Evening star. [volume], April 03, 1937, Page A-9, Image 9

About Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972

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U. S. Duty to
Act Seen in
Michigan
Constitution Guarantee
to States Is Held
Operative.
BY DAVID LAWRENCE.
THE Constitution of the United
States prescribes that “the
United States shall guarantee
to every State in the Union a
republican form of government.”
What is meant by a republican
form of government is that there shall
be an executive,
legislative and
judicial branch
and that each
shall be permit
ted to function
without hin
drance either
from any other
branch or any
other group or
interest.
The State of
Michigan today
is without a re
publican form of
government be- Davld Liwrence
cause the courts
of that State—the judicial branch
are powerless to enforce their orders
and decrees.
The laws of the United States—re
vised statutes 5399—provide for Fed
eral action in such an emergency.
This correspondent quoted the text
of the law of 1871 in a dispatch just
a week ago. The statute makes it
obligatory upon the President of the
United States to compel obedience to
the orders of a court whenever, from
any cause, the State authorities fail
to furnish such enforcement.
It has been in some quarters as
sumed that Federal intervention can
come only upon application of a State
Legislature or the Governor or both,
but while the Constitution does pro
vide for the use of Federal force
when the Governor and Legislature
apply for it, there is a separate obliga
tion of the Federal Government to
Intervene which is absolute, irrespec
tive of how the Legislature and the
Governor feel about it.
Huey Long's Rule Cited.
The reason for the proviso is quite
simple. For instance, not long ago,
in Louisiana, Huey Long controlled
both the office of Governor and the
State Legislature. The only po
tential restraint upon both was the
courts, and just before his death, the
situation w’as rapidly crystalizing to
ward a point where Federal inter
vention was being suggested as a
means of guaranteeing a republican
form of government for the State of
Louisiana.
Since a State Legislature, working
in close co-operation with a Governor,
might seize governmental power and
create a virtual dictatorship by con
trolling election machinery, the Fed
eral power of guaranteeing a republi
can form of government very natur
ally has to come in as a protection
to the citizens. It was under this
broad provision of the Constitution
that the law of 1871 was framed, and
while it has been used sparingly, it
Is designed for situations in which
local State government falls down.
In Michigan today, mob rule has
been substituted for court rule. Even
n contract solemnly entered into as
binding between the John Lewis unions
and the General Motors Co. has been
violated again and again by sit-down
strikes. Thirty strikes have occurred
since the contract was signed on Feb
ruary 11. Union leaders are said to
be unable to control their own men.
Discipline is gone because a handful
of workers realize there is no punish
ment or penalty w'hen they interrupt
production. The union has no means
of compelling obedience and the State
authorities are inactive.
Johnson Points to 1871 Statute,
j The Senate of the United States
|has begun to debate the Michigan
situation. Senator Hiram Johnson of
California, one of the mast courageous
men in public life, has pointed to the
statute of 1871 as requiring the Presi
dent of the United States to back up
the State courts in their enforcement
of law. Other Senators feel this
. would be an extreme step to take and
that Gov. Murphy's policy of watch
■ful waiting should be commended.
'But as the situation progresses and
more and more a minority of workers
feel their power, it is feared that the
situation may, if untouched by the
firm hand of the law now', develop
tragic consequences in which unneces
sary bloodshed will occur.
Unfortunately, there is 8 dispasition
In the Washington Government itself
to condone “sit-down” strikes. Sena
, tor Wagner’s speech undoubtedly re
1 fleets accurately the viewpoint of
| President Roosevelt and Secretary
.Perkins. Mr. Wagner thinks that two
: wrongs make a right and that, because
■some employers have been heartless,
;the provocation to use physical force
may be forgiven.
Legal Powers Unused.
