HP Cornell University Library HD4919.D6A5 1918b Minimum Wage Board.HearIng before the Su |||||||i|||||||||i||i|i||:||i|i|||i|i||||||i|||i|llli|ll^^ ' llllliiiiiilllllllillllliii 3 1924 003 821 232 U. S, CONGHESS. S3NATE. MINIMUM WAGE BOARD. THE LIBRARY ' OF THE NEW YORK STATE SCHOOL OF INDUSTRIAL AND LABOR RELATIONS AT CORNELL UNIVERSITY ■1-MliUM WAGE BOAED IV"- 1941 ^^om^lATE LIBRAKY rinATECOLLECTIOHEARING BEFORE THE SUBCOMMITTEE OF THE JMMITTEE m THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA UNITED states' SENATE^^^"-- SIXTY-FIFTH CONGEESS SECOND SESSION ON S. 3993 L BILL TO PROTECT THE LIVES AND HEALTH AND MORALS OF POMEN AND MINOR WORKERS IN THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA, mD TO ESTABLISH A MINIMUM WAGE BOARD AND DEFINE ITS 'dWERS AND DUTIES, AND TO PROVIDE FOR THE FIXING OF [INIMUM WAGES FOR SUCH WORKERS, AND TO PROVIDE PEN- ALTIES FOR VIOLATION OF THIS ACT WEDNESDAY, APRIL JjTfmf WASHDIGTON GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE 1918 PROPERTY OF LIBRARY HEW YOBK STATE SCHOOL WbUSTRiAL m lABOR REUTION^ CORNCliL UNIVERSITY COMMITTEE ON THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA. JOHN WALTER SMITH, Maryland. Chairman. ATLBE POMERENE, Ohio. HENRY F. HOLLIS, New Hampshire. WILLAKD SAULSBCRY, Delaware. THOMAS S. MARTIN, Virginia. JAMES D. PHELAN, California. JAMES K. VARDAMAN, MlsslsslpBl. WILLIAM H. KING, Utah. WILLIAM P. DILLINGHAM, Vermont. WESLEY L. JONES, Washington. WILLIAM S. KENYON, Iowa. LAWRENCE Y. SHERMAN, IlUnoU. WILnkM M. CALDER, New York. HARRY S. NEW, Indiana. Clabence M. Tatloe, Clerk. Mr. MARTIN. Mr. SMITH, of Maryland. SUBCOMMITTEE ON S. 3993. Mr. HoLLia, Chairman. Mr. DILLINGHAM. Mr, KENYON, mmiMUM WAGE BOARD FOR THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA. wednesday, april 17, 1918. United States Senate, subcommiitee of committee on the district or columbia, Washington, D. C. The subcommittea met, pursuant to call of the chairman, at 10.30 o'clock a. m., in room 226, Senate Office Building, Senator Henry F. Hollis presiding. Present: Senators Hollis (chairman) and Dillingham. Present also : Senators Jones of Washington, Sherman, Calder, and Trammell. The subcommittee had under consideration the bill (S. 3993) to protect the lives and health and morals of women and minor workers in the District of Columbia, etc., which is as follows : A RILL To protect the lives and health and morals of women and minor workers in th« District of Columbia, and to establish a minimum wage board and define its powers and duties, and to provide for the fixing of minimum wages for such workers, and to provide penalties for violation of this act. - Re it enacted, by the Senate and Hoiiftr of Representatives o/ the United States of America in Congress assonhled. That it shall be unlawful to employ women in any occupation within the District of (I'lHumbia for wages which are inadequate to supply the necessai'y cost of livin,2; to maintain them in health and to protect their morals; and it .shall be unlawful to employ tQinors In any occupation within the District of Columbia for unreasonably low wages. Sec. 2. That there is hereby created a board composed of three members, wliich shall be known as the " minimum wage Hoard " ; and Hie word board as hereinafter used refers to and moans said mininiuiu wage board ; and the word member as hereinafter used refers to aufl means a member of said minimum wage board. Said members shall be ap^iointed by the Commissioners of the District of Columbia. The C:iramissioners; of the District of Columbia shall malte their tirst appointment hereunder within thirty days after this bill becomes a law ; and of the three members first appohited, one shall hold office until January tirst, nineteen liundred and nineteen, and another shall bold ofiSce until January first, nineteen hundred an(l twenty, .nnd the third shall hold office until January first, nineteeji hundred and twenty-one; and the commissioners shall designate the terms of each of said three first appointees. On or before the first day of January of each year, beginning with the year nineteen hundred and nineteen, the commissioners shall appoint a member to succeed the member whose teriii expires 'on said first day of .lanuary ; and such new appointee shall hold office foi' the tferm of three jeurs from said first day of January. Each member shall hold office until his successor is appointed and has qualified ; and any vacancy that may occur in the membor- ship of said board shall be filled by appointment by the Commissioners of the District of Columbia for the unexpired portion of the term in which such vacancy occurs. A majority of said members sjhall constitute a quorum to transact business, and the act or decision of such a majority shall be deemed the act or decision of said board ; and no vacancy shall impair the right of the remaining members to exercise all the powers of said board. The Com- missioners of the District of Columbia shall, so far as practicable, so select and appoint said members, both the original appointments and all subsequent appointments, that at all times one of said members shall represent the inter- PROPERTY OF LIBRARY 3 HEW YORK STATE SCHOOL INDUSTRIAL AND LABOR RELATION^^^^o CORNELL UNIVERSITY 4 MINIMUM WAGE BOAED FOR DISTKICT OP COLUMBIA. ests of the employing class and one of said members shall represent the em- ployed class, and the third of said members shall be one who will be fair and impartial between employers and employees and work for the best interests of the public as a whole. Sec. 3. That the first members appointed under this act shall, within twenty days after their appointment, meet and organize said board by electing one o!t^ their number as chairman thereof and by choosing a secretary of said board ; and by or before the tenth day of January of each year, beginning With tMe year nineteen hundred and nineteen, said members shall elect a chairman ahd choose a secretary for the ensuing year. Each such chairman and each such secretary shall hoM his or her position until his or her successor is elected or chosen ; but said board may at any time remove any secretary chosen here- under. Said secretary shall not be a member ; and said secretary shall perform such duties as may be prescribed and receive such salary as may be fixed by the board. None of said members shall receive any salary as such. The board shall have power to employ agents and such other assistants as may be neces- sary for the proper performance of its duties. With the exception of the secretary, all employees of the board shall be a part of the classified civil service and shall enter the service under such rules and regulations as may be prescribed by tl;e board and by the Civil Service Commission. All authorized and necessary expenses of said board and all authorized and necessary expendi- tures incurred by said board shall be audited and paid as other District of Columbia expenses and expenditures are audited and paid. Sec. 4. That said board is hereby authorized and empowered to ascertain and declare, in the manner hereinafter provided, the following things: (a) Standards of minimum wages for women in any occupation within the District of Columbia and what wages are adequate to supply the necessary cost of living to any such women workers and to maintain them in good health and to protect their morals; and (b) standards of minimum wages for minors in any occupa- tion within the District of Columbia, and what wages are unreasonably low for any such minor workers. Sec. 5. That said board shall have full power and authority to investigate and ascertain the wages of women and minors in the different occupations in which they are employed in the District of Columbia ; and said board shall have full power and authority, either through any authorized representative or any member, to inspect and examine any and all books and pay rolls and other records of any employer of women or minors that in any way appertain to or have a bearing upon the question of wages of any such women or minor workers in any of said occupations, and to require from such employer full and true statements of the wages paid to all women and minors in his employment. Sec. 6. That every employer of women or minors shall keep a register of the names of all women and all minors employed by him and of all payments made to such women and minors and hours worked by them, whether paid by the time or by the piece, and shall, on request, permit any member or author- ized representative of said board to Inspect and examine such register. The word " minor " as used in this act refers to and means any person of either sex under the age of eighteen years, and the word " woman " as used in this act refers to and means a female person of or over the age of eighteen years. Sec. 7. That said board may hold meetings for the transaction of any of Its business at such times and places as it may prescribe; and said board may hold public hearings at such times and places as it deems fit and proper for the purpose of investigating any of the matters it is authorized to investigate by this act. At any such public hearing any persons Interested in the matter being investigated may appear and testify. The board or any member thereof shall have power to administer oaths, require by subpoena the attendance and , testimony of witnesses, the production of all books, registers, and other evidence relative to any matter under investigation, at any such public hearing or at any session of any conference held as hereinafter provided. In case of disobedience to a subpoena the board may invoke the aid of the Supreme Court of the District of Columbia in requiring the attendance and testimony of witnesses and the production of documentary evidence. In case of contumacy or refusal to obey a subpoena the court may Issue an order requiring appearance before the board, the production of documentary evidence, and the giving of evidence touching the matter in question, and any failure to obey such order of court may be punished by such court as a contempt thereof. All witnesses subpoenaed by said board shall be paid the same mileage and per diem as are allowed by law to fitnesses in cwgil cases In the Supreme Court of the District of Columbia. MINIMUM WAGE BOAED FOE DISTEIOT OF COLUMBIA. 5 Sec. 8. That if, after investigation, said board is of opinion that any substan- tial number of women worliers in any occupation are receiving wages inade- quate to supply them with the necessary cost of living and maintain them in health and protect their morals, said board may call and convene a conference for the purpose and with the powers of considering and inquiring into and reporting on the subject investigated by such board and submitted by it to such conference. Such conference shall be composed of not more than three repre- sentatives of the employers in said occupation and of an equal number of the representatives of the employees in said occupation and of not more than three disinterested persons representing the public and of one or more members of the board. Said board shall name and appoint all the members of such conference and designate the chairman thereof. Said board shall present to such conference all information and evidence in the possession or under the control of said hoard which relates to the subject of the inquiry by such conference ; and said board shall cause to be brought before such conference any witness whose testimony said board deems material to the subject of the inquiry by such conference. After completing its consideration of and inquiry into the subject submitted to it by said Board, such conference shall make and transmit to said board a report containing the findings and recommendations of such conference on said subject. Accordingly as the subject submitted to it may require, such conference shall, in its report, make recommendations concerning the particular occupations under inquiry on standards of minimum wages for women workers and what wages are adequate to supply the necessary cost of living to women workers and maintain them in health and to protect their morals. In its recom- mendations on a question of wages such conference shall, where it appears that any substantial number of women workers in the occupation under inquiry are being paid by piece rates as distinguished from time rates recommended minimum piece rates as well as minimum time rates and recommend such minimum piece rates as will in its judgment be adequate to supply the necessary cost of living to women workers of average ordinary ability and maintain them in health and protect their morals ; and in its recommendations on a question of wages such conference shall, when it appears proper or necessary, recommend suitable minimum wages for learners and apprentices and the maximum length of time any woman workers may be kept at such wages as a learner or apprentice, which said wages shall be less than the regular minimum wages recommended for the regular women workers in the occupation under inquiry. Two-thirds of the members of any such conference shall con- stitute a quorum, and the decision or recommendation or report of such con- ference on any subject submitted shall require a vote of not less than a majority of all the members of the conference. Sec. 9. That upon receipt of any report from any conference, said board shall consider and review the recommendations contained in said report ; and said board may approve any or all of said recommendations or disapprove any or all of said recommendations ; and said board may resubmit to the same conference, or a new conference, any subject covered by any recommendations so disapproved. If said board approves any recommendations contained In any report from any conference, said board shall publish notice, not less than once a week for four successive weeks in not less than two newspapers of general circulation published in the District of Columbia, that it will on a date and at a place named in said notice, hold a public meeting at which all persons in favor of or opposed to said recommendations will be given a hearing; and, after said publication of said notice and said meeting, said board may. In its discretion, make and render such an order as may be proper or necessary to adopt such recommendations and carry the same into effect, and require all employers in the occupation affected thereby to observe and comply with such recommendations and said order. Said order shall become effective in sixty days after it Is made and rendered and shall be in full force and effect on and after the sixtieth day following its making and rendition. After said order becomes effective and while it is effective it shall be unlawful for any employer to violate or disregard any of the terms or provisions of said order or to employ any woman worker in any occupation covered by said order at lower wages than are authorized or permitted by said order. Said board shall, as far as is practicable, mail a copy of any such order to every employer affected thereby; and every employer affected by any such order shall keep a copy thereof posted in a conspicuous place in each room in his establishment in which women workers work. 6 MINIMUM WAGE BOARD FOK DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA, Sec. 10. That for any occupation In which only a minimum time rate wage has been established, said board may issue to a woman physically defective or crippled by age or otherwise impaired a special license authorizing her em- ployment at such wage less than said minimum time rate wage as shall be fixed by said board and stated in said license. Sec. 11. That said board may at any time inquire into wages of minors em- ployed in any occupafon in the District of Columbia and determine suitable wages for such minors. When said board has made such determination, It may issue an obligatory order in the manner provided for in section nine of this act, and after such order is effect '.ve, it shall be unlawful for any employer in said occupation to employ a minor at less wages than are specified or required in or by said order. Sec. 12. That the word " occupation " as used in this act shall be so construed as to Include any business, industry, trade, or branch of a trade. Any confer- ence may make a separate inquiry into and report on any branch of any occu- pation ; and said board may make a separate order alfecting any branch of any occupation. Sec. 13. That said board shall, from time to time, investigate and ascertain whether or not employers in the District of Columbia are observing and com- plying with its orders, and take such steps as may be necessary to have prose- cuted such employers as are not observing or complying with its orders. Sec. 14. That to assist the board in carrying out this act the Commissioners pf the District of Colunib a shall at all times give to said board any informa- tion or statistics in their possession under tlie act of Congress approved Feb- ruary twenty-fourth, nineteen hundred and fourteen, entitled "An act to regu- late the hours of employment and safeguard the health of females employed in the District of Columbia." ( Public, numbered sixty. Sixty-third Congress. ) Sec. 15. That said board is hereby authorized and empowered to prepare and adopt and promulgate rules and regulations for the carrying into effect of the foregoing provisions of this act, including rules and regulations for the selection of members and the mode of procedure of conferences. Sec. 16. That all questions of fact arising under the foregoing provisions of this act shall, except as otherwise herein provided, be determined by said board, and there shall be no appeal from the decision of said board on any such question of fact; but there shall be a right of appeal from said board to the Supreme Court of the District of Columbia from any ruling or holding on a question of law included in or embodied in any decision or order of said board and on the same question of law from said court to the Court of Appeal^ of the District of Columbia. In all such appeals the corporation counsel shall appear for and represent said board. Sec. 17. That any person who violates any of the foregoing provisions of this act shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor, and upon conv'ction thereof shall be punished by a fine of not less than $25 nor more than ,$100, or by imprison- ment for not less than ten days nor more than three months, or by both siich fine and impririonment, in the discretion of the court. Sec. 18. That any employer who discharges or in any other manner dis- criminates aga'nst any employees because such employee has served or is about to serve on any conference, or has testified, or is about to testify, or because such employer believes that said employee may serve on any conference or may testify in any investigation or proceedings under or relative to this act, shall be deemed gu'lty of a misdemeanor, and upon conviction thereof shall be punislied by a fine of not less than .