THE CALIFOR}.IIA LUMBERMERCHANT JackDiorrne,fubldhu

LOS ANGELES, CAL., JULY l, 1933

Gen. JohnsonCalls for United Action in Plain-Spoken Recital of

The new Federal Recovery Act may seem somewhat difficult of understanding to the casual reader, but when Hugh S. Johnson, director of national recovery under this act, went on the air Sunday night, June 25th, and explained in thirty minutes time just what it was all about, it seemed simple enough. Greneral Johnson talked plainly, forcefully, pointedly, and very clearly on this subject that engrosses the mind of the nation today.

Twelve million men are still without employment, said Mr. Johnson. They must be put to work before we can see the return of prosperity. The recovery act proposes to start putting those men to work by putting into general practice throughout the nation a plan exa,ctly in line with the Sharethe-Work program of last year. The Share-the-Work program has not been changed one single hair. But a practical plan for making it effective through compulsory practice is what the recovery act aims to be.

The available employment, said Mr. Johnson, must be divided among a greater number of men, by working each man shorter hours.

Then, each man must be paid not less than a living wage. He said he had been asked what the working day should be and the minimum wage, and that no rigid rule could be laid down, since conditions would be different in different localities and industries, but that "under present conditions, and as far as lowest paid class workers are concerned, an average of about 32 hours a week at not less than 45 cents an hour would do this job."

Then the in,creased labor charge shall be added to the cost of doing business, which is to be taken care of by the permission to fix reasonable prices at which the commodities shall be sold to the publi'c. Here General Johnson issued a very stern warning against profiteering. He said that "if we do a thing like this and do not also put some control on undue price increases so that prices will not move up one bit faster than is justified by higher costs, the consuming public is going to suffer, the higher wages won't do any good, and the whole bright chance will turn out to be a ghastly failure and another shattered hope. This does