SATURDAY, NOVEMBER · 4, 1933.
THE HONGKONG TELEGRAPH.
DEPRESSION CLOUDS ROLL AWAY
Mr. William Green Soes Day of Brighter Hope -
MR. WILLIAM GREEN, who writes this timely and intereating article has for 10 years been president of the American Fedoration of Labour, now numbering upwards of ten million members.
High in the councils of the "New Deal," Mr. Green is a member
of the Labour Advisory Board created by Prvaldent Roose velt to advise with General Johnson and the NRA, and also a member of the National Labour Board which was set up for the settlement of Industrial controversies arising under the act..
BY WILLIAM GREEN
President of American Federation of. Labour
The "New Deal for Labour" has arrived and, like good that comes from evil, out of the blackness of the depression has dawned a new day of brighter hope and promise for the man and the woman who toil.
Labour firmly believes that the emergency remedies for the nation's economic ills, as ant up in the Na- tional Industrial Recovery Act, will continue as permanent measures.
I speak of:
number of hours workod por day and number of days worked per week was imperative if unemploy ment were to be overcome. New machinery and improved methods of production so had increased efficiency of the individual worker as to make impossible the continu-- anco of the long work day and the long work week, as these termux commonly are understood.
How to market this increasing volume of goods being produced by more efficient workers and highly improved machinery became an acute problem. If goods word to bo nold, buying power must ho created among the masses of tho people; consumera can buy only in la-proportion to their earnings.
Recognition of the right of hour to organize and bargain colles- tively.
Closer relations between employer and employee, of mutual benefit.
Scientific, rather than haphazard, treatment of the unemployment problem by adjustment of work
hours.
It was clear, then, that the wago level must of necessity be raised no
that buying power would corres pond moro nearly with our facilities for increased production.
The National Industrial Recovery Act is designed to accomplish these two main purposes:
1. To overcome unemployment by Abolition of child labour, a curse reducing working time so that the amount of work available may be distributed equitably.
now banished forever,
Beginning of n stendy advanco toward the universal application of the six-hour day and the five-day week.
2. To increase buying power through increased wages.
In simple terms, that means the unemployed shall be returned to work and a market for manu- fuctured goods and farm products created through increased buying
power.
CODES TO BE REVISED.
WILLIAM GREEN.
If such should be the case, basle | Adjustments in working hours con industries, like coal and oil-which be made moro quickly, so that com- actually have been saved from manttles can be spared the distress. economic destruction through oper- ing experiences through which they ntion of the act-would sink back. into a condition of financial and have passed in the last few years. economic callapao. Such situation is unthinkable.
Labour Armly bolloves, adjust- ment of working time will continue Labour believes that the emer-ateadily until the six-hour day and the five-tiny week quite universally aru appiled.
We have seen, within the last few months, the greatest single development in the history of the labour movement. In this period of emergency the foundation has been laid for a new order of
Immediate purpose of the act ta things, a new era in our social and pretty well understood. Its present economic history.
programme has been unfolded dny by day at hearings on industrial codes of fair practice for major industries. Many of these codes,
The right to organiza and bar- of course, necessarlly must be re- vined, because they have been ori-guin collectively will continue to ginated and adopted during a period ba a fixed part of the nation's co- of more or less economic and ad-nomie policy. Out of this will come a higher degree of co-opera- ministrative confusion. But these
tion, collective efficiency, and ordar-
NEW HOPE FOR LABOUR.
Everywhere labour has taken on new hope and new inspiration.It is reflected in the spirit and the outlook of all classes of men and women who toil.
The right to organize as set forth in the National Industrial Recovery Act is regarded as a basis of not only present benefits, but also of long-range benefits, to the entire working population.
1
details will not alter their purpose.
genes remedies provided in this act will continuo and be used as per manent measures,
ly procedure.
The recovery act, of course, is an
Labour will become a more vital emergency measure. It is designed to remain in effect for two years, and important factor in our scheme or perhaps less. But this does not of industrial production and in the mean that the economic and in-development of industrial policies dustrial principles ant policies em- Ibodied in this act will cease to be WORKING TIME ADJUSTED.
It has been quite clear to all operative at the end of this short thinking people that adjustment in
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Unemployment will be dealt with In a selantine and constructive way
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As a matter of fact, the number of hours worked per day and the number of days worked per week must be adjusted to the point where the slack of unemployment will be
overcome.
Another
tho achievement is prosent tamporary eliriination of child labour, which will become the axed and permanent pulley of the nation.
