No. I: Textiles

Two months hence the Wages-&-Hours law, to rivet a floor (25-c- per hr.) and a ceiling (44 hr. per week) under and over U. S. Labor, will go into effect. To Washington last week to square off at administering that law went Elmer Frank ("Jap") Andrews, 48, the mild-mannered civil engineer whom Franklin Roosevelt called from his parallel post in New York State. Last week, Mr. Andrews marched into

Madam Secretary of Labor Perkins' office raised his right hand and swore an oath of office read to him by Chief Clerk Samuel Gompers, son & namesake of the U. S. Labor movement's revered granddaddy.* Then Administrator Andrews held his first press conference and the U. S. Government was launched on anew activity.

Three industries at one time. Mr. An drews announced, are all he will attempt to tackle at the start. Textiles will be No. 1, cotton garments No. 2, tobacco No. 3. The law requires the Administrator to set up a wage-hour committee for each industry, which will then fix that industry's floor & ceiling. Mr. Andrews had already called in textile operators, textile labor delegates and representatives of the consuming public. Correspondents learned that: 1) Chairman of the textile committee would probably be Vice President Donald Nelson of Sears, Roebuck & Co. (the man whom Franklin Roosevelt tried in vain to get for Mr. Andrews' job)/- representing consumers. 2) The floor for textile workers would probably be set at 30-c-. 3) The Administrator knew that textile employers have lately cut wages in anticipation of the new law's upward pressure.

Biggest headaches anticipated by Mr. Andrews are fights between A. F. of L. and C. I. 0. for places on his committees. These he proposes to settle by giving them representation in proportion to the number of workers which each has unionized in a given industry.

Establishing the Wage-Hour law's constitutionality will be a major assignment of the U. S. Attorney General this fall and winter. He will be ably assisted by the President's famed law team of Tommy Corcoran & Ben Cohen. Administrator Andrews' choice of textiles as the first industry to regulate is really their choice, as the best industry in which to invite the law's test case. Reasons: 1) Textiles constitute a big section of "the nation's No. 1 economic problem" (the South). 2) Wage-hour conditions in the textile industry are notoriously vulnerable. 3) Textile labor is well-organized and politically effective. 4) As the son of a Rhode Island textile lawyer. Tommy Corcoran knows plenty about low textile wages.

* When Mr. Andrews finished his oath, Clerk Gompers said, smiling: "And may the Lord have mercy on your soul." Madam Secretary Perkins looked surprised. "Why Sam," she said, "you never gave any of the rest of us a blessing when we were sworn in."

/-Mr. Nelson was willing enough until Board Chairman Lessing Rosenwald told him that, if he took it, he would never become Sears, Roebuck's president.

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