$25 nor more than $100. Sec. 19. That prosecutions for violations of the provisions of this act shall be on information filed in the police court of the District of Columbia by the cor- poration counsel of said Dstrlct or any of his assistants duly authorized to act for him. Sec 20. That if any woman worker shall be paid t)y her employer less than tlie minimum wage to which she is entitled under or by virtue of an order of said board, she may recover in a civil action tlie full amount of her said minimum wage, less any amount actually paid to her by said employer, together with such attorney's fees as may be allowed by the court; and any agreement by her to work for less than such miuimum wage shall be no defense to such action. Sec 21. That said board shall, on or before the first day of January of the year nineteen hundred and nineteen, and of each year thereafter, make a report to the Commissioners of the District of Columbia of Its work and the proceed- ings under this act during the preceding year. MINIMUM WAGE BOAKD FOK DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA. 7 Sec. 22. That there is hereby appropriated the sum of $5,000 per annum, or so much thereof as may be necessary to carry into effect the provisions of this act and to pay the expenses and expenditures authorized by or Incurred under this act, said sum to be payable one-half out of any money In the Treasury not otherwise appropriated and the other half out of the revenues of the District of Columbia. Sec. 23. That this act shall be known as " The District of Columbia minimum wage law." The purposes of said act are to protect the women and minors of the District from conditions detrimental to their health and morals resulting from wages which are inadequate to maintain decent standards of living, and the act in each of Its provisions and in its entirety shall be interpreted to eitectu- ate these purposes. Sec. 24. That tills act shall become operative six months after thg date of Its enactment. Senator Hollis. The subconimittee will be in order. Senator Trammel, do you wish to be heard noAv ? STATEMENT OF SENATOR PARK TRAMMEL!, OF FLORIDA. Senator Teammell. Mr. Chairman, I feel proud of the honor ex- tended me in having been requested to present to the Senate for its consideration what is commonly known us the minimum wage bill for the District of Columbia ; and, pursuing the interest which I feel in this subject, I appear before your committee this morning, not for the purpose of making any extended speech or argument, because I feel that the righteousness of the cause within itself is ample. It is a well-known fact that when the attorney appears before a court with a bad case, he feels that he has got to be very long on argument in order to make up for the weakness of his case ; but that is not true in this instance. I have been ver}' much gratified to note throughout the past de- cade the wonderful cha,nge in the trend of public sentiment toward providing a tnore suitable and adequate wage for the wage earners of this country. Our peoplfe, the people of America, have come to realize that a sufficient wage is not only in the interest of the person who is to enjoy the same but it is in the interest of society, it is promotive of better citizenship, and the entire trend is to build up and to strengthen the social fabric of our country. If it is true as it is applied to the adult male population of the country, it must be doubly true when we come to deal with the minors, those of tender age who are forced out to work, and to the womanhood of our country who are required to seek employment that they may provide sustenance and the necessaries of life for themselves and frequently for loved ones, children, and possibly mothers who have reached the age of decrepitude. The whole object and purpose of this bill is to provide for a com- mission which will iitvestigate the subject of wages for minors of certain ages and for women, within the District of Columbia, and that a minimum wage, a wage that will provide for them the neces- saries of life, ghall be fixed by this board. I feel that the proposed legislation is possessed of a great deal of merit, and that this com- mittee fully realizes the advantages which may accrue, as well as myself. Some investigations here have disclosed the fact that quite a per- centage of the women and the children who have been working within the District of Columbia have not been getting an ample 8 MINIMUM WAGE BOAED FOK DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA. wage. You take $5 or $6 or $7 a week, with the present cost of maintenance, and we all know it is not sufficient to provide them with the ordinary comforts. Some object to the parental arm of the law being extended to any class of citizens. I think, however, as a rule, that is more of a subterfuge than it is a legitimate argument. I find that the business interests of this country, when conditions become distressing in con- nection with their business affairs, often appeal to the Government to exert its strong parental care, and in many instances it has ex- tended the^ helping hand of governmental aid, or governmental regu- ktion is extended, to assist in regulating and protecting the larger financial interests of our country. So that there can be no argument as to the wisdom, as I see it, or the virtue of the extending of a governmental policy which will go for the making up or assisting in providing, you might say, justice for the womanhood of our country, and the minor children, who are required from a matter of sheer necessity, as a rule, to labor for a livelihood. That is really, in a very brief statement, the purpose and object of this measure. As to the question of the constitutionality of the measure, I doubt ^ery much whether the committee cares to hear anything upon that feature of it. The courts have held that measures of this kind are constitutional, and as to more minute details regarding the question of the wages here within the District, I will leave those features of the subject to be discussed by some one else. AVe have with us Mr. Charles J. Columbus, the secretary of the Merchants' and Manufacturers' Association of the District of Colum- bia, whom I desire at this time to present to the committee. He will make a statement to the committee, Mr. Chairman. STATEMENT OF MR. CHARLES J. COLUMBUS, SECRETARY OF THE MERCHANTS AND MANUFACTURERS' ASSOCIATION OF THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA. Mr. Coi.uMBUs. Mr. Chairman and members of the committee, 1 appear to-day representing the Merchants and Manufacturers' As- sociation of Washington, formerly the Retail Merchants' Associa- tion. Our association, as I explained at the House hearing yesterday, is made up of 33 organized lines of trade, and included among those units, which are known as trade sections, such as our department- store section, which employs about 5,000 people, are the section for laundries and our sections for specialty houses, for ladies' tailors, merchant tailors, and so on. Each section has a chairman, and each chairman is automatically a member of our board of governors. I was sent here by the board of governors, which unanimously voted to support this bill. Senator Hollis. Does your association embrace substantially all of the retail stores, including department stores ? Mr. Columbus. Our association embraces all of the department stores. I am coming here especially from the department stores, each one having spoken on this matter. Senator Hollis. And your association does include substantially all the retail stores? MINIMUM WAGE BOAED FOB DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA. 9 Mr. Columbus. Our association includes all the large houses. We elect to membership in the association, firms, and we do not elect individuals. We have a membership of about 200 firms. Senator Hollis. Do you know of any opposition to this bill in the District of Columbus ? Mr. Columbus. No, sir. Senator Hollis. You have not heard of any ? Mr. Columbus. No, sir. Senator Hollis. If there were substantial opposition to it, are you in a position to have heard it? Mr. Columbus. If there was substantial opposition it would have come from our organization. Senator Hollis. And if there were stores in the District who did object to the bill they would naturally come to you first ? Mr. Columbus. They would naturally come to us. Senator Hollis (continuing). To voice their objection? Mr. Columbus. Yes. Senator Hollis. Very well; proceed. Mr. Columbus (continuing). Because we differ from other or- ganizations here. For instance, our board of trade and our chamber of commerce are each made up of a mass of men and women from different lines, professional people and others as well, and they are all, including the business men, members of those organizations in a personal capacity. In the Merchants and Manufacturers' Associa- tion, as I said before, we elect the business. It is " S. Kann Sons & Co." on our books ; not a member of that firm. It is " Julius Gar- finkle & Co." on our books, and not " Mr. Garfinkle." We operate a credit bureau, doing all such things as will enhance the interest of the business; nothing from a personal standpoint. As an illustration, some surprise was expressed why we did not get baseball tickets for our members ; but we do not go into that kind of thing. It is matters of this kind — freight, traffic, credit, that we put through, and prosecute, jou might say. We have a vigilance committee for the false-advertisement law. We have put through a fake-auction law. It is things like that that we take up, wherever business is menaced or wherever business can be improved. Senator Hollis. The reason I asked my question is that it seems to me that the attitude of your association ought to determine the fate of this bill. If there are no objections to it, I can not see why it fhould not be adopted. • Mr. Columbus. As I say, we have taken it up with our department stores. Mr. Louis Levy, who represents the laundry interests in the association, said : " Why surely there is no use in opposing a measure of that kind." Others that I have talked to, including personal friends; say that they see no objection to it. In the meeting which we had on this, of the board of governors of the association, they regarded it as a good bill. We like the commission plan ; we like this form of arbitration, so to speak; we like this method whereby, as conditions change, either side can go io this commission and seek a rearrangement of the wage scale — that is, a minimum. Senator Jones. Mr. Columbus, I am not a member of this sub- committee, but I am a member of the Committee on the District of Columbia, and I am very much interested in this matter. My State 10 MINIMUM WAGE BOAKD FOR DISTEICT OF COLUMBIA. (Washington) has adopted a minimum wage law. Do you have meetings of the component parts of your organization? Mr. Columbus. Yes. Senator Jones. Independent of your board of governors ? Mr. Columbus. Oh, yes. Senator Jones. Has any meeting of that kind discussed this bill? Mr. Columbus. No. Senator Jones. You have not taken it up in a meeting of the mem- bers? Mr. Columbus. No; except with the department stores. Our people are very busy. I just came from a Liberty loan meeting, and I am going back to one; and it is very hard to get our people to come out now because they are tied up in so many directions. Senator Jones. We understand that. We have the same diffi- culties here. But have your people endeavored to arrange among themselves a minimum scale? Mr. Columbus. No. Senator Jones. For your employees? Mr. Columbus. No. Business has been put in an unfortunate light. Here in the District of Columbia, particularly, my people have been subjected to all sorts of difficulties, and I really think that the wage condition itself is the result not of deliberate action on anybody's part but a result of conditions that have grown up about us. Business men must have a real organization, and no man can have a real organization about him when his people are not satis- fied; and the business men of Washington want to satisfy their people, because unless individuals are happy in their jobs, the job itself or the business itself can not very well succeed. We considered this bill as it was introduced by Mr. Keating^ March 1 last — we did not have a copy of the other bill, but I am told that it is the same — and our board of governors sends me to you. I want to emphasize that we come with the full approval of the department stores. Those that were not there were seen in per- son by myself, and the cigar trade was represented there — Mr. Henry Offterdinger and other large employers of female help ; and this bill had his full approval. We figured that inasmuch as the department stores and the laundries were the largest employers of female help, they were the real ones in interest in this matter. Every member of our board of governors had full notice that this matter was to be taken up. Yesterday afternoon and last night I had quite a number of men tell me how pleased they were that we had taken this stand on the minimum wage bill. Senator Hollis. Thank you very much, Mr. Columbus. Senator Sherman. Might I ask a question, Mr. Chairman? Senator Hollis. Yes. Senator Siiekjiax. Mr. Columbus, you think from your investiga- tions that this bill is workable when it is applied to actual conditions here in the District of Columbia? Mr. Columbus. Yes. Senator Sherman. You have worked it out, have you, and studied it from every angle? Mr. CoLUJtBus. Yes ; but it altogether depends on the formation or the character of that board. MINIMUM WAGE BOARD FOB DISTHICT OF COLUMBIA. 11 ^Senator Shekman. Certainly; that is so, that every law depends oil the good faith and ability of the men who execute it. Mr. Columbus. That is the idea. Senator Sherman. But now, conceding that that much is granted, you think that with fair-minded men who understand the situation and will investigate, this can be worked out successfully ? Mr. Columbus. Yes, indeed; because often those not of us can point out our faults and our shortcomings. Senator Shekman. Certainly. Mr. Columbus. For instance, take our advertising vigilance com- mittee. Wheh we were working to get that law through we named a committee of six of our members, known as the advertising vigilance commiittee of the Retail Merchants' Association, and we went to the newspapers and showed them that we wanted to correct abuses that existed in advertising here, and they gave us space. For one week we had a very large space in the papers, announcing that this com- mittee would receive and answer all complaints, but we had no com- plaints. Joseph Berberich, our first vice president, is chairman of that committee, and I told him I thought the public did not believe it; and so we went outside of our organization. Our committee is made up of delegates from the citizens' associations here, and when that was done we had complaints. So, you see, we brought out- siders into this work, and it developed in a fine way. We frequently have occasion to criticize our own members. We do not take them to court the first time, but we have a rule that if they offend the second or the third time we then take them; that is, we prepare a case against them. To illustrate the point that Senator Sherman made : By. bringing outsiders in we could work far better in that matter, and I believe that this matter of wages or a minimum wage can be adjusted through a fair-minded board such as is proposed in the bill. Senator Jones. Mr. Columbus, I have looked through the bill hur- riedly, and I do not find' any payment provided for this board. Wiiat is the idea about that? Mr. Columbus. I do not know. We did not frame the bill. I thought at the time, while the secretary is to be paid, this work, if it is to be well done, will require a great deal of time, and I am glad you made that suggestion, Senator, because it seems to me that the liieBabers of that board should be paid. Senator Hollis. I think some of the other speakers will state what is done in other States about that. Senator Dillingham. Is it provided in the bill that they shall serve tvithoiit recompense? Mr. Columbus. Yes. There is appropriated only $5,000, and out of that the secretary's, salary and all the other Expenses shall be paid. Senator Jones. I wanted to ask your judginent about that. Do you not think you are likefy to have a very inefficient administration of the law if people are i-equired to serve without pay ? Mr. Columbus. I am glad of this suggestion. Yes ; I do. Senator Jones. If this is a good thing and an important thing Mr. Columbus. Yes ; it is a very important thing. Senator Jones (continuing) . We ought to