Unhappily, Senator Wagner, in his
discussion of the labor act which
bears his name, did not go into detail
and tell the Senate both sides of the
story. It is true employers have re
fused to obey the Wagner law, but
any citizen has a right to enjoin in
a court the enforcement of a law be
lieved by counsel to be unconstitu
tional. But the "sit-down" strikers
have not gone Into court. Nor have
they invoked those provisions of the
Wagner law that are not under legal
attack. For instance, the National
Labor Board has powers of investi
gation and inquiry under the Wagner
act which can be brought into action
If the workers apply for it. No em
ployer can stop that step. Yet C. I. O.
union leaders refuse to have this Fed
eral machinery used for fear a deci
aion against them and in favor of the
A. F. of L. type of labor unit might
have to be made.
So it is labor itself which has
•abotaged the important features of
the Wagner law. The Federal Gov
ernment, which has ample power to
prevent "sit-down” strikes or to insist
that law and order be maintained in
Michigan, has engaged in a “sit-down”
against the functioning of a republi
can form of government in Michigan.
(Copyright. 1937.)
. .. . -- ■■ %
WOMEN IN POLITICS
TOPEKA, Kans., April 3 (JP.—The
hand that rocks the crade is extend
ing its sway in Kansas—more women
are going in for politics.
Following a precedent set last year
by New Albany—where a 100 per cent
"petticoat” administration won office
—five smaller cities have all-women
tickets for April 5 municipal elections.
In Nashville, Kans., every candidate
on both tickets is a woman. Burl
ingame, Ford and Cherokee have all
fwomen tickets opposing men. New
Albany's feminine incumbents are urJfc
opposed for re-election. u
News Behind the News
March Industrial Production, at 119, Equals That
for Boom Year of 1929.
BY PAUL MALLON.
THEY said 1929 would never return, but here it is. Industrial produc
tion has hit 119 for March, a figure which happens to be the
exact average of the boom year, seven years ago. The figure
is not official yet, and will not be for 30 days, but it is based on
an informed private estimate which has proved uncannily accurate in
the past, and it can be guaranteed as the closest possible unofficial guess.
This does not mean everything is back to the level of the
hoodoo year, but merely that the volume of factory goods is being
turned out at that peak rate.
Employment is 4*4 points below 1929, wages oft lO'/a points, de
partment store sales off 15, prices off 9; freight loadings off 23 and
building off 52.
Only freight loadings and building are, therefore, still far deficient.
Use of trucks has, of course, destroyed much of the significance of a
freight loading comparison with the more or less good-bad old days, while
no one expects building to oe
resumed on a mad 1929 over-ex
pansion scale any time soon.
Note—In March. 1929. produc
tion was also exactly 119. It
reached a high of 125 In June and
ended the year at 103, the col
lapse starting In July.
The situation is reduced to num
bers in the following chart. The
figures are those officially used by
the Government, except the last
OU.bOY.
AH I GLAD
TO SEE .
TOU//
-rrnANKj,
< uNCLt m
6UDT0BE
BACK..
y)LEVEL |
month, March, which is estimated. The figures are adjusted lor sea
sonal variations, so that each represents a percentage ot a selected normal
existing for the period designated. The selected normal is the average
for 1923-25, inclusive, lor all of the indices except prices, which are
based on 1926 as 100. (The increase in population since 1923-25 or
1929 is not taken into account in the figures.)
■*» 'T'
G fl C
_ C D w>' ©
«.2 _ S » a 6 « -
St £6 O £c t . £■ S.**
• tr 3 U mIG flfi ^ us T3 "J ()«■ d
J S-o w °“;3
£ =£ £« £ £3 «o
1929 average_ 119 105 109 106 111 117 95.3
1930 average- 96 91 89 92 102 92 86.4
19J11 average_ 81 77 67 75 92 63 73.0
1932 average- 64 66 47 56 69 28 64.8
1933 average- 76 72 99 58 67 27 65,9
1934 average- 79 82 «3 62 73 32 74 9
1935 average_ 90 86 71. 63 79 3i 8.
1936 average- 105 92 82 72 88 55
1936 January_ 97 89 74 70 81 61 80.6
February.,. 94 87 74 70 83 52 80.6
March _ 93 88 77 66 84 47 79.6
1937 January... 114 98.8 90.6 80 93 63 85.9
February... 116 99.6 95.7 80 95 64 86 3
March . 119 100.5 98.5 83 96 64 87.2
Strangest part of the March factory output is it was accomplished amid
a wave of sit-down, stand-up and lean-sideways labor gymnastics. Strikes
have upset the largest industry continuously since the first of the year, yet
they have not stopped the general rising tide.
