Administrator, has asserted that 3,000,000 or 4,000,000 men can be reemployed within 90 days “if everyone cooperates.”

Testimony offered at the cotton textile hearings disclosed organized labor's intention to demand inclusion in all codes of provisions for a six-hour day and 30-hour week, with higher minimum wages than those so far proposed by industry, and a disposition on the part of the Recovery Administration to use the codes as a means of ending labor of all children under 16 years of age. The hearings also revealed differences between capital and labor over wage and hour standards and differences among manufacturers over the same questions and over the number of hours a week they should be permitted to operate their machines. In spite of these differences, upon which the Recovery Administration will have the final word, the hearings were marked by a notable desire to cooperate to the utmost for the purpose of reaching a prompt and mutually acceptable settlement, of all matters at issue.

Labor Issues Raised by Proposed Cotton Textile Code

The code submitted by the cotton textile industry proposed a 40-hour week, with minimum pay of $10 a week in the South and $11 a week in the North. William Green, president of the American Federation of Labor, declared that a 40-hour week would not produce a sufficient volume of additional employment. He pleaded for a 30-hour week and insisted that the maximum in the cotton textile industry should not be over 32 hours and that the minimum wage should be between $14 and $16 a week. He estimated that a 30-hour week in cotton manufacturing would result in reemployment of 210,500 workers while a 40-hour week would put only 69,700 employees back to work. In a radio speech on June 25 General Johnson had suggested that a 32-hour week, with minimum pay of 45 cents an hour or $14.40 a week, would be a fair standard for industry under the recovery program.