have the right men and give them compensation for the time they have to give to it. 12 MINIMUM WAGE BOABD FOB DISTEICT OF COLUMBIA. Mr. Columbus. Yes. Senator Mollis. "We will consider that later. Senator Trammel. Mr. Chairman, in accordance with the program, I believe I was to present the speakers, but Mrs. Kelley has had 9, great deal of experience in connection with this character of legisla- tion and this character of very noble work, and I will just briefly present Mrs. Kelley, who will take charge of the matter of intro- ducing the other speakers who appear before the committee and also will have something to say to you herself. STATEMENT OF MRS. FLOEENCE KEIIEY. Mrs. Kellei". Mr. Chairman, I speak as secretary of tiie National Consumers' League, which has for a number of years done what it could to promote the enactment of legislation of this character in many of the States. I think perhaps it is known to you that this is the organization of which Secretary Baker is president. I shall not waste many words in introducing the speakers, they are so many, and they represent so many diti'erent parts of the country and so many different aspects of this work. I shall call first on Mr. Felix Frankfurter, who has acted as counsel for the Consumers' League in several cases, and who appeared in defense of the constitu- tionality of the minimum wage law of Oregon when that was contested, and to whose persuasive argument we think that the favor- able decision of the United States Supreme Court was undoubtedly in large part due. Mr. Frankfurter, I am sure, will giAe his \ lews in regard to the proposed salaries to members of the commission. Senator Mollis. We will be glad to hear Mr. Frankfurter. STATEMENT OF MR. FELIX FRANKFURTER. Senator Mollis. Mr. Frankfurter, where is your home? Mr. Fkankfurtek. I am at the present time an assistant to the Secretary of War, but my home is in Cambridge, Mass., and I am professor of law at the Marvard Law School. Senator Mollis. Now, will you proceed? Mr. Frankfurter. May I say just a word with regard to the ques- tion of salaries of members of this board ? If I may suggest, I think that on that point more valuable testimony would come from two people in this room who have actually served on such boards in other States, and their evidence and their experience as to the amount of time that it takes and the advantages of having salaried as against per diem members, would be much more pertinent than my own speculation on the subject. Senator Mollis. Are they on the list of speakers? Mr. Frankfurter. Yes; they are on the list. Senator Mollis. Then they will give their views. Mr. Frankfurter. Mrs. Axtell has served on a board in Washing- ton, and Mr. Holcombe comes from Massachusetts, and they will give their actual experience with the matter you are considering. Senator Mollis. Very well, proceed. Mr. Frankfurter. The war has created a great many industrial problems and has intensified a number of old ones. One of the great MINIMUM WAGE BOASD FOB DISTBICT OF COLUMBIA. 13 questions projected in all of the belligerent countries is the place of woman in industry. The enormous replacements of men workers by women workers have created a qualitatively different problem than we knew of before the great war ; but the question which this bill raises before Congress is an old question, and the way in which it seeks to meet evils that have revealed themselves in the District of Colum- bia is an old way, and a tried way. Senator Trammell's bill brings to the attention of Congress an evil which has existed in every industrial country of the world from the time that women have in increasing measure entered industry, and the remedy which Senator Trammell proposes is a remedy which has been tried under substantially similar circumstances to those pre- sented in this country and in this District. The proposal, in effect, is the adoption by the Congress of the United States of a tried measure of social reform to remedy long-existing evil. What ici the problem ? It is this: That wnmpn hgiv p. P-ntjjn-ad-jjuiBwfaya^ a ma tter, of necessity and not ns n matteE.jQf-pleasure: that theyjrg w orking for wages because they have to work for wag es; and that too frequently they are working under conditions whictrdo not give an adequate return for the basic necessities of the human body. In- vestigations which can not be challenged have demonstrated that there are in every English-speaking country a surprisingly large percentage of women, and those minors who are permitted to work in industry, who get less than what is conmionly known as a living wage — get less than is necessary to supply the most rudimentary human wants. That is so partly because of selfishness, but more so because of ignorance and laziness and the persistence of human habit. Emer- son said somewhere that mankind is as lazy as it dares to be, and that is a very important and very pernicious factor in a great deal of our industrial system. The cost of such laziness can no longer be neglected. The patient and impartial investigation of science has revealed that to subject a large body of women and minors to the pressure of inadequate wages means, as it obviously must mean, not only a present stunted generation, but the seeds for the deterioration of the race. Building upon that obvious but profound truth, New Zealand, an English-speaking community like our own, almost 25 years ago began to deal with the problem. How did it deal with it ? It laid down as an unquestioned principle that no woman or minor who is employed in industry should receive less than a living wage. What is a living wage? What is a reasonable rate? Ail those general priiiciples as to which we agree require administrative agen- cies for enforcement. Just as Congress created an Interstate Com- merce Conunission many years ago to apply the general principles of reasonable and unreasonable rates to the complicated facts of commerce, so New Zealand said, "We will establish a fact-finding body, we will establish a wage board on which will be represented the employer and the employee and the disinterested public" — or . rather, I should say, the most highly interested public — ^" and which shall determine what are those basic needs of food, clothing, and shelter which form the minimum to keep the human body going, fit for itself and adequate to continue a fit race," Senator Hollis. Will you pardon me, right there, Mr. Frank- furter ? 14 MINIMUM WAGE BOARD FOR DISTRICT OP COLUMBIA, Mr. FRANKruRTER. Certainly Senator Hollis. Of course, the first reply made to that statement is that a great many girls live at home so that they do not need as much wages as those who do not. Will you apply that to this problem ? Mr. Frankfurter. The answer to that, if I may put it bluntly, is that it is not so. The investigation of the easy theory that all these women workers live at home, and that these girls work only in order to have a few extra dollars to buy clothes and candy with, shows that it is not true, and that such conditions exist only in the minds of people who do not know the actualities of life. Investigations of the highest authorities have proved that a considerable percentage of women workers live away from home, that they have no male sup- porters; that they are subjected to a thousand and one vicissitudes of life, such as make her a girl dependent on her own earnings. I n many otliCT cusps whprp. wonrip.n live^at home they are, necessary mitoibutors JxTjthe family jnconie. Ajiotlier large percentage of wonieiTliave no male supporter in the family, although they live in the family. The sum total of the facts is that the number of girls in industry who work merely for this so-called " pin money " is for practical purposes a negligible number. That is shown by investiga- tions in Australia and New Zealand and England and the United States and by investigations made by several of the wage boards in the several States since they have been established. Senator Hollis. If it were so, would not the answer be, then, that the basis should be taken from those who actually Mork to support themselves ; that that is the basis, and that those who have some other means of support are fortunate in that respect, and that they should not be taken as the basis ? Mr. Frankfurter. Quite so; because the theory of the living wage is this : If Mary Jones works all day, the assumption is that her out- put is at least equal to her intake; that the amount of goods that is necessary to keep her going ought to be reproduced in her product. Therefore, whether or not she is fortunate in having a rich father — and I dare say that there are very few girls who work at telephone switchboards who have rich fathers — ^the theory is that she is giving that service to society, and she ought to get at least the minimum nec- essary to produce her output. Senator Sherman. That was covered by Senator HoUis's question: That even if there was a larger number of those so fortunate, they ought not to set the level from which those who have to work to support themselves should have their compensation fixed. Mr. Frankfuri-er. Precisely; because, as you suggest in that ques- tion, if you allow that to be done they will pull down the wage level or scale of compensation for all of them. Senator Sherman. The ones who work from necessity ought to control. Mr. Frankfurter. Yes. Senator Hollis. You Avere speaking about New Zealand. Mr. Frankfurter. Yes. New Zealand gave the answer to this. The fact-finding board should in the first place establish just what are the immediate needs of life of women in industry, and establish it not capriciously, not arbitrarily, but in the calm way in which MINIMUM WAGE BOARD FOE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA. 15 science now establishes these facts, establish it after consultation with the business that is to bear the cost in the first instance, estab- lish it after consultation with representatives of the employees who know their needs and their interests, and establish it in consultation with representatives of the public which, in the last analysis, must pay the bills. Senator Hollis. Now, right there: Three of us have before us, as members of a subcommittee, the matter of rents in the District of Columbia. In your opinion does not that rest on just the same basis of inquiry and fair dealing and investigation by a commission? Mr. Frankfurter. If I may so, I think the only answer to all these complicated economic questions, the only way in which we can get justice and fair dealing, is by making the most painstaking impartial inquiry into the various constituent factors of such prob- lems. We can not settle questions like that by debating about them, because there is a general agreement about the basic principles; the difficulty comes in the application. That means inquiry into the facts just as far as human fairness and expertness can carry it. Our only salvation is to have a disinterested investigation before we decide. New Zealand began this in 1894. From New Zealand it spread on to Victoria, one of the constituent States of the Australian Com- monwealth, and then to New South Wales, until the Australian Com- monwealth passed it for the whole of Australia as to all interstate commerce. From Australia the idea, because it had approved itself, went to England, and beginning with 1909, the wage-board theory of legislation began to be adopted and applied in Great Britain. Tentatively, cautionsuly, as is the spirit of Anglo-Saxon legislation, step by step, they first applied it to four sweating industries, the in- dustry where the level of squalor, the level of hardship, was most obvious and most severe. The law established itself in those indus- tries; and, after the fears and all of the Cassandra cries of danger were belied by experience, it was extended gradually to other in- dustries, so that in Great Britain it has covered a very wide field in all of the important industries. Moreover, in the midst of war, because the condition of the agricultural laborer was so severe and subject to such pressure, they applied the law, the minimum-wage idea, to the agricultural laborer in England. As Mr. Asquith, in a speech the other day said : The minimum wage, wliich under tlie stress of war conditions 1ms been given statutory autliority in tlie great industry of agriculture, has come to stay ; and It is certain, as time goes on, to receive wide and, as I believe, beneficent extension. • It is worthy of remark that the minimum-wage theory in the first instance, and its various extensions, have not been partisan measures in Great Britain. The idea of the wage board, the idea of getting at the facts and conditions and acting on those economic facts, is not a partisan or a narrow political measure at all, but is a policy of national necessity to maintain and to encourage basic decent stand- ards of human life. Senator Calder. How far has the minimum-wage idea for women extended in England ? You spoke of its being applied to agriculture. Mr. Frankfurter. Agriculture is the last. Senator Calder. It started with the clothing industry, the chain-making industry, the 16 MINIMUM WAGE BOABD FOB DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA. lace industry, and the pottery industry, and candy, and other great industries, and it has been applied to agricultue last. I mentioned that as the extremest instance of its application. . . Senator Caldee. So that it covers now practically all industries in England? . . t^ , , Mr. Feankfurtee. There is this form of legislation m Jingland. They specified certain industries, and then, according to the legisla- tive' scheme that is of course very familiar to you gentlemen, they provided that the Government by general orders may extend it to other industries without the necessity of initiating legislation by the Government, but merely by submitting to the House of Commons an executive order ; and if they do not veto it within a certain tinie it becomes legislation. That began in 1912 and has been in effect since. Senator Hollis. Does it or not cover department stores? Mr. Feankfurtee. I believe not. But may I, in order to be per- fectly accurate, turn to Miss Goldmark to answer that question? Miss Goldmark. No; it does not. Mr. Feankfurtee. But whether it does or does not, Mr. Chair- man, is merely a question of determination for the home govern- ment. They can, by administrative order, so to speak, to-morrow ex- lend it to any industry. From New Zealand and Australia and Great Britain the idea came to this country. The States of Oregon, Washington, Massa- chusetts, Arizona, Arkansas, Utah, Wisconsin, and Minnesota, States scattered in all the various corners of the United States, having all kinds of differing industrial conditions, adopted this measure, indi- cating by such adoption that it is not something unique having ap- plication here or there, but it is a form of legislation common to the needs of all industries ; namely, that in order to prevent doing what Senator Sherman referred to a little while ago, in order to prevent the wage level from being beaten down by the minority, ignorant or selfish employer, the State itself should come to the support of the intelligent and right-minded employers, such as are represented here by Mr. Columbus this morning, and should prevent them from being unduly harassed by selfish, ignorant, or timid employers. Senator Hollis. That is the basis of all legislation of this sort, is it not? Mr. Fbankfuetee. Yes; precisely. Senator Hollis. To prevent the unjust and cruel from forcing the others to be unjust and cruel, also? Mr. Feankfuetee. Precisely. In other words, this is not a setting of a new standard by the State; it is adopting the sound standard already set in industry as the standard to which all must conform. This has now been not merely on the statute books as a law, but has been in the actual life, so to speak, of the various States, as a great and fruitful social measure. We do not have to speculate about it. We do not have to theorize about it. All we have to do is to turn (o the report of Senator Jones's industrial wage commission in Washington and just see. what it has actually done, see the evils that have been rooted out and the good that has been accomplished, and we can say in a word what Mrs. Axtell and Mr. Holcombe will say to you in detail, that all the fears about women unduly thrown out of work, new costs imposed on production, and all the other ob- jections have been in an overwhelming measure falsified by actual experience. MINIMUM WAGE BOAED FOR DISTKICT OF COLUMBIA. 