Auto figures indicate, in fact, that more cars have been turned,
out in the first quarter this year than last year, when there were
no strikes. Ford and Chrysler produced heavily when General
Motors was out; Ford and General Motors hummed when Chrysler
was out. At any rate, that was the situation up to the end of March.
Meanwhile, most of the other industries have been climbing slowly and
gradually. Progress was reported throughout March in electrical power,
steel, coal. As every one knows, steel, the basic industry, is running at more
than 90 per cent capacity, and is practically at the peak of 1929. Steels
old boom peak was 102 per cent capacity, but capacity has increased more
than 12 per cent since then. The threat of a strike helped coal, but elec
tric power distribution indicated a wide general expansion by factory
consumers.
* * * *
The five-point pay roll jump in February is said by the Government to
represent a general increase in total pay rolls and is not due to wage in
creases in the two large industries. The Bureau of Labor statistics says pay
WY- WHAT
^ AN APPETITE'
_
roll expansion was noted in 11 in
dustries out of 90 surveyed in Feb
ruary.
Re-employment was likewise gen
erally distributed through the fac
tory world.
If this is true, it means a wider
distribution of purchasing power to
sustain the recovery. The people
generally will have more money to
absorb the increased production of
^ the factories. The price level does
not appear to have advanced yet to a point where it might cause a dimin
ishing demand for products. The figures mean the factories are turning
out a 1929 volume of goods for prices roughtly 10 per cent lower employing
5 per cent fewer men for manufacturing this same volume of goods and
paying them 10 per cent less in the weekly pay check.
All this indicates economic strength behind the figures as far as they
go. Of course they do not take in salaried persons, white collar workers,
who comprise the great bulk of consumers of the country, or the farmer
income, but the farmer, at least, has prospects of a much higher income
this year.
* * * *
Political-minded people will fail to find in the figures the crisis which •
the President has talked about. The figures deal with the past, the President
with the future. His economists foresee the prospect of a demand for goods
soon exceeding production, thereby causing the bidding up of prices to
boom inflation heights. The figures to date merely showjwices continuing
to advance at a very rapid gait.
The first week in February, prices were 85.4 per cent of 1926: second
week, 85.6; third, 86; fourth, 86.1; first week in March, 86.1; then 87.2, 87.6,
87.8, a steady and continuous rise, which really started last Fall.
Power of Nepotism Is Denied
By Schools'’ Official in List
McQueeney, Superintendent of Custo
dians, Declares He Only Receives
Job Applications.
Dispensing patronage to the faith
ful is by no means unknown to the
American system of government, but
it is hard to be charged with “pack
ing” the District government with
relatives when you haven’t the power
to appoint them if you wanted to.
That’s howr it appears, at any rate,
to William McQueeney, superin
tendent of public school custodians,
who was cited in the report to the
House Subcommittee on Appropria
tions as having 15 of his family in the
employ of the District.
“Yes.” chuckled McQueeney, who
entered the custodial service some
46 years ago and has been superin
tendent since 1931, "you might think
I was running a small spoils system
here.”
It would appear from his title,
he went on, that he was appointive
power for janitors and could dis
tribute positions at will.
“Actually,” he said, “a custodial
appointment is a long process cul
minating in the Board of Education.
Applications are made through ml.
I send them to the first assistant
superintendent in charge of the
business office, who sees the candi
dates and makes recommendations to
the superintendent. Dr. Ballou then
presents them for investigation by
the Personnel Committee of the
Board of Education, which then makes
recommendations to the board.”
Many Took Exams.
Speaking of his 15 relatives, many
by marriage, McQueeney said that
anyhow nearly half of them were in
the service before he was made cus
todian superintendent even if that
position had carried the appointive
power—and what’s more, many of
those got their jobs through competi
tive examination or through appoint
ment from a rated list.