All these divances mean much to the future of the working people and those dependent upon tiram for living. This development is socially significant because it means the enjoyment of a greater degree of leisure by the worker, with increased sponding power.
WHOLE NATION TO BENEFIT.
Labour firmly believes that this means a profound development in the cultural and artistic values of human life-an addition to the sum totel of human happiness.
Not only will labour benefit; it
of
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A DEMOCRATIC BALKAN MONARCH
KING BORIS OF BULGARIA'S VISIT
TO ENGLAND
The time was a week or two ago. The place was the dining room one of London's Ritzhest hotels. The occasion was dinner. Many of the best people" were there, dressed to the nines, all the man-in-ovoning garb and the women in the latest Paris models.
d'otat overthrow the ministry and Premier Stambollsky was the vic- tim of a horrible assassination, being almost chopped to places. Nono of these events shook the
nerve of the young king. He often went to the country and lived the life of a simple poasant. His main
bread, fruit and a glass of beer. His principal diversion was sitting
Everything was peaceful and pleasant until a dark-haired, dark-meal consisted of cheese and black moustached man of medium height entered with his wife and unob trusively ant down at a vacant tab le. Then there was a buzz. For the men wore an ordinary blue lounge suit and soft cellar. and the woman was in a plain mauve-coloured travelling dress.
"Who are those people, I won-ja great Kingdom and Tirnova was der?" exclaimed one woman, quite its capital.
The loss of the war brought at the top of her adenoids.
The walter said he understood about revolution in Bulgaria and like to come quietly to countries
at the throttle of a callway engine, He has gradually won the affection. of most of his subjects, but the crown still lies uneasily on his head. There are always fanatica who may try to blow it off.
Which is why ho and, his Queen
is fair to assume that all the people they were a certain Dr. Handile Ferdinand abdicated in October, like England and play at being
of the entire nation will step up and occupy a higher plane of living than they ever have known before, That is labour's long-range view of the "New Deal."
The road leading toward that goal la long, of course, and beset with problems and difficulties that must be overcome, but already wa are travelling on that road and making progreSH,
Already, through creation of new than work opportunities, more 2,600,000 unemployed have been re- turned to work since the recovery programme became operative, Buying power has been increased greatly and it will continue to in- crease in proportion to the number of idle workers restored to employ ment, and also through the increase in continued earning power that comes with steady jobs,
NEW SPIRIT BORN.
An increased spirit of unity and co-operation la apparent among the nation's workers spirit born of their now freedom and their new opportunity for collective action as reflected by the fact that during the Inst four monthe 1,600,000 new members have been added to the rolls of the American Federation of Labour and its affiliated inter- national unions,
For four years the nation has faced one of the most trying porjods In its history, To-day, we look to tho futuro with hope and courage, confident that out of chastening evil there has come enduring good.
and wife.
1918, Aceing to Coburg, Germany, "Of course," Buld the shocked. SANGUINARY YEARS. clothes-rack, "all those people Internally there was one trouble with such names who come from after another. In 1923 a coup the Balkans, never know how to do things proporly, no matter how much money they may have."
And that was that, until- The Handjieffs had finished their meal, paid their bill, given their tip and strolled out.
At the door-way they were met by a band of Italian walters, clerks and hotel officials, who stood stilly at attention and gave them the Fascist salute,
Then a secret was revealed and all the "best people" felt worde than ever. For the Handjieffs wore. none other than King Borls of Bulgaria and his pretty wife, Queen Giovanna, daughter of Italy's monarch.
It was just one of those incl dents, which if it had come to the ears of Boris, would have afforded him vust amusement. He is like that. He is a most democratic king. He likes going about incog- nito. He dislikes fuss and feathere Ruler of a nation of peasants, ho likes to be a plain man among plain men. In this he 'differs very much from his father, ex-Czar Fer dinand of Bulgaria; who loved the glamour which goes with kingship. KING'S PAWN,
Boris was born at Soda, his country's captial, on January. 80, 1894. From the start, Czar Fordi- To labour, the "Now Doal" means nand made his baby hair an im more than just a temporary and portant pawn in his game of win emergency stop to combat the doning the affections of the Bulgar pression-it holds the promise of lan people. The infant was pro the dawn of a new 'ora for the claimed Prince of Tirnova in mom. millions who toll.
ory of the days when Bulgaria was
the sightseeing Handjieffs, taking
a bus ride, dropping in any old time and old place, for a bite to cat, mingling with the folks and being treated like one of them.
King Boris and Queen Glovanna stop for a chat with
·London."