17 . Now, instead of making a daring hazard, a great new venture in legislation, the Congress of the United States is merely asked to accept the verified, the incontestible experience of nations like to us in industrial and legal tradition and of our own States, to take that experience and in a conservative way say to the District of Columbia that in this territory for which we as a Nation are responsible, for which the Congress of the United States is exclusively responsible, we shall have no such evil conditions as can be remedied and as are shown to be capable of remedy. This is a duty that confronts Con- gress, not only because it is responsible for the women and children who work in this District, but because it has the responsibility of setting a moral standard for the whole Nation, where we have a legal resDonsibility. The law is plain and simple. You are asked to make no new ventures. You are not asked to enact litigation. The iogislation has run the gamut of litigation; it has run the gamut of the courts, and they have passed it. The question first came up in the Or-fjjon Supreme Court in two very admirable opinions which sustained the validity of the legislation. It then went to the Supreme Court of the United States. Senator Dillingham. Will you kindly put those references into the record? Mr. Feankftteteh. The cases are Stettler v. O'Hara (69 Oreg., 519), and Simpson v. O'Hara (70 Oreg., 261). The case then came to the Supreme Court of the United States, where it was argued twice, and it was affirmed by necessity by a divided court, without opinion, in 243 U. S., 629. Since then the law has come up twice in two State courts. The Arkansas measure came up before the Arkansas Supreme Court in State V. Aker (197 Sw. Rep.), and it was decided very recently in Minnesota, in an admirable opinion, in the case of Williams -y. Evans and Williams v. (Nw. Eep., 495). So that you have this unanimous body of decisions sustaining the validity of the legisla- tion. The theory is, of course, that it is an exercise of the police power of the plainest character not only to safeguard health, to protect morals, but even as an affirmative measure to encourage the best resources because the most vital resources — ^the human resources of the State. Senator Jones. Would not the constitutionality of the law for the District of Columbia be less subject to question than it is in any State, by reason of the special authority vested in the Congress over the District of Columbia? Mr. Frankfurter. Yes, sir. Senator Jones. And in the Statesj of course, it is placed on the sovereign right of the State to control everything within the State. Mr. Feankfuetee. Quite so. The Supreme Court has spoken along the lines su£?gested by Senator Jones when it says that Congress, in dealing with the District of Columbia, may seek to -bring out and develop to the fullest all the resources of the community. Senator Hollis. That might be reached under the general welfare. Mr. Frankfurter. That general welfare which is becoming more and more a great affirmative constitutional resource. 55910—18 2 18 MINIMUM WAGE BOAED FOK DISTBICT OF COLUMBIA. Senator Hollis. What is your special branch of the law at Cam- bridge ? Mr. Frankfurter. Public law. Senator Calder. Explain just in a moment what sort of a law Massachusetts has passed. Mr. Frankfurter. The Massachusetts law is slightly different from the others, the difference being in its enforcing feature. In- stead of saying that after the conference reports to the minimum- wage commission, as it is there, and the minimum wage commission then says that $8.65 or $9.02 a week is the minimum wage for laundry firls, and then providing that if the employer has refused to pay 9.02 he shall be subject to a fine, it has a system of enforcement similar to that of our pure f oo'd and drug law — namely, that whoever disobeys shall have his name published in the newspapers. Insto,d of making it a misdemeanor subject to fine it relics for enforcement Jip6n^p«61icily7 You are, of course, very familiaf" with the effect such a thing has upon the offender. Senator Hollis. Does that work in Massachusetts? Mr. Frankfurter. I should appeal to Mr. Holcombe to say whether it works there. It works there where it would not work in other States, because you have a totally different tradition. It works, but not sufficiently, and the whole tendency there is to turn it into a compulsory measure. Senator Calder. Does it affect all lines of business there? Mr. Frankfurter. It affects all lines. That very variation, of having it not enforced by criminal enforcement was a compromise measure when the bill was up, and in the overwhelming number of States, out of the 12 Stales, in all but that 1 there is a coercive feasure in the law. The bill before you. Senator Trammel's meas- ure, follows in great detail, and I think very wisely, actual legisla- tion which has run the gantlet of the courts. In the theory of it — that is, in the establishment of a central board, and then in establish- ing conference boards for each industry and reporting back to the minimum-wage board the results of such conferences — ^in all its structure, in all its details, it follows on the experience of the States where it has been longest and most successfully in operation. A word more. The measure that is before you in the very truest sense is a war measure in that it will maintain the standards which in the. first instance are necessary for warfare ; a measure which will maintain the standards for which this war is being conducted; a measure which will remove evils that can be removed, and to that extent create barriers against unthinking radicalism. When Eng- land passed the law for agricultural laborers and when now, in the very midst of a life-and-death strus-gle. she is passing through Par- liament a bill for the protection of childhood by increasing the age limit for school children, providing for continuation schools, it shows her strength, it shows her fineness of spirit; and it is such a measure that these women to-day are placing before your committee, through the effective leadership of Senator Trammel!. Mrs. Kellet. Mr. Chairman, I am now going to call upon Dr. Arthur Holcombe, who has been a member of the Minimum Wage Commission of Massachusetts since its beginning, and he will further answer the questions that have been asked. MINIMUM WAGE BOABD FOK DISTKICT OP COLUMBIA.. 19 STATEMENT OF PR. ARTHUR N. HOLCOMBE, CHAIRMAN OF THE MASSACHUSETTS MINIMUM WAGE COMMISSION AND A MEM- BER OF THE UNITED STATES BUREAU OF EFFICIENCY. Senator Hollis. I shall have to request the speakers to bs brief. Dr. HoLCOMBE. Mr. Chairman and gentlemen of the committee, I have^bee p a mpmher o f- tb o M - a asa-ehHset-ts-M-iaiaaMJxuWaga-Cmnmis- sion.,aafi8-tli e establishment of that com mission six years ago, and I wanFto telTyou briefly — as your chairman has suggested — tfie ex- ppigenT^ft'nFIVlgsgnj^ htlSetlsT iTjdpr t b"*'' ^"' ^- I think that experience ought to be particularly interesting to you when considering a bill for the District of Columbia, not only because the Massachusetts law is the oldest of the laws in this country, but particularly because the conditions in Massachusetts are probably more nearly like those here in the District than those in many of the Western States where mini- mum-wage laws have also been in operation. Whfn wp first took up _the. duties of the commission in Massac hu- setts, wft fffi ^ndJ: b.aLJJiftgPi--wfti'ft^a-t.-ib.at.-timft sf»nnpth4nc»-4i-kft-aQ0.000 women employed in the industries of the State, exclusive of women in ret airstor SS, iaui i d T'iB 5"~a:nTt"6gtablishm"ent s with le ss than $5,000 a year product, and" exclusive of gifls" under the a^e„of 18. The tofal numbeF"of"wage-earning women and girls could not be ascertained and is not now known, but it must have been considerably greater than 200,000. Of course, the total number of women and girls em- ployed in industry to-day in the State is very much greater than it was six years ago. Now, I want to explain the experience in Massachusetts in order to show that a minimum wage does accomplish the results, so far as the women and girls are concerned, which are desired ; and particu- larly in order to show the effect on business, b3cauce after all you have to consider the effect on business as well as the effect upon the employees in the business. D uring the six _yeaj,'! thnt. wp hav p_-hppn in operatiojiji_Masaa.Qhii setts we ha ve investigat fid-indiistries em- ployin'g^out 150^000 woinm: WeTTave not yet covered all the in- dustri^ of the State,"FiirweTiave covered most of them, and having made inA'^estigations, we have established wage boards and approved rates for industries employing about one-half of that number of women; so that at the present time in the State of Massachusetts there are something like 75,000 women and girls actually working under minimum-wage decrees of our commission. Possibly I had better describe very briefly the manner in which those rates are determined and then dercribe briefly the results of their enforcement. In our State we are directed by law to establish a minimum-wage board in every industry, where we have reason to believe that a substantial number of women and girls are employed at rates inadequate to cover the cost of living and maintenance in good health. Where we find such a condition to exist we are di- rected to organize a board consisting of equal numbers of represent- atives of the employers and employees in the occupation with which we are dealinff, and a limited number of impartial and disinterested members of the public. Th e_wage board considers the facts_of J;he case, and_no_board can be better q ualified torconsider tEe^acls of the case, consisting as'll does~foFThe most^art of 'persons primarily 20 MINIMUM WAGE BOABD FOR DISTKIOT OF COLUMBIA. ^°"£5JB£ii2^'SieindustnyJiself,jthe employers and the girls working foFtKemT" Having considered the needs of the girls and the wages paid and the financial condition of the industry itself, the board reports to th3 commission recommending such rates as in the judgment of the board are advisable. The commission thsreupon holds a public hearing, and if it finds no reason for disapproving the recommendations of the board, it stamps those recommendations with its approval, and puts the rates into operation. At this point let me for a moment take up the matter of the policy of ths commission since the outbreak of the war. One of the gentle- men of the committee inquired a moment ago whether the minimum wag3 could properly be described as a war measure. There is no question about it. There has never been a tinie when the girls in occupations not directly profiting by the war have been in greater need of the protection of the minimum wage law than at the present moment. I may be permitted, perhapo, to refer to an investigation which was made by the United States Bureau of Eificiency, with which I am temporarily connected, in order to furnish information to the House Appropriations Committee dealing with the Federal em- ployees' salary increase measure. We foun d that th ? ro-^ "^ fi^rl m the District of Columbia had increased 30 per cent since the outbreak o OM~'Wgr ir3?oW.r-jt""nSail increased rajt—oiriy: ice: th"E~~Feaeral e mployees in Washington, who are earning„more than- the- girls in the retail stoiFes and laundries andjother establishments wherg^Homen and girls are employeH here Tn the District of Columbia, Jaut it has increasaiiilso for tho£e-women-an,d girls, and the wageaJiaxe not increase d, ^tinator Jones. Do you mean that increase was from the time we entered the war or from the time the war began originally? Dr. HoLCOMBE. From the time we entered the war. Senator Hollis. What was the increase, approximately, from the time the war started, in 1914? Dr. HoLCOMBE. The increase from 1914 to 1917, on the whole, was less than the increase following that period. I can not quote the exact figures. ►"^enptor Holi.is. Up to what date was that increase of 30 per cent? Dr. HoLCOMBE. From the beginning of 1917. Senator Hollis. Up to what date? Dr. HoLCOMBE. Up to the end of 1917. Ihere is no question, then, that so far as industries are concerned which are not directly profiting by war orders, the cost of living has increased at a vastly greater rate than wages have increased, and the need of the girls and women that work in them is correspondingly greater. Now,_herg^in_3ya^ngton you have industries that do not profithyJhe. w.ar^am£ly:,jca^il st6i-es:|ind iarmd rles, and they a fe'EKe industries__aboye_all.cthers_ which need the^protection of s'tfch'^an act iiprlpr the existing circumstances. In this District, above-^li- places, it is proper to describe the minimum wage at the present time as distinctly a war measure. Now-, to revert to Massachusetts, Mr. Chairman; we have approved rates in the following industries: The manufacture of brushes, of MINIMUM WAGE BOABD FOB DISTEICT OP COLUMBIA. 21 candy, the laundry industry, retail stores, including all kinds of re- tailing; the manufacture of women's clothing; the manufacture of men's clothing — that is, all kinds of outer garments, including rain- coats and overcoats, men's furnishings from collars to shoe strings; women's muslins, white goods of various sorts; women's millinery — the manufacture of millinery; office cleaners, charwomen, scrub women employed in apartment houses, and workers of that descrip- tion generally. For those classes of persons we have either fixed the rates, or, as in the case of scrub women, are now fixing rates, for th^. State of Massachusetts. '' Senator Hollis. Why have you not taken up the textile industry ? Dr. HoLCOMBE. We have investigated the textile industry, and we had intsnded to establish a wage board, but the outbreak of the war made us deem it. wise to leave that matter for action in the same manner as wages in war industries are dealt with. In other words, it became a Federal matter, and, lest there be a conflict of jurisdiction, we waived — I will not say our right to deal with those things, but we waived — our duty to deal with that business and left it to the War Department to deal with it in its own manner. Senator Hollis. That is, you were about to enter that field when the war began? Dr. HoLcoMBE. Yes. Senator Holhs. All right. Dr. HoLCOMBE. In other words, we have kept cut of the war in- dustries since the war broke out, and worked in those industries which have been injured rather than benefited by the war. Senator Hollis. Yes. Dr. HoLCOMBE. The first industry in which a minimum wage wa3 put in operation was the manufacture of brushes. That was the one in which the lowest wages were paid among all the continuously operating industries of the State, at the time we went to work. _A year after the rate had been put in operation we made a careful in-; vestigation of the results. There was naturally much interest to know what those results would be. Employers in other occupations were hesitating to go ahead with the minimum wage until they were satisfied that those results were good. Co nsequently we made that investigati on wi.tli^ particular care, and this is wtiat_we found: That the wages of women had bpen grt'^gJiT;'- i n f T-pg qpri_jTiiTMWg th p. "fSav^Sa 1 1 nwi ng i h e~ir(TnpfTrm--fipr" the minimum wage ; that the employment of expejiencedjwomen at ruin- ousb^"low rTtt^-had-eemtpfetdy-cgasedj that;fE£Sa.gea^^ ting jnore than thej ]ilitfawffli=fe^-4ee¥eaee4-j-tilw>.t- thpr^.^as^a larger prc^orEiorToil: womenemployed in the indus try gettir g more t han the min imum wag e after the mihiiriuni wage.gaL p'^t i n h i isli fl d t ha .T) b efore, completely refPt lng t he o flg^fime'cornmon objection to the minimum wage, that the minimum would tend to become the maximum; and" finally, and to this I want particularly to call your attention, all that was accomplished without placing any unreasonable burden upon the industries themselves. Now, what was the evidence of that? First, that the number of brush manufacturers in the State had in- creased during that period ; the value of the raw material employed in- the industry had increased, and the value of the product had in- creased. In other words, the available information showed clearly 22 MINIMUM WAGE BOAED FOB DISTEIOT OF COLUMBIA. that along with the minimum wage the industry itself had flourished, and the establishment of the minimum wage had been good not only for the employees but for all the employers in the industry who had been willing to give it a fair trial. , ^ .-. 