"If I were a really good nepotist
I would certainly have taken care of
my immediate family, don’t you
think?” he continued, pointing out
that none of his large family was
in any way connected with the gov
ernment.
"I guess it's just a case of family
interest in a certain field that made
them want to get Into the school sys
tem,” he said. “My brother Hugh, j*t
whose request I entered the system
at a $500 a year janitor because of an
acute need for custodians in 1891, died
in the service after 47 years in it.
My younger brother had been a cus
todian 31 years when he died.”
Four Are Sons of Brothers.
Four of the eight nephews in the
school service charged to McQueeney
are sons of the twro brothers. The
other four are sons of two of his three
sisters. He acquired three more con
nections with the District government
by his own marriage, two of his wife's
sisters being teachers and -a brother
later becoming a custodian at a local
high school. A niece married and
her husband, connected with another
branch of the District government,
was also listed as a relative of the
custodian chief.
“If there’s any blame," said Mc
Queeney, “I am perfectly willing to
take it. But frankly I don’t under
stand it. There’s no law affecting us
that I know of which limits the num
ber of related people in the District
government if they possess the quali
fications necessary for the job and are
appointed by the regular appointing
power."
---•
STEAMSHIP LINES BILL
SIGNED BY ROOSEVELT
Private Management Extension
Beyond Marine Act Deadline
Becomes Law.
Bt the Associated Press.
President Roosevelt signed yesterday
a bill authorising the Martime Com
mission to extend the private manage
ment of five Government-owned
steamship lines beyond the deadline
originally set by the 1936 merchant
marine act.
Operation of the lines by private
management was ordered discontinued
in favor of a charter system by June
29, 1937, under the merchant marine
act. The new bill permitted the
commission to continue the existing
arrangement as long as "advantage
ous,” terminating it “as -soon as prac
ticable” after December 31.
The companies Involved are the
American Pioneer Lines, the America
France Line, American Hampton
Roads Line-Yankee Line, tfic Oriole
Line and American Republics Lines.
CTHE opinions of the writers on this page are their own, not
necessarily The Star’s. Such opinions are presented in
The Star’s effort to give all sides of questions of interest to its
readers, although such opinions may be contradictory among
themselves and directly opposed to The Star’s. ^
Labor Debate Not Over
New Phase of Commotion Due to Start With
Decision on Wagner Act.
BY MARK SULLIVAN.
THE next phase of the commo
tion in which America is in
volved will begin when the
Supreme Court hands down its
decision on the national labor rela
tions act, frequently called the “Wag
ner act.” Much of Washington ex
pects the decision
next Monday,
though, of course,
it may not come
until later.
The decision,
whenever it
comes, will deal
directly with the
constitutionality
of the Wagner
act. But indi
rectly it will, in
public discussion,
have a relation
to ‘'sit-down"
strikes, to Mr. Mirk Sullivan.
Roosevelt’s pro
posal to change the Supreme Court,
to the proposals to amend the Con
stitution. The bearing of the decision
on these matters may not really be
as vital as discussion will make it
seem. But for several days following
the Wagner act decision there will be
the kind of discussion that followed
the decision of last week on the mini
mum wage act of Washington State.
The central purpose of the Wagner
act is to legalize the principle of
collective bargaining by labor, and to
safeguard labor in the practice of it.
To that end the act requires that
employers shall bargain collectively
with their workers. It forbids em
ployers to interfere with the organiza
tion of unions, or to discriminate
against members of them. Under the
act, when a majority of the workers
in a plant have joined one union, or
have otherwise selected representa
tives, then the employer must bargain
with those representatives exclusively.
There can be only one bargaining
union in each plant.
Board Can Hold Elections.
For administering the act a ‘‘Na
tional Labor Relations Board” is set
up. This board is an official Gov
ernment body. Among other func
tions, the board can hold elections in
factories to determine which of two
or more unions is to represent the
workers. When workers or unions
have ocoasion to complain against an
employer, they make their complaint
to thus board. Thereupon the board
holds hearings, takes testimony, and
hands down a decision. Ordinarily
the decision is an order to the em
ployer that he shall re-employ dis
charged men, or bargain collectively
with a specific union, or do whatever
else the board thinks should be done.
