INDEX showed 64.3 percent of seamless knitting equipment located in the South. The FROM "FINDINGS AND POLICY" "Such effects upon interstate and foreign commerce in textile products have The Congress of the United States as a matter of legislative determination "(1) Under present unregulated conditions, wages below a decent standard of right of self-organization and collective bargaining, and excess production prevail 5. WAGE RATES IN THE HOSIERY INDUSTRY Wages, like prices, were abnormally high in 1929. In the following 2 years. Union piece rates per dozen pairs full-fashioned hosiery (excluding dyeing) Source: Industrial Research Department of the University of Pennsylvania. INDEX The rate for 1935 was substantially the same as that for 1934. Full-fashioned plants operating under union agreements constitute 17 percent of the total number, and produce 28 percent of the product. However, nonunion plants which produce another 55 percent of the product pay rates equal to the union rates. The recent Hosiery Code very materially increased wage rates and earnings in seamless plants. For the most part these gains remain in effect. With respect to "wages below a decent standard of health and living", a survey made in April of 1935 by the Hosiery Code Authority showed that the hourly rate in both the full-fashioned and seamless branches of the industry was such as would provide, on a 40-hour-week basis, earnings substantially above the code minimum, which presumably was established as a fair living wage. Thus, for the pay roll period including April 15, 1935, the average earnings of full-fashioned leggers, on a 40-hour-week basis, were $35.60, and the earnings of footers on the same basis were $44. Knitters on automatic machines earned at the rate of $16.40 for a 40-hour week, and knitters on transfer machines at the rate of $14 per week. 6. WORK HOURS The restricted daily and weekly shift hours established under the Hosiery Code are being maintained with few exceptions in the 807 plants of the industry located in 32 States. This statement is supported by the fact that from organized labor and members of the industry we have knowledge of only 41 cases in which hosiery manufacturers have been charged with increasing shift hours, carrying on Saturday work, or operating three shifts. 7. CHILD LABOR The hosiery industry, even prior to the code, was almost free from the use of child labor. Under the code it was entirely free, and to the best information available, there is no child labor being used today. No complaint has been received directly or indirectly that children under 16 years of age are being employed. 8. WORK ASSIGNMENTS No complaint has been received from labor or elsewhere on this score since the code. During the code, there were not over a half dozen instances in which labor or others charged a "stretch-out." 9. CONDITIONS OF WORK The hosiery industry has never been seriously indicted for "unhealthy and demoralizing conditions of work." The character of the product manufactured is not one that invites such conditions. No charge of such conditions was made during the code period nor has any been received since. 10. PRODUCTIVE CAPACITY The overcapacity of the seamless branch of the industry is the result principally of a pronounced and rapid shifting of demand from ladies' seamless hosiery to ladies' full-fashioned hosiery during the post-war period ending 1930, supplemented by similar reductions in demand for golf hose and ribbed goods. No industry planning, private or governmental, can control such changes in demand. The rapidity with which these changes took place, left not only overcapacity of equipment, but similarly an excess in the number of sources of supply. Much of the seamless product today holds its place in the market by price consideration only. Curtailment below the existing short shifts would, therefore, further handicap the product in the market, which is today facing a new serious threat from the rapidly increasing volume of very cheap Japanese cotton hosiery imports. We estimate the potential productive capacity of the full-fashioned branch of the industry at 45,600,000 dozen pairs of women's full-fashioned hosiery per year, or an average of 3,800,000 dozen pairs per month. In October of 1935, total fullfashioned production amounted to 3,705,747 dozen pairs, utilizing almost full capacity. This branch of the industry experiences annually two pronounced valleys and peaks of demand. During the latter the productive capacity is called into play. The style and color demands being seasonal, it is difficult to iron out the peaks. The following table shows stocks of full-fashioned and seamless hosiery on hand in recent years: Stocks of hoisery on hand (dozens of pairs; 000 omitted) The figures show that there has been no excessive building-up of stocks in recent years, especially when the increased volume of shipments is considered. 11. GROWTH OF EMPLOYMENT The statement in the Ellenbogen bill that "widespread unemployment" is present in the textile industry does not apply to the hosiery industry, as the following figures of number of workers employed indicate: In further refutation of this statement it would be well to call attention to the fact that the Hosiery Worker, official organ of the American Federation of Hosiery Workers, has, during recent months, frequently had to advertise for hosiery workers in order to assure an adequate force in the union mills. Specifically, we find the following advertisements in issues of the Hosiery Workers since September 1: In addition to these ads for workers, this publication, during the same period, has twice carried announcements urging any unemployed members of the union to register, thus further evidencing shortage of available skilled workers. NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF HOSIERY MANUFACTURERS. FEBRUARY 4, 1936. Mr. SCHNEIDER. I wish to place in the record a letter from Mr. Arthur Besse, of the National Association of Wool Manufacturers, which is in response to a request for certain data. (The document referred to is as follows:) NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF WOOL MANUFACTURERS, Hon. GEORGE J. SCHNEIDER, House of Representatives, Washington, D. C. DEAR MR. SCHNEIDER: You asked me on the stand on Thursday if I could give you a tabulation showing the different elements in cost in the making of piece goods. I am attaching hereto table 11 which is taken from the Federal Trade Commission report issued in the middle of last year. This gives the major ele ments of cost as expressed in percentage of selling price. You will note that in the period from July to December 1933 there was a substantial profit. This was due largely to inventory appreciation. The fall in prices in the succeeding year wiped out most of what proved to be the fictitious profits of 1933. The Federal Trade Commission collected figures for other items of expense but have never made them public. The item of "Other manufacturing expense" included the following: Power purchased; fuel consumed; dyes and chemicals; supplies, repairs, and maintenance; taxes; depreciation on plant and equipment; mill office expense; insurance, welfare, etc.; rents; miscellaneous. The item of "Selling, administrative, and general expense" included the following: Selling commissions and expenses; officers salaries; interest; other general expense. I trust this is the information you desire and that it will be helpful to you. ARTHUR BESSE. TABLE 11.-Percentages of specified costs, expenses, and profit to sales for 125 woolen and worsted companies combining both spinning and weaving for specified periods Mr. Wood. At this point, Mr. Chairman, I would like to place in the record a letter written by Mr. Paul E. Dean, president of Local Union No. 2182, Union Textile Workers, of Clinton, S. C., in which he encloses some photographs of the textile workers' tents and shacks that they were living in when they were evicted and placed out in the street after the National Labor Relations Board, of Washington, D. C., ordered the Clinton Cotton Mills, of Clinton, S. C., to reinstate former employees to their former positions with pay as of August 26, 1935, to date of reinstatement. But up to the present time these employees have not been reinstated. There were 15 families. I would like to put this in the record at this point, if there is no objection. (The document, enclosing the photographs, is as follows:) CLINTON, S. C., February 1, 1936. From: Local Union No. 2182, U. T. W. of A, (Clinton Cotton Mills), Clinton S. C. Enclosing snapshot views of 15 families evicted after the National Labor Relations Board, Washington, D. C., ordered the Clinton Cotton Mills, Clinton, S. C., reinstate these former employees to their former positions, with pay from August 26, 1935, to date of reinstatement, but up to present date these employees have not been reinstated, and the pictures will show the conditions these people now exist under at present, and also you will find several views of the homes these people live in, the present rent here 50 cents a room or $1 a week for 4 rooms. These families or people you see in the views, after being evicted did not have any place to go, as the sky was the roof, and I asked Gov. Olin D. Johnston for the tents, and this is the present condition or status. As you know the Clinton Cotton Mill, Clinton, S. C., case happens to be now in the Board's hands for execution. |