4. ui • u Senator Dillisgham. I understood you to say that the establish- ment of the minimum rate had not operated to stop the advance ot wages in the industry. ^ , , , Dr. HoLCOMBE. No, sir; that was one of the most remarkable results that we found. Senator Jones. What was the minimum wage before your rate was established? Dr. HoLCOMBE. I hesitate to quote figures from memory. Senator Jones. Just generally. Dr. HoLCOMBE. I will be glad to put the exact figures m the record. Senator Jones. Yes. Dr. HoLCOMBE. Speaking in a general way, about two-thirds of the employees in brush factories were getting less than $6 a week. Senator Jones. And what was the minimum that you established? Dr. HoLCOMBE. We established a minimum for a full working week of $8.37. Senator Jones. And, after that was established, I understand you to say that the general trend was above that? Dr. HoLCOMBE. I intended to say that the proportion of women getting more than the minimum "was greater after the minimum was established than it had been before, showing that not only had those women been benefited who were below the minimum, but also tho3e women who were above the minimum had profited. Senator Dillingham. It did not cut off the individual initiative for an advance? Dr. HoLCOMBE. No. Senator Caldee. Did you say that the cost of living had increased 30 per cent? Dr. HoLCOMBE. Not the cost of living, but the cost of food. Senator Calder. The cost of food? Dr. HoLCOMBE. Yes. Senator Caldee. In the nonwar industries of Massachusetts, has the minimum wage been increased for women during the past year? Dr. HoLCOMBE. That is, have the rates previously established, been raised upward ? Senator Caldee. Yes. Dr. HoLCOMBE. No; we knew that it was a question we should consider seriously, whether we ought not to do it. We felt, however, until recently, that the duration of the war was uncertain, and that it was unwise to make changes for temporary reasons when the changes themselves might prove to be of a permanent character. Senator Dillingham. .Is it not also true that the demand for labor since the war began has been such that there was less danger to the women of being compelled to work at an injuriously low wage? Dr. HoLCOMBE. The demand for labor has increased, but yet never- theless it is a fact, very hard to explain, that in industries not directly profiting by the war, wages do not increase at anything like the rate at which wages increase m war industries, even though the women be drawn from the same labor market. MINIMUM WAGE BOABD FOE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA. 23 Senator Calder. And then, again, Doctor, is it not true that many of these industries have had a terrible struggle to get along because of the attitude of the Government toward them, discouraging entry into new business in industries not directly involved in the war ? Dr. HoLCOMBE. That may have had its effect, Senator. Now, I w ant to take up next the second industry in which rates were f)Ut into effect generally throu ghnut. the State, an industry which is of particnln r interest in view of the situation here in Wash- ington, namely, the retail-store industry. The rates there were put into operation Tti-1-9 15 and again-gffsrt hev had Tpeenln operation a year we made a careful investigation to ascertain what the results had been. I will •Trot-ge~i.ntn detail -as-to-^bose-results, but I will summarize briefly what we found, and with your permission, Mr. Cha'rman, I will file with the committee for the further information of those who may be interested, this report in which are set forth in full all the findings which I am about to summarize. And with it, with your permission, I will file this report. It is the same thing for the brush industry. Senator Hollis. Very well. (Bulletin No. 7, Pi'blications of the Massachusetts Minimum Wage Commission — The Effect of the Minimum Wage in the Brush In- dustry. Bulletin No. 12, The Effect of the Minimum Wage in Masfachusetts Retail Stores.) Dr. HoLCOMBE. In the c aseof Jhe retail stores we found that wages had been very substanti ally mcreased as . a-i:e£iiLt-xx£-Ltie recom- mendatio ns made^ by tEe commis sion ; that in .208 stor es for, which we were able to procure the information, including all the larger retail "3tig reg'iTrThe~Cofflrmonwealth, the we ekly pay~rDH" had_been in creased $6,000. That increase went mostly to women earning, p^rior to the time when the rates were fixed, less than the minimum rates ; but also, as in the brush industry, women receiving more than the minimum rates had likewise not failed to recaive th3ir due propor- tion of wage increases. In other words, the experienc3 in the retail stores confirmed and strengthened the conclusions derived from the experience in the brush industry, that the minimum wage does not become a maximum wage, it does not interfere with the advancement of the more capable — or perhaps, I had better say, b3tter paid — women, and at the same time it does do for the low paid women what is the object of the leg'slation to do, it does secure for them the in- creased earning capacity. The next question is, What was the effect of these increased wages upon the business itself? I could give you a great deal of detailed information on that subject, but I am not going to. I am going to simply cite for your information evidence showing the common opinion of business men themselves, and business men in the best position to know what the result had been in the retail stores, namely, manufacturers of men's and women's clothing. Clothing manufac- turers sell their goods to the retail stores. No class of men outside of the storekeepers know better the condition of the stores. After the minimum wage had been in operation in the retail stores for a year, we invited the clothing manufacturers to join with representa- tives of their employees in establishing minimum wage boards for those industries. 24 MINIMUM WAGE BOAED FOE DISTEICT OF COLUMBIA. Now, they were not compelled to nominate their representatives. Under the law they did not have to, if they did not want to. Ihey could act voluntarily in the matter. Clearly, they would not have cooperated in establishing wage boards if they were convinced that the minimum wage was a failure, particularly if it was injurious to the business itself. They accepted our invitation to nominate repre- sentatives to serve on boards. Their representatives served on boards in both the women's clothing industry and in the men's c!o':hing industry, and the boards agreed unanimously upon minimum rates, which were then recommended to us for promulgation, the employers joining wholeheartedly with the repreientatives of the employees and the public in extending the principle of the minimum wage to the clothing industry. That, I think, is the best evidence as to the results of the minimum wage upon the retail-store business. Now, I have not time to go further into the results of the minimum wage in Massachusetts, but I do want to call briefly to your attention certain general conclusions which we have all reached who have been charged with the responsibility for working out the experiment — for it was an experiment when we first undertook the administration of the law. Two conclusions I want to call to your attention. The first is of a very positive nature. It is that high wages do net mean high labor costs to the employer. On the contrary, high wages in general seem to go along with low labor costs. In the retail stores particularly we obtained some very definite information bearing upon that prob- lem. Examination of the pay rolls and of the accounts of certain stores showed that the stores paying the highest wages for the same class of help engaged in the same kind of retailing had to pay the lowest number of cents to their selling force per dollar of goods sold. The second conclusion that I want to speak of Senator Dillikgham. Your point is that the employees become more efficient? Dr. HoLCOMBE. There is no question about that, whatever. The payment of better wages redounds to the benefit of the management itself. Now, secondly, a somewhat negative conclusion following from the first, low wages do not necessarily mean low earning ability or low efficiency on the part of the wage earner. That is particularly true of wage-earning women. One sometimes sees the assertion made that girls employed in industry are getting what they are worth, and their employers can not afford to pay them more than they are .worth. Now, I am not going to argue that question, whether they ought to be paid more Senator Dillingham. Have you available the data on which you are making this statement, now ? Dr. HoLCOMBE. These are general conclusions derived frcm ottr general experience, and supported to a certain extent by concrete data. Senator Dillingham. You have not statistical information to sup- port what you are stating just now ? Dr. HoLCOMBE. This particular statement can not be demonstrated statistically, but I am very confident that it is true. Senator Dillingham. Yes. MINIMUM WAGE BOAKD FOR DISTKICT OF COLUMBIA. 25 Dr. HoLCOMBE (continuing). You can not assert that bacause a girl is paid low wages, her efficiency is low ; because the efficiency of the Worker,who is after all a part of a going establishment, when she is em- ployed — the efficiency of the worker depend 3 upon a combination of fac- (ois, of which her individual efficiency is only one, and of which the efficiency of her employer is another and an extremely important factor. There can be no question but that low managerial ability on the part of an employer will make it impossible for him to pay a girl what she is really worth. In other words, the same girl may be worth a great deal more to one employer than to another, not because the girl is any different, but because the employers are different. So that you can not conclude, because a girl receives low pay that she is •of low business worth. Those two conclusions, I think, are the mrst important conclusions derived from our experience, for persons who are considering whether the principle of the minimum wage should bo established in other places. Before concludirg, I want to say just one more thing. In assert- ing that the minimum wage has been a success in Masrachusetts, I do not wish to be understopd as arguing that the minimum-wags law of Massachusetts is the bsst type of minimum-wage law. On tli3 con- trary, I think that the bill before your committee is superior to our Massachusetts law in certain important respects, particularly in the manner of enforcement. As Mr. Frankfurter has explained, our law is net enforced by the ordinay penal methods, but by publicity. Now, that method has two serious rbjections, to my mind. In the first place, it provides a penalty which is uncertain. You do not know how much damage you inflict upon an employer by blacklisting him as unfair to his employees, and .that is practically what is meant by publicity in this connection. You do not know how much damage jcu do him. That kind of penalty, to my mind, is objectionable. Secondly, this much is certain, that the damage will be unequal in different cases, depending upon the directness with which the public can express its disapproval of the employer; and, to my mind, a penalty which bears unequally upon the same offense when com- mitted by different persons is objectionable. I think that if a State or the United States adopts a principle of law it should at the same time adopt such means of enforcement as are necessary and proper for such legislation. In conclusion, gentlemen, I merely wish to say that I indorse, without hesitation and without qualification, the measure pending before your committee. [Applause.] Mrs. Kellet. Dr. Holcrmbe, before you stop, will you not answer for the benefit of the other Senators, very briefly, the question of Sc-ator Jones with regard to the relation of efficiency to the salaries of the members of the commission — ^whether or net it is necessary to have such compensation? Dr. HoLCOMBE. That is a question to which no general answer should b3 made without regard to local conditions. The commission is a quasi judicial body. The office force generally does practically all of the work under the paid secretary. I presume that the same conditions would prevail here. The members of our commission are paid a nominal compensation. 15098 26 MINIMUM WAGE BOAED FOE DISTRICT OP COLUMBIA. Senator Dillingham. What do you call a nominal compensation? Dr. HoLcoMBE. It is a per diem— $10 a day. And the compensa- tion depends upon the number of days that our conscience permits us to charge the Commonwealth. That is nominal. Senator Shebman. What is the extent of that permission? What is the limit that they permit you to charge? Dr. HoLCOMBE. The limit, of course, is determined by the appro- priation itself, which is $3,000 ; and we have never drawn the limit. Senator Caldee. You have how many commissioners? Dr. HoLCOMBE. Three. Senator Colder. That means $3,000 for each commissioner or $3,000 for all the commissioners? Dr. HoLCOMBE. That is $3,000 for the commission. In the District of Columbia, I question whether compensation would secure a better commission than would otherwise be secured. After all, there are not many industries here that would have to be dealt with. Washington is not a manufacturing city. When you have dealt with the retail stores and the laundries, and as we know by the testimony of the secretary of their association here to-day, they are ready and anxious to cooperate — when you have dealt with those industries the job is pretty nearly done here in the District of Columbia, and I doubt whether compensation to the members of th& board would secure any different commission than would be procured without compensation. Senator Caldee. Do you know whether or not the managers of department stores here are agreed on this legislation ? Dr. HoLCOMDE. Yes; I have talked personally with several of the principal proprietors of stores. I ,am glad that you asked that question. I want to say publicly here fliat their conduct in this whole matter is highly creditable to them and to the sentiment here in the District. Senator Caldee. Those who purchase in the department stores realize that prices have gone up somewhat, and a little more would not make much difference, I suppose, to many of us. Dr. HoLCOMBE. We have never been able to see any increase in prices from the increase in wages. Whether anybody would ever know the difference I very much question. At any rate, that factor is so slight in comparison with the other and larger factors affecting prices to-day that I question whether it is of serious moment. Senator Hollis. Thank you, Doctor. Mrs. Kelley. Mr. Chairman, I wish to ask you, please, about the limit of time of this hearing? Senator Hollis. I am goicg to stay here until the last gun is fired. Perhaps the other members of the committee must go sooner. I should recommend brevity. Senator Dillikgham. Yes. If you can have your witnesses come right to the particular point that you want to impress upon us, I hope they will do so. Mrs. Kelley. Yes. sir. I am goin^ to call upon Mr. Filene next, who is one of the directors of the United States Chamber of Com- merce. MINIMUM WAGE BOAED FOB DISTKICT OF COLUMBIA. 27 STATEMENT OF MR. EDWARD A. FIIENE, OF WM. FIIENE'S SOWS CO., OF BOSTON; DIRECTOR UNITED STATES CHAMBER OF COM- MERCE ; CHAIRMAN OF THE WAR SHIPPING COMMITTEE OF THE UNITED STATES CHAMBER OF COMMERCE. ^Mr. FiLENE. I suppose the most use I can be is to stick true to my role of shopkeeper and tell you the practical things that I know about the working out of the minimum wage. I want to ask your indulgence, however, for just a minute, for an apparent digression, to emphasize what seems to me to be funda- mentally involved in your, committee's report. I suppose we are absolutely agreed that at this moment — this very critical moment — every red-blooded man and woman has got just one thing to do, and that is to help win the war, and to some of us it may seem that a question Ike this is a little bit apart. I would not have been here if it had r.ot been that this very ques- tion was more than ordinarily important. I understand how all kinds of people who are interested in special reforms drag into the winning of the war their special thing; but I think that this question is intimately involved, and I think it would be a tragedy if an adverse report came out from the Congress of the United States at this time on the question of granting a living wase to the work people; ard the way it appeals to me is this: I, for instance, am giving most of my time to expediting ships, at a tim3 when we are staking the lives of our boys, putting them over there without enough ships, to properly supply them and. at the eame time, supply the allies who are fighting our fight. You, gentlemen, know that this statement is well within the facts ; we are gambling the lives of our boys, in honor bound to the allies, who have been fighting our battle over there, who are now in critical need of men, and we are taking the greatest chances in sending our boys over as fast as we get them readv, despite the knowledge that we have not enough ships to sup- ply them properly. Last week, before the annual meeting of the Chamber of Commerce of the United States, I said that there are faults on the part of the Government in the failure to get out the ships ; but I said to the busi- ness men there, there are those who have been guilty of a far greater failure, and that is the general public, not out of viciousness but out of lack of imagination and out of lack of education to really understand that this is our war. Now, you take the average man or woman, especially the kind of people vi^ are talking about now, oppressed with daily needs, and if they are denied a living wage — if denied by the State legislature, that would be bad enough — ^but if denied by the National CongreES, which they look up to as practi- cally knowing more, having a broader view, they will be still less able to understand what really it means when we call upon them to make sacrifices for " making democracy safe," or " giving freedom to the world." Freedom is not an abstract thing, we know. Free- dom, as I said yesterday before the House committee, is not an eagle flapping his wings for us to look at on some high mountain top. Freedom is a great thing that must have a great foundation, and you can not make people understand abstract propositions. 28 MINIMUM WAGE BOAKD FOB DISTKICT OP COLUMBIA. It often appeals to me a gccd deal, Mr. Chairman, like the inven- tion of conscience. I can not imagine that conscience was ever given us as a gift. I can not think that it was ever invented. I think God was always in it, to make it something that we achieve, and therefore will held dearly. I can not imagine that conscience was ever invented while these preh'sioric animals were taking up all the time of pur forebaars, keeping them busy in order that thej^ might keep alive. I thirk it was when there was time, when conditions were such that they had time, to think, and for right and wrong to be thought out that conscience first came. So, with our work people; if we keep them botherad and harassed and terrified with the mere thought of havirg to gat enough to eat and to clothe themselves, then we can not create people who will not poison even the better thinking of the world — involuntarily, it is true — as to making democracy safe. It becomes a vague thing, not a thing that will make them work harder in the shipyards, not a thing that will make them help by sacrifice to get out ships. I do not know whether I have made that very clear, but that is the only justification for my being hsra, that I m'ght help to get the idea" more clearly before you that in my judgement th:s measure is absolutely needed at this time. As I say, I can impglne no greater catastrophe than that now out of Congress should come a denial of a living wage to the working people of the cour.try. A curious thing about the hearings on minimum wage as I have read them — because I have not been to many — is that it has always been a plea for the work people. Now, we bosses get just as much from the minimum wage as our people do, because a $5-a-week girl makes a cheap bcs3. That is literally true. You can not get real organ'zation out of people who are unintelligent, and people can not be intelligent who have not enough to live properly on. A working girl, worried about paying for her clolhing and lodging, is not going to be very ambitious, you know, to heed th3 preachments that we bosses put onto her — burden her with. She is not going, as a rule, to have the ambition to try to learn how to earn more money. She is not going to try to do it, cr if she does try she fails. Now, when you get to where the hard pressure of mere living — clothing and food and shelter — disappears, then you can come to a point where the possibility of more intelligent action, more intelli- gent study, more comprehension of retail di'tribution, of the work they have got to do, is possible, and I might as well confess very frankly that retail distribution is about as lawless a thing as there is in the country ; I mean, from an economic standpoint. The aver- age thing that we handle doubles in price by the time it reaches the consumer; and sometimes, as I said yesterday, when I hear stories about cur fine store, I think how many kind.s of a hypocrite my associates and I must be. The fact that the average thing doubles in price before it reaches the hands of the consumer is a shame and a disgrace, and those of us who give our lives to it ought to be making greater progress with the remedies. If we do not make greater progress, direct distribu- tion from producer to consumer will come — through the parcel post^ and so forth — and it ought to come if we have not any greater MINIMUM WAGE BOAKD FOB DISTEICT OF COLUMBIA. 