If an employer fails to do what the
National Labor Relations Board or
ders, then the board can go before a
United States Court and ask the court
to require the employer to carry out
the board’s order. It is in this way.
the cases now before the Supremr
Court have come up. There are five
of them. The cases have different
sets of facts.
For describing what the Wagner
act is, help may be had by outlining,
very sketchily, one of the five cases
the court is about to decide. The case
of the Jones & Laughlin Steel Corp.
may be taken as typical. The facts
as given here are taken from the
brief of Attorney General Cummings
representing the National Labor Re
lations Board before the Supreme
Court.
Union Complained to Board.
Certain workers at one of the Jones
& Laughlin plants, acting through
their local union, complained to the
Labor Board that Jones & Laughlin
‘‘had discharged or demoted employes
because they had joined the union,
in order to discourage membership
therein." Jones & Laughlin re
plied that the discharge and demo
tions had been made “because of in
RAILROADS DRAFTING
EMPLOYE AID PLAN
Labor Negotiators Join in At
tempt to Provide New
System.
By tlie Associated Press.
Informed officials said yesterday
railroad officials and labor negotiators
are trying to draft a broad new sys
team of unemployment compensation
for the Nation's 1,000,000 rail workers.
The program is being formulated in
conjunction with a voluntary rail
pension system, officials said. It would
lift the railroads out of the unemploy
ment benefit system embodied in the
social security act.
Committees representing rail man
agement and labor recently announced
agreement on a new pension plan to
be operated under the Railroad Re
tirement Board. The Treasury raised
objections, however, contending tax
ing provisions were not adequate.
The program is being restudied by
Treasury, Retirement Board, railroad
and rail union representatives.
CONFEDERATE VET DIES
Gen. Alfred Ayer, 90, Last in
County to Pass On.
OCALA, Fla., April 3 {!P).—CHn. Al
fred Ayer, 90, Marion County’s only
remaining Confederate veteran, died
here today after a brief Illness.
He was Marlon County tax assessor
for one 20-year period and previously
had served as a Representative in the
Florida Legislature.
Bom at Barnwell, S. C., Ayer left
the South Carolina Military Academy
when he was 18 years old to Join the
Confederate Army.
He was a former commander of the
Florida Brigade of tlje United Con
federate Veterans.
RUPTURED
NOW GIT BLESSED RELIEF with amai
ln*. modern Invention, boon to mankind.
No harsh steel bands, back-pads, flimsy
elastic belts, lei-straps. Neat, comfortable,
sanitary, durable. Unlike anythin* else you
ever sew. Pronounced by users "The
greatest achievement of all times.”
j Don’t say "It’s no use." Get convincing
! FREE TRIAL. Make every conceivable test,
then decide. The surprise of a lifetime
awaits you. Just ask the desk clerk for Mr.
I Watson et the Houston Hotel, Washington,
Monday and Tuesday. April 5 and 6. from
. 10 to 13 a.m. and 1 to 5 aiufc 6 to 8 PM.
i If • ou cannot call write for See literature
20A. FAULTLESS APPLIANCE*CO.. Haver
hill. Mas*.
efficiency and violation of the com
pany’* rules.” /
Apparently the question of fact thus
brought up was never tried out. The
company did not present testimony.
Apparently the company preferred to
base Its contest on the constitution
ality of the Wagner act.
The National Labor Relations Board
held that 10 of the 12 workers had
been “discharged because of their
union activity.” The board ordered
the company to "reinstate with back
| pay the 10 men" and to cease "from
discouraging membership in the
union.” Then the board asked the
United States Court to require the
company to do what the board had
ordered it to do. Prom the lower
court the case came up to the Su
preme Court.
