On the South Side

Few members of the U.S. Congress walk both sides of the street as successully as Arkansas' Senator James William Fulbright. Often described as a "passionate Democrat" and a liberal, he is also good at conforming to his constituents, many of whom are far from being liberals. For instance, Fulbright knows how to tip his hat to Southern industrialists who capitalize on cheap labor. Last week, Dr. Full was in eclipse and Mr. Bright had the spotlight.

In 1952 Fulbright pushed through Congress a bill under which the courts could review U.S. Department of Labor prevailing minimum wage orders. His purpose was plain. Under the Walsh-Healey Public Contracts Act, the Department of Labor had set nationwide minimum wages for manufacturers and suppliers holding $10,000 or more in Government contracts. Since the Labor Department's minimums were affecting the wage scale throughout the textile industry, Southern textile men wanted to attack the order in court. After Fulbright put through the amendment, the Southern manufacturers sued to wipe out the national minimum of $1 an hour in cotton, silk and synthetic textile plants.

Last week Washington's Federal Judge Alexander Holtzoff (who upheld Harry Truman's seizure of the steel industry in 1952, and was reversed by the U.S. Supreme Court) ruled on the case. Judge Holtzoff pointed out that the Walsh-Healey Act permits the Department of Labor to set minimum wages by "locality," but said that blanketing the whole U.S. under that term is a "tortured interpretation."* His conclusion: the Labor Department cannot set nationwide minimum wage rates under the Walsh-Healey Act.

Senator Fulbright's good friends the Southern industrialists were overjoyed, but his good friends in the Textile Workers Union of America. C.I.O., were not. Said T.W.U. Executive Vice President William Pollock, in an appeal for repeal of the Fulbright amendment: "What the court said, in effect, is that it is quite proper for employers in one section of the country to pay less for the same work as long as they can get away with it. Under this kind of reasoning we should also abolish the federal minimum wage law [under which the minimum is 75-c- an hour]. If Judge Holtzoff's philosophy prevails, we shall have taken a long step backward toward the sweatshop and the slums."

Naturally, New England textile manufacturers were lined up with the T.W.U. in this case. Continued lower wages in the South help to hold them under a serious disadvantage. Management and labor outside the textile industry were deeply interested too. If the Holtzoff ruling is finally upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court, it can affect pay scales in nearly 50 other industries.

* Commenting on this interpretation, Judge Holtzoff quoted a passage from Lewis Carroll's Through the Loo king-Glass: " 'When I use a word,' Humpty Dumpty said, in rather a scornful tone, 'it means just what I choose it to mean--neither more nor less.'

" 'The question is,' said Alice, 'whether you can make words mean so many different things.'

" 'The question is,' said Humpty Dumpty, 'which is to be the master--that's all.' "

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