29 inventive genius and no sense of our responsibility and power. The source of our power is in our employees. Now, the average employer is using the greater part of his time and the most of his energy in trying to keep things running smoothly between himself and his employees — between his employees and his executives; and that is due not to viciousness of the employee force, not to ill will, but simply to an underpaid, badly nourished, unintelligent group of employees; and all these things are due to the fact that we have not realized that the better the wag3s tha better we in the management are off; because, finally, as has been stated by Dr. Holcombe, even the best of employees are dependent in large degree upon ths freedom; and foresight and vision of the executive if they are really to make the best out of conditions ; and when the executives do think and do plan, and when the employees have wages enough so that they will not be entirely taken up with the questions of food, of clothing, and of shelter, which is just as if you were feeding to a steam engine coal all the time, and it did nothing but make steam and never turned a wheel — that is what we are doing with our employees — ^when we g3t to that point, then it becomes true that the better we pay the cheaper the cost of selling becomes; and that is so true in a store like ours that it definitely costs us half as much in percentage to sell the amount of goods which gets a bonus for the sales people than the firct cost of their regular wages. I do not know whether that is very clear. Let me explain. Every- body who sells goods in our store is told when they come in — sup- pose they come in at $12, then they are told that it costs us about 4 per cent. " If you can s-U $300, then you will have paid for your salary, and for rent, and will have given us a fair return on our capital — if you sell $300 a week. Now, whatever you sell above $300, we will give you 2 per cent, and we will be just 2 per cent better off than on the first $300 you sell " ; and as a result of that, and so clearly is that understood, that it is for our advantage as well as for the advantage of our employees, that very frequently a salesg'rl will say to me, "I earned $5 extra this week," or "I earned $8 extra this week, Mr. Filene." That is something to boast of, because even when they do make extra money, in many of the stores they are afraid to talk about that Ibecause they think that if the employers think that the weges are high they will be leveled down again; but our people have learned (hat we are getting more out of the extra money that we pay them as bonuses, and the bonus is defined s'mply as an extra reward for extra good results, charged to salary, and our paying that illustrates that so thoroughly, and so practically demonstrates that a higher salary does pay, that they are quite fearless in tellirg us how much more they are getting every week ; and sometimes that " more " is a considerable sum. The more they get, the better we are off. High wages, I think, too, will to an i^^creasing degree make lower labor costs. It will compel more intelligent instruction on our part, and help to employees, both in storekeeping and in education in sales- manship. We find that the average man or woman is only too glad to respond, and can respond, and there is only a very small per- centage that is not effective enough to increase their value_ when they get a chance. Most business men see that. A minority, just as 30 MINIMUM WAGE BOAED FOB DISTKICT OF COLUMBIA. in every line of business, in every walk of life, do not see it, and they are the scabs of business. Here you have had the testimony of the merchants of Washington along this line, didn't you? Mrs. Kelley. From Mr. Columbus. Senator Dillingham. From the operation of this increase in wages do you get a higher grade of employees ? Mr. FiLENE. I think that they constantly grow up, grow better and better, and we happen to have been the first, I think, in Boston in our line to put in the minimum wage, and therefore it is com- monly said in Boston that our employees are rather more effective. The customers like them better. Senator Dillingham. What I was getting at was, when you estab- lished a minimum wage did you make a closer discrimination in selecting your employees ? Mr. FiLENE. You mean did we require a better type for a higher wage? Senator Dillingham. Yes. Mr. FiLENE. I think not. The average girl that comes into a store is quite able to respond, if she is free from worry. We are trying always, for our own sake, to make our people more intelligent. We are trying to put in a more scientific method of buying and selling, and we need thoughtful people; but I do not think there is any greater discrimination made under a minimum wage than there was before. We have a feeling that we can easily get a reasonable re- sponse out of any girl who is well and who is free from the daily worries. A decent wage, then, seems to us the basis of intelligent work, and we feel that the minimum wage merely provides the machinery by which joint action is secured on the part of all in a trade. That is the important thing, it seems to me, that a minority sometimes holds out and makes impossible the good will and the more intelligent action of the majority. You have seen that happen in towns where they kept open every evening in the week because one or two pig-headed men would not agree with the others to close. Now, a minimum wage helps in this respect, at any rate, in forcing the general protection which the community is entitled to have. Now, to get down to the minimum wage as we have actually had in our store: In 1912 we put in a minimum wage of $8, and the best evidence that that has been satisfactory is that on April 1 of this year we increased the minimum wage to $10. Of course, looking over a long period of years, from 1912, with the varying things that hap- pened during those years, it would be presumptuous to try to ascribe to any one thing alone the satisfactory growth of the store, which has become by far the largest specialty store in the world, employing about 3,000 people and doing very much the largest business in this line. I am boasting of this because we believe that the volume of the business has grown as the result of this type of forward looking, which I can speak of with the greater freedom because in our store most of the work of this kind is done by our employees themselves. This minimum wage, the whole working out of this minimum wage that went into effect April 1, with all its details, was done by a group of employees, and not by the management. We find that the more satisfactory and practical way to work. But as near as we can judge of it, the effect of that $8. a week minimum was of the highest useful- ness to the store. You have got to make some allowance. MINIMUM WAGE BOARD FOR DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA. 31 Of course, when we were the only store giving that minimum we got the choice of the more thoughtful girls, and that is an advantage that if our competitors had been foresighted they would not have allowed us to get. They could have afforded to have paid $10 and gotten the choice of girls out of the high schools, as we got them, and *' bought " the biggest bargains that they could have gotten. All in all, we have enough evidence that the minimum wage was of the utmost help to us, and one of the proofs is that relatively to the other costs of running the business, the wage with an increased minimum is relatively lower than it had been before, just as with a bonus the percentage of the cost per dollar of sales is lower; and that is the only thing we are interested in, because we do not care how many hundreds of thousands of dollars it costs us to do business, but we do care whether the percentage of cost on sales has increased one one- hundredth of 1 per cent. If the expense of the business increases $1,000,000 and the per- centage of cost per dollar of sales decreases, then we are batter off, of course. In April of this year the minimum wage was increased to $10 ; $9 for an apprentice. Nobody in the store starts at less than $9 a week, at present. But that group of employees found that $12, at present, was not any more than $8 would have been in 1907. I sometimes figure rapidly, in estimating what is happening now and what wages are necessary, that on this grade of wages' food practically takes up about 50 per cent of the income per week, and, if food has increased 100 per cent in cost, as we are told, doubled in price, then you get some indication of where wages ought to be at the present time. I do not laiow how scientific that reckoning is, but it makes a rough kind of reckoning in my mind that determines what ought to be done. That grcup of employees determined that $12 would not be so much as $8 would have been in 1907 ; but, reckoning that we are hav- ing some competition in Boston at the present time, they recom- mended that at present, we pay only $10 as a minimum wage, and then increase it 50 cents a week every six months until anybody who had been there two years, starting at $10, would have $12 as the minimum wage— that is, they made it easier for themselves and for us, under the circumstances. When the management went over that, as it had to, of course, to agree to it, we came to the conclusion that from cur best experience this minimum wage would not increase our selling cost. We may prove to be wrong, but I do not think we will be. Of course, it is to be remembered that we do transmit our ex- penses. We do not pay the expenses of the shop; we are simply a depot on the road of transportation from the source of production to the consumer. Th3 store fails if it does not get back from the public what it pays out. But we feel pretty sure, and we went into this increase in wages with less hesitation because — well, I suppose there was some feeling of doubt, but also from the business standpoint because — we feel definitely that it will be a good thing for our business, and will in- crease the eiRciency of our help sufficiently so that it will be a net gain. 32 MINIMUM WAGE BOAED FOB DISTKICT OF COLUMBIA. Senator Diixikgham. Is not your suggestion summed up in this^ that in payirg the better wages you gat better services? Mr. FiLEKE. I think so. We have not reached, as yet, the level that has been reached in many places. The Hudson Co. in Detnit have bsen for some time paying a $12 minimum, and the owner, the Webers, who are shrewd, broad-gauge, effective business men, are very enthusiastic on the results they have obtained. I think thsy have b:!en using it about two years. , . . I think I ought to say before finishing, bacause I do not think it is commonly borne in mind, that cheap wages make a vicious circle. Cheap wages make cheap standards in employers, and cheap stand- ards in us employers make cheap employees. It is a vicioui cir- cle that or ght to be broken and destroyed. Thank you. [Applausa.] Mrs. Kellet. Mr. Chairman, we have gone on the principle, in asking people to appear here to-day, that we would call on all those in the District of Columbia who will be concerned with this law, and upon other people who have been concerned with it in other places,, and I wifh to call now upon Commissioner Brownlow, Commissioner of tha District of Columbia. STATEMENT OF HON. LOUIS BROWNLOW, A COMMISSIONEE OF THE DISTKICT OF COLUMBIA. Commissicner Beowklow. The Commissioners of the District of Columbia already have transmitted to the District Committee of the Senate a report upon the pending measure, which they heartily ap- prove. I myself have not had the opportunity to make an exhaustive study of the details of the legislation, but I do want to take this op- portunity to say that the Commissioners of the District of Columbia, the executive government of this municipality, believe that this is a b'U to help them solve their problems. No municipality, I venture to say — although the statement is su- perlative — no municipality in history, has ever had as many and as grave problems as we now face in Washington. We are the largest nation in the greatest war in history. We have the smallest capital of any of the great nations at war. The capital of the British Em- pire, a city of 7 000 000, the largest city in the world, found its municipal facilities inaclequRte to deal with the work that was brought there by reason of the war. Ths housing facilities of that great city were not sufficient. The transportation facilities of that great city were not sufficient. If a city of 7,000,000, the capital of a country of 45,000,000 people, at war, has found its municipal prob- lems doubled and trebled, what are our problems here, where the city at the beginning of the war had only 350,000 people and is the capital of 110,000,000 people at war? I believe that the people of Washington generally appreciate their obligations. I believe that most of the people here, and all cf the thoughtful people, knew that we have increasing difficulties and a great many vexing problems which must be solved. I have believed for a long time, from discussions that I have had with men who knew — and I have talked many times in the past four or five years upon this iDarticular subject with Mr. Filene, who has just preceded me — that higher wages make for increased efficiency ; and if there is MINIMUM WAGE BOAED FOR DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA. 33 anything we need in Washington now it is increased efficiency in those who live here, tliose who are in the service of the people brought here to help win the war. The employees in the retail stores should be as efficient as possible, the workers in the laundries should be as efficient as possible, so that they can do the increased work that is brought upon the city without bringing in any greater number of new people than is absolutely necessary. Since the beginning of the war I assume that our population has increased about 90,000. A very accurate count made to the 1st of November, and from which hotels and apartment houses catering to the transient trade were eliminated, showed an increase of about 50,000. From the number of persons who have been taken care of through the Central Eoom Kegistration Bureau, coming in at the rate of about 600 a week, and the absolute disappearance of the unoccu- pied houses that we had at the 1st of November, I think that 90,000 is a conservative estimate of the additional number of persons here in the District of Columbia. That means, of course, a very great strain upon all of the people who serve, the people who serve in the stores, the people who serve in the matter of providing food and clothing, and in the laundries, and in the great service corporations, in which women are employed. Then, also, if the war is to go on very long and the problems here increase very greatly, we shall be faced presently with a dilution of labor whereby it will be necessary to bring women into occupations that are now carried on by men. When that is done, I believe that it would be most useful to the Capital, most useful to society as a whole, to have some machinery whereby adequate living wages may be assured. I do not believe that we ought to be forced to guess _ at these problems. I know that I am unable to make up my mind what ought to be done when a girl comes to my office and says that her rent has been raised and her board has been raised, and she is getting only so much money ; and then I get the employer in my office, and he says, " I can not possibly do my work because of labor conditions." The District Commissioners have not the machinery with which to ascertain the facts. The machinery proposed to be set up would enable us to substitute information for conjecture, would enable us to know what is the situation, and would give relief in that way. As to the general question of the establishment of the minimum wage for women and minors, I can say unhesitatingly that if that is desirable anywhere — and I think it is — it is especially desirable in the District of Columbia at this particular time. I have not anything further to say, except I heard a discussion a while ago, that Senator Jones had asked a question about whether or not the commissioners set up under this law, the members of the board, should be paid. If the Senators would like to hear my opinion on that I would be very glad to give it. Senator Hollis. We will be glad to have it. Commissioner Beowklow. I believe it would be better to estab- lish a compensated board. T believe we would get better service, and I believe that it would, without great expense, insure more careful attention to the details of what amounts to the judicial work which must come before this board. 