The Supreme Court decisions, when
they come, will have their greatest
importance In what the court says
about the distinction between "in
terstate commerce” and, on the other
hand, commerce within a single State,
"intrastate commerce.” The Consti
tution say* that Congress can legis
late only about the former, "inter
state commerce.” The court in the
past has interpreted this in a way
which President Roosevelt regards as
too strict. The New Deal would like to
have Congress permitted to legislate
on practically all commerce, business
and Industry, as the N. R. A. statute
tried to do.
Wide Range in Five Case*.
As respects interstate commerce, the
five cases before the court present
a wide range. The Jones & Laugh
lin case is that of a steel manufac
turer within a State which sells its
products outside. The case of the
Washington. Virginia & Maryland
Coach Co. is that of a bus company
which crosses State lines. The case
of the Associated Press is that of
an organization which operates both
locally within a State and also across
State lines. The cases of the Frue
hauf Trailer Co. and the Friedman
Harry Marks Clothing Co. are those
of manufacturers within a State.
From this variety of conditions the
court might hand down different de
cisions on the different cases.
Aside from presenting the court
with occasion to state its position—
either its old position or a new one—
about what constitutes interstate com
merce, the decisions on the Wagner
act will not have great influence. The
current commotion about labor ques
tions has passed into a new phase.
The Wagner act. though passed as
recently as July 5, 1935, is more or
less historical with respect to labor
questions. The act had practically no
p>art in the recent labor incidents in
Michigan. Almost all thoughtful per
sons on both sides of the question
believe that in the light of the recent
"sit-down" strikes, new legislation
will be necessary to define both the
rights and the responsibilities of both
labor and employer.
(Copyright. 1937.)
We, the People
Failure of Gen. Blanton Winship and Dr. Ernest
Gruening in Puerto Rico Charged.
BY JAY FRANKLIN.
THE Puerto Rican police machine-gunned a political parade In the
city of Ponce, killing 7 and wounding 50 Nationalist demonstrators
for immediate and unconditional Independence. The Governor of
Puerto Rico—Gen. Blanton Winship—and the director of the Di
vision of Territories and Insular Possessions in the Department of the In
terior—Dr. Ernest H. Gruening—ought to resign at once as a result of
this scandal. If they fall to do so voluntarily the President should call
for their resignations.
Between these two officials the New Deal in Puerto Rico seems to be
failing, and our island territory is being converted into "the Ireland of
the Caribbean’’—the weak spot in
our "good-neighbor” policy” in
Latin America and a discredit to
our national program for peace
ful readjustment and reform.
These words are written with
a heavy heart. I share same of
the responsibility for setting up
the Puerto Rico Reconst ructi«n
Administration under whiih the
New Deal undertook to cure the
evils or aDseniee capitalism m me
great sugar centrales which dominate the political and economic life of
that lovely Island#
Gen. Winshlp is a personal friend of long standing. Dr. Omening I
know as a practicing liberal, an expert on Mexico and a crusading editor
against the “power trust." Fine men, both, but with the best intentions
in the world they have not succeeded in their assignment and should be
removed from the Puerto Rican picture without delay.
Last year Col. Riggs, the popular and sympathetic chief of the Puerto
Rico police, was assassinated by two young Nationalists. The crime was
committed precisely because Riggs was popular, because he understood,
liked and was liked by the Puerto Rican people. The Nationalist agita
tion thrives on mutual suspicion and hatred and they strove, by the murder
of Riggs, to end the era of good feeling which our reconstruction plan
and New Deal sympathy at Washington had engendered.
Now the Nationalist plot is succeeding. For the police lynched the
two young assassins in their cell at the police station—an official crime
which not only diverted sympathy from the victim of the assassination
but wfiich destroyed the only evidence that could have established political
responsibility for their desperate action.
Since then, "treat ’em rough!" has been the Winship-Gruening
policy. They have thus played into the hands of the Nationalist
extremists and have discredited many of the Puerto Rican leaders
of intelligence and good will who had favored co-operation with the
American authorities. The climax came when the Governor re
voked the permit for the parade already authorized by the mayor of
Ponce and the police and paraders came into inexcusably bloody
collision.
