National Policy Toward Labor
| Author | William Hard |
| DOI | 10.1177/000271624222400125 |
| Published date | 01 November 1942 |
| Date | 01 November 1942 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
152
National
Policy
Toward
Labor
By
WILLIAM
HARD
OUR
national
policy
toward
labor
has
been
characteristic
of
a
de-
mocracy
in
the
stage
of
disintegration
into
special-interest
groups.
In
such
a
stage
each
group
becomes
the
object
of
&dquo;regulation&dquo;
or
of
&dquo;relief&dquo;
in
accordance
with
special
political
pressures
and
to-
ward
an
outcome
which
is
regarded
as
a
special
end
in
itself.
Little
or
no
con-
sideration
is
given
to
the
idea
of
a
total
organic
society
to
which
each
group
should
make
a
positive
contribution.
Thus
the
stock
exchanges
get
regu-
lated
to
prevent
them
from
doing
harm;
but
the
legislators
are
not
concerned
with
any
effort
to
cause
them
to
do
good
and
to
be
dynamically
serviceable
to
our
total
economy.
Similarly
our
agricul-
ture
becomes
the
recipient
of
measures
of
relief;
but
these
measures
are
de-
signed
to
increase
agricultural
income.
They
are
not
designed
to
harmonize
agriculture
and
industry
into
a
more
effective
and
more
progressive
total
eco-
nomic
system.
This
same
principle
of
particularism
(which
corresponds
within
a
country
to
nationalistic
particularism
in
world
af-
fairs)
has
been
broadly
apparent
in
the
attitudes
taken
by
our
National
Gov-
ernment
toward
the
distresses
and
the
ambitions
of
labor.
On
the
whole,
dur-
ing
the
last
fifty
years
those
attitudes
have
been
increasingly
friendly
and
fa-
vorable.
Labor
was
an
underdog.
It
was
able
to
display
genuine
and
appeal-
ing
grievances.
It
deserved
relief
and
protection.
Thereupon
it
was
given
laws
which
protected
it
against
other
interests,
even
as
tariff
duties
protect
the
manufacturer
and
the
farmer
against
adverse
international
market
conditions.
Most
of
the
first
interventions
of
our
National
Government
in
the
field
of
la-
bor
were
centered
upon
its
own
duties
as
an
employer
or
as
a
buyer.
Limits
were
put
on
the
hours
to
be
worked
by
employees
in
the
service
of
the
Govern-
ment
or
in
the
service
of
contractors
executing
governmental
construction
as-
signments.
A
short
step
then
took
the
Government
into
requiring
the
payment
of
the
&dquo;prevailing
wage
scale&dquo;
to
the
employees
of
those
contractors
and
also
to
the
employees
of
manufacturers
en-
gaged
in
selling
supplies
to
governmen-
tal
agencies.
The
final
step
in
this
phase
of
the
matter
was
taken
when
the
Government
laid
down
rules
regarding
maximum
basic
hours
and
minimum
basic
wages
in
all
industries
in
interstate
commerce,
whether
dealing
with
the
Government
or
not.
APATHETIC
TOWARD
INCREASING
NATION’S
INCOME
These
successive
enactments
may
be
taken
as
establishing
for
labor
the
prin-
ciple
that
has
been
simultaneously
established
also
for
agriculture.
The
Government
is
concerned
with
the
pro-
portion
of
our
national
income
that
shall
go
to
farmers
and
with
the
pro-
portion
of
it
that
shall
go
to
wage
work-
ers.
It
is
concerned
only
slenderly
and
utterly
ineffectively
with
the
enlarge-
ment
of
our
national
income
except
through
spendings
out
of
borrowings
and
through
fattening
the
present
out
of
the
earnings
of
the
future.
To
in-
crease
our
real
present
national
income
has
engaged
the
attention
of
only
a
few
of
our
legislators
and
administra-
tors.
The
main
aim
has
been
to
share
the
wealth,
even
if
the
effort
should
diminish
the
amount
of
wealth
to
be
shared.
Both
major
parties
have
affixed
their
signatures
to
laws
in
this
direction
on
behalf
of
labor.
The
Davis-Bacon
&dquo;pre-
at SAGE PUBLICATIONS on December 4, 2012ann.sagepub.comDownloaded from
To continue reading
Request your trial