5E)910— 18 3 34 MINIMUM WAGE BOAED POK DISTEICT OF COLUMBIA. Senator Mollis. Do you not think that the Massachusetts rate would be sufficient, $10 a day for actual work? Commissioner Brownlow. $10 a day for actual work? Senator Hollis. Yes. Commissioner Beownlow. That appeals to me as being better. I do not believe annual salaries should be established, because we can not teU in advance how much work there would be, and as there are very few trading and mercantile establishments in this city, that board ought to be able within a short time after it is in operation to cover the ground. I should think it would not be called upon to do a great deal of work; so that $10 per diem for the work actually done appeals to me as being a very satisfactory figure. But I do believe it would be better to have a compensated board. You see, this board is to be composed of one person representing the em- ployers, one representing employees, and one the public. All three of these persons should be on a basis of equality in their work. Senator Hollis. Thank you very much, Mr. Commissioner. [Ap- plause.] Mrs. Kellet. Is Dr. Woodward in the room? STATEMENT OF BE. W. C. WOODWAED, HEALTH OFFICEE OF THE DISTEICT OF COLUMBIA. Dr. Woodward. After what has been said this morning it hardly seems worth while for me to add anything. My only function here this morning would seem to be to enter an appearance, so to speak, on behalf of the health interests of the District of Columbia — among the proponents who support this measure — and to ask the committee to do, what I know the committee will do anyhow, and that is to take judicial notice of the very patent facts that shelter and clothing and food are necessary to health, and that shelter and clothing and food cost money ; that the woman and child wage earners are depend- ent for that money upon the wages they receive, and that with an inadequate wage, health is bound to suffer unless aid be derived from some other source. The establishment, therefore, of an adequate wage — and that is all that this bill can possibly provide for — -to sup- port health in a decent and a proper way, would seem to be a very proper and desirable exercise of legislative power. It is not necessary to undertake to present figures to illustrate any such postulates as I have laid down. It is simply such knowledge as is derived from the personal obeservations of every man engaged in public or private life ; every man who has either had to earn his own living, or, if he has not had to earn his own living, has even had to pay his own living expenses. If, however, there is anything that I can say or anything that I can do in support of the measure, I shall be very glad to say or to do it anywhere and at any time at the command of the committee. Senator Hollis. Thank you. Doctor. [Applause.] Mrs. Kellet. The next speaker comes from Senator Jones's State, where she served on one of the boards. MINIMUM WAGE BOABD FOB DISTEICT OF COLUMBIA. 35 STATEMENT OF MES FRANCES AXTELL, FORMERLY A MEMBER OF THE RETAIL STORE WAGE BOARD OF THE STATE OF WASH- INGTON, NOW A MEMBER OF THE UNITED STATES EMPLOYEES' COMPENSATION COMMISSION. Mrs. AxTELL. I should hesitate to speak after all these eloquent speakers, because I am not a public speaker in any way Senator Dillingham. We do not care for eloquence. We want facts. Mrs. AxTELL (continuing). Except that I have had the privilege of serving in passing and in enforcing the minimum wage in the State of Washington. Senator Dillingham. And you are now a member of a com- mission ? Mrs. AxTELL. I am a member of the United States Employees' Compensation Commission; and compensation and minimum wage are twin sisters. The fundamental thing back of the minimum wage, of course, is that we had to explode the " pin-money " theory, to show that that was net the proper basis for wage ; and, then, back of that is a prin- ciple that every industry, no matter what it does, should not only pay for the mechanical devices to operate it, but it should pay for its human machinery as well. The human mechanism must be paid for by that industry and not by charity or by relations. These girls that work in our stores, who come every morning to their work, they must live; in order to return to work the next day they must live, and if a father or a brother or some other man does not pay for that, they must have a wage sufficient to pay for it themselves. Now, these are the fundamental things back of the minimum wage. I might say in connection with this that these two principles are now so well established in the minds of the people that they are no longer debatable. In the State of New York the other day when a health bill was drawn up, which was approved by the Association for State Labor Legislation and ether forces interested in health insurance, they stipulated that they would penalize any employer who did not pay $9 or more a week by making it obligatory for them to pay a larger proportion of the health insurance. This bill is recommended for passage at the next session of the New York Legislature. Therein the employer and employee are equally responsible for health, except that any employer paying less than $9 a week would be penalized 25 per cent, and any employer paying less than $5 a week would be penalized 50 per cent or the whole cost of the insurance. Health insurance is probably one of the next steps which will be urged upon Congress; already three States have it on their calendars for their next sessions of the legislature. It is one of the coming features in social legislation and the Federal Government should lead, not follow the States. In the State of Washington in 1913 we passed the mini- mum wage law for women, and we had no such encouragement as this committee has to-day, because it had not been tried anywhere in the United States. We could talk about Australia and New Zealand, but that did not seem very near home. I happened to be a member of that session of the legislature, and I was interested in this legislation. All of the people who appeared before us for hearings representing 36 MINIMUM WAGE BOARD FOB DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA. the manufacturers and mercantile interests were certainly very much opposed to this bill, but after a great deal of trouble the bill was finally passed. The wage for each industry could not be established because there was so much dissension, and no bill would have been passed at all if we had not eliminated the wage feature. It was finally passed with this provision in the bill, that we must determine a wage under which women could live in decency and in health. Senator Hollis. That is, there was no power to enforce it. You were merely to investigate and report? Mrs. AxTELL. No. That instead of establishing a wage, the gov- ernor should have the power to appoint, as. soon as the legislature adjourned, an industrial relations commission, who should ascertain the facts in each industry ; and they were to conduct this investigation for 90 days, and after 90 days the governor should have power to appoint. a commission in each industry consisting of three employers, three employees, and three of the disinterested public, to establish a wage for that particular industry on which a woman could live in decency and in health. Now, while one of the speakers from Massa- chusetts this morning is serving on the Industrial Relations Com- mission and collecting data to present to these different boards, I served on the commission to establish the wage for mercantile estab- lishments, and this was the first conference that the governor called in our State, as it covered more employees than any of the other in- dustries. The law provided that the commission must consist of three representatives of employees, three of the employers, and three of the disinterested public. I served as one of the members for the disin- terested public. The conference was besieged by manufacturers, of course, to present their side of the controversy. There were three employers on the commission, all of whom were opposed to this legislation, but agreed to serve on the commission as it was obligatory that the governor appoint. We were very anxious to bring in a unanimous report, because if we were not unanimous and there was any serious disagreement, this particular commission would be dismissed and another commission called, until such time as an agreement could be reached; so that it was very vital that we should bring in a unani- mous report, if possible. The commission was arranged something like this. The Industrial Relations Commission consisted, as I have said, of three representatives of the employers, three of the employees, and three of the disinterested public, and the State labor commis- sioner, who was ex officio member of the commission, was chairman, and he informed the three members represipnting the disinterested public that we were not to take part in the debate, but were to be present and hear the debate from the employers and employees, and after they had presented all their arguments, we were supposed to meet and decide what we considered would be a proper minimum wage for mercantile establishments. This debate lasted for two days and nights. We met every even- ing, because we were all of us serving for our traveling expenses, and we were anxious to return home. After all the debate was over we met and decided that $10 a week for a mercantile establishment was the very least that a woman could live upon in decency and in health in the State of Washington. I am glad to say that now the MINIMUM WAGE BOARD FOB DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA. 37 minimum has been raised, because the cost of living his been raised ; which shows that we have a very active Industrial Kelations Com- mission in the State. The committee made this proposition, that $10 per week be the niinimum for mercantile establishments, and the employers imme- diately combatted it. One employer from the city of Spokane, serving on our commission, said that it meant a raise of $15,000 a year in his stores alone; so that you see the law was very much needed. He used this as one of his arguments. He said, " I am not such a bad man. Last year I gave $20,000 to the Y. M. C. A.," and one of the employees hopped up and said, " Excuse me, sir ; you did not give it. We did." [Laughter.] That was the sentiment that pervaded the two ends of the conference. After much discussion, the employers finally decided that they would agree to this wage. The reason they did agree was this : The Industrial Relations Commission had been asked to send out a ques- tionnaire to all the merchants of the State, and, also, to all the employees of the State, the same questionnaire was sent that were questions such as, " How many suits does a girl need in a year to appear in decency and health ? How many suits of .underwear and how many pairs of hose does she need ? " and so on — two or three hundred questions; and it was obligatory that the employers and em- ployees fill out answers to these questions. Therefore, when they were all brought in, the duty of the committee was to discover what the employers in the State themselves regarded as a minimum wage, but none of them seemed to realize that purpose of the questionnaire, at least, the members of our commission did not seem to realize it and when they were combatting this $10 a week wage, the three members representing the disinterested public turned to their replies, and by dividing their totals by the number of weeks in the year, 52, they established their own minimum wage. The three merchants on the commission had all of them established a wage above $10 a week, and most of the merchants in the State had established a wage larger than the girls themselves, which proved that the girls were the better economists; therefore, there could not be any more argument with us, and they finally agreed to this $10-a-week wage. However, the point you want to know, of course, is how this law has worked in our State, and whether both parties to the agreement are satisfied with it. I have had the pleasure of talking with many of the merchants in our State since 1913, to find out how this law operated, and whether they were pleased with it, and I have yet to find a merchant who would go back to the old method. They are all of them not only pleased with it, but they say that it pays them in dollars and cents to pay their employees more wages; and of course it is undebatable whether the girls are pleased or not. It has had a very marked effect on the women of our State who work in these stores. The secretary of our Industrial Relations Commission was here last winter, and I asked her, just to satisfy my curiosity, to go through the stores of the city of Washington and ascertain what wages were paid, and we went through one or two of the stores together. There is a very marked contrast between the wear- ing apparel and the healthful appearance of the girls in the State of Washington and in the city of Washington, because the wage 38 MINIMUM WAGE BOABD FOR DISTEICT OF COLUMBIA. determines what a girl wears, and the conditions under which she lives, and the contrast is very marked in that, and is favorable to the State of Washington. I do not wish to take up more of your time. I know that you are listening to things all day ; that you are in hearings day after day and hear these things discussed until you are tired of them, and I would not urge this as a war measure, because that has been urged so many times, but I hope that you gentlemen will feel just like Mr. Filene said yesterday that he felt in testifying in the hearing before the House committee. He said that he had always been afraid that he would die in disgrace before this law was passed. I hope that you and all of the members of the committee will feel the same way, and that you will not only pass this legislation but act quickly on it and other legislation that is required for war times and for all times. I thank you. [Applause.] Mrs. Kelley. There is present a representative of the Woman's Trade Union League, Miss Julia O'Connor, who has served on one of these boards. I will ask her to address you next. STATEMENT OF MISS JULIA O'COWIirOR, PaESIDEKTT OF THE MASSACHUSETTS TELEPHONE OPERATORS' UNION, MEMBER OF THE BRUSHMAKERS' BOARD AND THE RETAIL STORE WAGE BOARD, OF MASSACHUSETTS. Miss O'Connor. The real test of the efficacy of minimum-wage legislation, I suppose we will all agree, is what it will mean to the worker, what it means in increased wages and better conditions in the trade, and what it means in the ability to challenge public attention to the inequalities and injustices that obtained under the old system. My experience of the minimum-wage legislation has been in Mas- sachusetts wholly. I served on two boards, the brush board, the first board created under the act, and the retail stores wage board, two entirely different industries, different in character and in personnel. The history of the Massachusetts Minimum Wage Commission has not been entirely one of achievement. Many forces and circumstances have militated against that. Not the least of these has been the fact that was brought out by Mr. Holcombe, that our law is not mandatory. Happily, that is not true of the law we are discussing now, so that nothing need be said about it here. There has been an organized and constant opposition of large groups of manufacturers, who have been consistently hostile to this legislation. They have passed upon it year after year in the legisla- ture, and have attempted to seek its repeal. Senator Hollis. Eight there, if you will excuse me: You find more active opposition from the manufacturers than from the retail merchants? Miss O'Connor. Yes ; I should say so. _ Senator Hollis. The textile industry of Massachusetts is a pretty difficult one to handle, is it not ? Miss O'Connor. I think the opposition in the textile industry has been extraordinarily vicious. The laundry managers and the candy manufacturers have made efforts against it. They ha^'e openly disavowed the theory that they ought to pay their own lalior costs. MINIMUM WAGE BOAED FOE DISTBICT OP COLUMBIA. 