U. S. versus U. K.

The streets of Geneva were more than usually alive with taxis and portmanteaus last week. Finished after 20 days of hard work and differences was the 23rd session of the International Labor Conference-- an annual, semi-official jamboree of the world's leading spokesmen on labor questions, convened by the International Labor Office, offshoot of the League of Nations. Present at this year's session were 97 Government delegates, 36 employers' delegates, 35 workers' delegates, 247 technical advisers, who had gathered from 51 countries to talk about world labor problems under the presidency of 37-year-old Sean Lemass, Minister of Industry & Commerce in the Irish Free State.

Two years ago the proposal by a more radical faction to establish in one comprehensive agreement a 40-hour week for all workers was accepted ''in principle" by the Conference. This year this group was more precise in its demands. The mark it shot at was a 40-hour week for textile, chemical, printing industries throughout the world. Stanchest supporters of this scheme were the U. S. delegates, including Assistant Secretary of Labor Edward Francis McGrady who had to rush back to Washington to deal with U. S. strikes when the Conference was not quite half over; French Labor Boss Leon Jouhaux; New Zealand Delegate W. H. T. Armstrong. Stanchest opponents were the United Kingdom delegates headed by Richard Austen Butler, Parliamentary Secretary of Labor.

Incensed by London's stand, New Zealand's Armstrong thundered: "The British Government and British employers, who for years have been the keystone of the opposition to shorter hours, this time have been virtually abandoned by all the Dominion Governments and have had to keep India working more than usual to support their arguments publicly. The movement among the self-governing Dominions away from British toward American leadership on labor questions-- which began with the American entry into the I. L. C.--has now developed to this point."

The outcome of this split was that the last plenary meeting of the Conference rejected the 40-hour week for chemical and printing industries, accepted the 40-hour week only for textile workers. The International Labor Conference has no legislative powers; its approval of the 40-hour week for the textile industry was nothing more than a recommendation, but a recommendation that the Governments represented at the Conference will not be able to flout lightly.

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