Here we have an island possession which, under a protective sugar
tariff and modern sanitation, has produced a greater population than can
be supported in independence. Capital investment in Puerto Rican sugar
is mainly American and is directed
through such institutions as the
National City Bank and the Bank
of Nova Scotia. The sugar estates
have been built up in violation of
the organic law which limits cor
porate ownership to a maximum of
500 acres of land, and the profits
of the industry are retained in the
United States. In addition, tarifl
protected prices for manufactured
goods, coastwise shipping regula
tions, etc., further drain the island’s wealth. The people are poor, pronnc,
hard-working, intelligent—with a high order of Spanish culture, a civilized
tradition and an intense pride in their racial individuality. They do not
want to be assimilated to us or our ways.
Hence the P. R. R A and hence the honest effort to give the *
island a New Deal, against the will of the sugar companies and the '
mouldy vestige of "the white man’s burden’’ in certain sections
of our public opinion To allow ourselves to be diverted into political
repression on the ■’Black-and-Tan" order of police atrocity, because
an American official was murdered by extremists, is to scuttle the
New Deal and restore the spirit of that "gun boat policy” which we
have formally abandoned in the Caribbean.
So Winship and Gruening should be replaced, temporarily, by a com
missioner with broad powers at San Juan—some one of the Frank Murphy
type (perhaps Representative Maverick of Texas could suggest some one
for the job)—and by a man of proved diplomatic ability in charge of the
Bureau of Territories and Insular Possessions at Washington. Some one
like Mr. Norman Armour, our present Minister to Canada, would be ideally
qualified, although there are men in the Latin-American division of the
State Department who could also do the Job. Later on. of course, the Gov
ernor should be a native Puerto Rican—6ome one like Dr. Chardon. former
chancellor of the University of Puerto Rico. (Copyright. 1637.)
An American
You Should
Know
Isador Lubin Declares
Facts Can Keep U. S.
From Straying.
BY DELIA PYNCHON.
WITH more and more strikers
either walking out or sit
ting down, it is evident
that we must get down to
“bare bones" or facts. Isador Lubin,
commissioner of the Bureau of Labor
Statistics, Department of Labor, says
that his “fundamental philosophy Is
I»»dor L.Mn
and at Clark Uni
versity. He taught economics at the
University of Missouri. In 1918 he came
to Washington as a statistician under
Hoover in the Food Administration to
find out how many laborers would be
available to harvest the Government's
extensive war-time wheat fields. For
six months he was a special expert on
the War Industries Board. Subse
quently he returned to the teaching
profession at the University of Michi
gan. In 1922 he was one of the origi
nal staff members of the Brookings
Institute. They loaned Lubin as ad
viser to the Senate Committee on
Education and Labor. He sponsored
unemployment insurance at this time.
Since 1933 he has headed the Labor
Statistics Bureau, and has effectively
lived down a "brain truster” grouping,
through quiet and efficient adminis
trative ability.
Commissioner Lubin's facts and fig
ures are very much in the public eye
these days of strikes and rumors of
strikes. From New York to San Fran
cisco the telephone rings constantly
seeking labor data. There is obvi
ously a co-operative spirit abroad in
the country. Employers have volun
tarily submitted data on conditions in
90 industries. Both Mr. Lewis and
Mr. Green have the "capitalism psy
chology," Lubin says, and want to
work together to defeat Communism
and Fascism. Muddling through on a
guess work economic program gets
business nowhere, Mr. Lubin thinks.
If we had known the facts in 1927
the depression might have not borne
down on us so heavily.
Briefly this data that the commis
sioner dispenses "gratis" includes im
portant figures on employment and
pay rolls with illuminating gains and
lossas reported in each. In December,
1936, factory employment rose 6.9 per
cent and pay rolls 15.5 among about
39 manufacturing industries and 16
non-manufacturing, a scope large
enough to be representative. Since
1933 lndustxy'fia# taken on 6,500,000
workers.
that people who
have facts don’t
go astray.”
Com miss loner
Lubln, youngish,
short, nervous,
competent, has
not strayed very
far from facts
throughout h i s
career as teacher,
adviser, statisti
cian, economic
expert. Born In
Worcester, Mass.,
he had his early
II
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