39 While this opposition has hampered the operation of the law, it has reacted, I think, in favor of the legislation itself, by causing the element that disapproves and disavows those tactics to favor the legislation, and do what they can for its success. It has caused the labor movement to take a more active part in advancing the legisla- tion, and it has caused the fair employer, who has been referred to so often, to take a definite stand in favor of the legislation. Senator Hollis. You think that on the whole the Massachusetts law has worked well? Miss O'Connor. Yes. I would like to say that I think it has worked very well indeed in the instances where it has been per- mitted to_ operate ; and, furthermore, it has had a tremendous effect on injustice where it has not actually been in operation. I am a telephone operator, myself, and we have a very strong, militant or- ganization, and we have been able to increase our wages ver\- con- siderably through that organization, and, nevertheless, I am con- vinced that a great deal of the success we have had in raising our wages has been due to the fact that there is a commission in jMassa- chusetts, and that public attention has been focussed on the question of low wages ; although probably the telephone industry would not be particularly hurt, because the compensation is highc-i- than in many other industries in the country on which a minimum wage might operate. Senator Hoijlis. My attention has been attracted to that. I think in this country that women have not been very successful in forming efficient trade-unions. Possibly the telephone operators ha\e. be- caus3 their means of communication are better than others. Miss O'Connor. Their means of communication on the job, I have no doubt. Of course, as Mrs. Axtell says, nothing is more certain than what we earn determines how we shall live. Better wages mean better food and clothing and education, and more opportunity and books. John Mitchell said, " The world does not owe us a living, but we owe it to ourselves." Mr. Mitchell spoke out of the power of a great organization. I repeat that I believe the best effect comes from the splendid moral force which is exerted. The more that is said about low wages the less that needs to be done from the outside. The more employers who will ask themselves, "What does it cost to live," rather than " How little can you live on," the more girls that will refuse to hold themselves cheaply and that will demand more of life. My experience on two wage boards in Massachusetts has been illuminating. I am a trade-unionist, of course, and can plead no neutrality in the matter. Minimum-wage legislation was looked upon, and perhaps still is by some trade-unionists, as experimental. In fact, it is regarded' by some as a detriment to organization. I do not so regard it. I do not believe that it ought to be a substitute for organization, of course. I believe it ought to be a supplement to organization. The formation of the wage boards and their methods and operation in Massachusetts, at least, and I believe that is the \»'ay the law will be enforced here, is in the form of collective bar- gaining. It is true that the employers on the one hand have no force of a union behind them to instruct their representatives in the first place, and in the second place to enforce the decree when it is 40 MINIMUM WAGE BOAED FOB DISTKICT OF COLUMBIA. made, but at the same time it is a practice for them to develop and bring about in their respective industries such conditions as they might under more fortunate circumstances be able to bring about under trades-union organizations. The brush board was established in 1914, I believe. It is a very old Massachusetts industry, a very poorly paid industry; a small industry, of course. The wages, I think Mr. Holcombe said, aver- aged about $6 a week when the board began to sit. As the result of the findings of the board a minimum of $8.60 was established. In the retail-stores industry, of course, the conditions were diflfer- ent. On the brush board the manufacturers voted against the decree. The majority, when the decree was voted, was made up of the rep- resentatives of the workers and the public. On the retail-store board, however, the representatives of the employers voted for the decree, which was $8.50 at that time. I am sure if the board was to vote now it would bring in an entirely different figure, but that was three years ago. The sole representative of the employers who voted against that decree was the gentleman representing the 5 and 10 cent stores. In the very industry where the need of the operation of the mini- mum-wage law is most apparent, in the very industry in which wages are lowest, there Avas this resistance from the employers. You speak of the textile industries, Senator HoUis; I think that is so there. The decree went into effect of the retail stores wage board. I think it is only fair to say that one reason, perhaps, why those employers on the retail stores wage board opposed it was the fact that such penalty as the commissioners had in Massachusetts would be more effective in the case of the retail stores than with anybody else, and, of course, the 5 and 10 cent store man does not care so much about the publication of the facts in the case as would a department store of the higher grade and class, and so that condition had its bearing on the question of the unanimity, or the degree of unanimity, with which the decision was reached. That condition is true also of another board, and that was the clothing board. There is now a fairly good organization of the trade on the employees' side, and that decree was also a unanimous one, the union, of course, being in a position to enforce it, and the employers, possibly, foreseeing that and preferring to do the right thing of them- selves, as they would otherwise have to'do anyway. A great deal has been said, not particularly at that hearing but at other times, by the opponents of the wage legislation, about the in- sidious effect of legislation in displacing workers who are not able, as they say, to earn the rate. I have here a reprint from the Boston Transcript of an investigation made after the decree went into effect in the retail stores, and it summarizes very effectively the effect of that decree, and I will file it with the committee and will not take your time in reading it now. Senator Hollis. Very well. You might state the drift of it. Miss O'Connor. The drift of it is that the number of girls who are displaced is insignificant. There are some periods of unemployment which must be subtracted, times when the girls stay at home because they prefer to spend the time on work there or to waste the time rather than to work; but the total result is that is was an insignificant nura- MINIMUM WAGE BOAKD FOE DISTKICT OF COLUMBIA. 41 ber of girls who were displaced by the operation of the economic wage law. [Applause.] ■ Mrs. Kelley. I should like you to hear next, Mr. Chairman, a rep- resentative of the "Women's Trades Union League of the District of Columbia, Miss Mary O'SuUivan. STATEMENT OF MISS MARY O'SULLIVAN. Miss O'SuLLivAN-. Mr. Chairman, I am about to tell you in a few words how I lived on $7 a week at one time. It is a very poor story, but it may help you to see the very great necessity for the mini- mum wage, at least in the District of Columbia. In 1915 I started to work in a department store, not through choice but. through necessity — it being impossible to secure any other posi- tion or job of any kind — at $5 a week, and after working for six months for this wage I pleaded with my employer, and was granted a $1 a week raise. At that time I lived with an aunt. She died, and other friends I had left the city, and therefore I was thrown completely on my own resources ; and being dependent on myself, I had to live on that $6 a week for six months. It is a time I do not care to speak about. It meant walking home from the down-town section in the warm even- ings, doing without lunch and other necessities. It meant a very meager sort of boarding house and it meant hardships of mind and body. Senator Hollis. Tell me, how much did you have to pay for your actual food, to eat, during that time? Miss O'SuLLivAN. I paid $18 a month for room and board. Senator Hollis. Eighteen dollars a month. Thank you. Miss O'SuLLivAN. That was in 1915. After living on this wage for about six months, I interceded again with my employer and was granted a $1 a week increase of wage, after six weeks' appeal. Then, living was becoming hard, and I could not possibly exist in the town on that same board that I had been paying, so I moved to the suburbs, where I was happy enough to fall in with a family who were so charitable as to give me a room and board for $21 a month. I earned $31 a month. I had to pay car fare, living there. and I had to dress myself, and, of course, having no ready cash to pay out, I had to avail myself of credit with the store. The stores give us girls what they call "charges." That was $2 a week, about $8.50 a month, which, with my board, made $29.50 a month, which left me $1.50 for amusement, church collection, and the life insurance which I had to carry. That is just how I lived on $7 a week until I could get a better position. My case is only one of thousands in the stores. There are women to-day in the stores who are supporting families on $7 a week. The employers might argue, and the employers' great argument is at present that they are paying a war wage this last year. That is because hundreds of employees have left to fill more lucrative positions, and left the more lucrative positions to be filled by others, and lots of those better jobs have been gotten by these girls who will hold them just during the period of the war. A shott while ago one of these employers in one of the larger depart- ment stores threatened that after the war was over we would be 42 MINIMUM WAGE BOABD FOB DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA. glad to return to the old conditions again and return to the $i or $5 or $6 a week. Now, in this position we would ask the gentlemen of the Senate to relieve us, to help us get a minimum wage m the District, and a wage board so that the women would not have to work as thousands now work, giving seven or eight years of service for $7 or $8 a week wage, which is considered a maximum wage by the employers who employ us. In these conditions we would ask you to help us to get better positions in business. Senator Hollis. At what age did you leave school ? Miss O'SuixiVAN. Twelve years. Senator Hollis. What school were you a graduate of? Miss O'SuLLivAN. No school in this country, you know. Senator Hollis. Oh, not in this country ? Miss O'SuLLivAN. No; I came from Ireland. Mrs. Kelley. Mr. Chairman, I shall call on Mr. Walter S. Uflord for a few words. STATEMENT OF ME. WALTEE F. UFFOED. Senator Hollis. What organization do you represent? Mr. UrroED. Mr. Chairman, I have been asked to speak for the Monday Evening Club. I had asked Mr. McKelway to attend this hearing, but he is not here and has not been here this morning, I believe. Am I right? Mrs. Kelley. Yes. Mr. Uffokd. The Monday Evening Club voted to send a repre- sentative here to assure this committee that they were in thorough sympathy with this legislation. My position is that of secretary of the Associated Charities. Senator Hollis. In your opinion, could we get good service on this commission if we paid, say, $10 a day for actual service for each member instead of a salary ? Mr. Ufford. I believe you could ; or, if you paid nothing. Senator Hollis. Of course your association is a very unusual one and has done splendid work in the District without compensation. I know that. But in a matter of this kind do you not think you would be more likely to get the work that we would need out of the members of this board if they were paid salaries than if we were to pay a per diem compensation ? Mr. Ufford. As Commissioner Brownlow says, coiiipensation puts everybody on an equality, and that is the great argument for it. I think I may say, Mr. Chairman, that as social workers we are very much more interested in the coming of social justice and in preventive measures than we are in the mere giving of alms. The sooner we get away from the necessity of giving alms, even if we put ourselves out of business, the sooner we will feel that we have accomplished our purpose, and this has a very direct bearing along the lines o:^ preventive measures. As I said yesterday, briefly, we have found that under the present continuous employment conditions prevailing in Washington, our work last winter, notwithstanding the extreme cold, and a good deal of illness, has been reduced so far as the number of families coming to us is concerned, and we account for that from the fact that em- ployees are at a premium ; not necessarily that wages are where they MINIMUM WAGE BOARD FOB DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA. 43 should be, but the continuity of employment and the abundance of it causes exerybody to be needed who is able to work, and gives them an opportunit}' of finding that work. In the preparation of our fa,mily budget, in determining how much should be allowed to a family when conditions have become subnormal on account of ill- ness or neglect on the part of the wage earner, we have found that the eai-nings of the collateral members of the family, the young peo- ple, have been very much less than was necessary for their own sup- port, and this is true also of the earnings of the women, particularly in the laundries. I do not know that this bill would have any effect on domestic employment, but we do know that the wages that have prevailed in Washington have been, before the war, comparatively low. I only want to add our testimony, Mr. Chairman, as social workers, to the effect that we would welcome legislation of this character, and believe that it is along the lines of social justice. Mrs. Florence Kellet. Yesterday Commissioner Meeker, of the Bureau of Labor Statistics, appeared before the House committee, and he called attention to the results of his bureau's investigation. He is incapacitated from speaking to-day by reason of the condi- tion of his throat, and begged to be excused from coming before the committee, but he will file with the committee the figures he gave yesterday, if you wish to have them. Senator Hollis. Very well. Mrs. Kelley. Mr. Chairman, I should like to have you hear for a few minutes, if you will, Miss Haver, one of the investigators, who will be the last speaker. Senator Hollis. Very well. STATEMENT OF MISS JESSIE R. HAVER, LAST YEAR A SPECIAL AGENT FOR THE UNITED STATES BUREAU OF LABOR STATIS- TICS, NOW EXECUTIVE SECRETARY OF THE CONSUMERS' LEAGUE OF THE DISTRICT. Miss Haver. The figures which were gathered for the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics covered 600 wage-earning women in the District of Columbia, and revealed several unusual and rather startling facts. The first was that 72 per cent of these 600 women were 21 years of age or over, so that they were not all, by any means, young, inexperienced wage earners. Forty-six per cent, nearly one-half, of them were getting less than $8 a week in April, 1916.' We have a statement from Mr. Hege, of the room-registration bureau, which corroborates a statement made by Mr. Baldwin before the subcommittee of the Committee on the District of Columbia of the Senate, in which he says that board and lodging can be secured now by girls in Washington for $35 a month. Senator Hollis. The exact statement was made in reply to a ques- tion by me whether a respectable boarding place with wholesome food could be secured by a woman in Washington for less than $35 a month, because there is a great difference between living in a re- spectable place with wholesome food, and living in many other places with very poor food. Miss Haver. Yes. We found that 46 per cent of these 600 women in 1916 were getting less than $8 a week. That is not quite $35 a month. PROPERTY OF LIBRARY ^ NEW YORK STATE SCHOOL mmmi and labor relations CORNELL UNIVERSITY 44 MINIMUM WAGE BOABD FOE DISTBICT OP COLUMBIA. In Washington 31 per cent of girls were found to be living away from home. Forty-five per cent of the total number of 600 v^omen investigated were in receipt of outside assistance. Twenty-one per cent of the 600 women had dependents. That is, one-fifth of the women investigated had people who were dependent upon them for some assistance. We found that 53 per cent of the women investigated were earning less than $9 a week, and of these, one-half had been working for five years and more, thus proving that they were not inexperienced workers. Then the final thing which was of interest was the question of clothing. You so often hear it said, " If these women are getting such low wages, how can they wear silk stockings and high-heeled shoes ? " Judgments based on personal observations are often mis- leading, because you see the girls in high-heeled shoes but you sel- dom notice the vastly larger number who are not so well dressed. Some years ago $88 a year was named by the New York State Factorj' Investigating Commission as the lowest expenditure on which a woman could dress herself and be respectable in 1915. Forty- two per cent of these women were spending less than $88 in the year 1916. In 1916 a $100 standard was proposed by the New York State Factory Investigating Commission as the amount necessary, and we found 52 per cent of these 600 wage-earning women in Washington who spent less than that $100 a year. The United States Bureau of Labor Statistics themselves set a standard in 1916 of $125 as prices were last year and 68 per cent of the women in Washington spent less than $125 for their clothes in 1916. Mrs. Kellet. That concludes what we have to say, Mr. Chairman, but I should like to have included in the record a very cordial tele- gram received from one of the largest department stores on the Pa- cific coast — the Emporium, in San Francisco. I will file a copy of this telegram with the reporter. Senator Hollis. Let it go in the record. Mrs. Kellet. This telegram is as follows [reading] : San Peancisco, Cal., April 13, 19J8. Josephine Goldmakke, Stoneleigh Court, Washington, D. C: At the request of the Industrial Welfare Commission of California we are glad to assure you that we have operated under the minimum-wage law for women for the past six months and find it not only beneficial for our employees but for ourselves as well. We feel that the mercantile community In the East, when its operation is better understood, will agree with the majority of the merchants here that it is wise and progressive legislation. B. F. SCHLESINGEE, General Manager of the Emporium. Mrs. Kellet. That is all wc have, Mr. Chairman. Senator Hollis. You have not anyone to call in opposition? Mrs. Kellet. No ; we have not. Senator Hollis. Then we will call the hearings closed, and thank you for coming. (At 1.15 o'clock p.m. the subcommittee adjourned.) Cornell University Library HD4919.D6A5 1918b Minimum Wage Board.Hearing before tiie Su 3 1924 003 821 232 PRESSBOARD ■^ Manu/acluit J t|f . eAYLORD BROS. Inc. SyrKUM, N. Y. Stukto*, CM. PROPERTY OF LIBRARY NEW YORK STATE SCHOOL BmiSTRiAl AND LABOR RaAtiONS 4)&flNEU. UNIVERSITY T) b ^ (J £> m^