EXHIBIT J.


 November 15, 1933


 Mr. Maurice S. Mosesson
 Associated Handbag Industries of America
 303 Fifth Avenue
 New York, New York

 Dear Mr. I.Tosesson:

 I promised today to secure for the members of your industry an
 interpretation of the policy of this Administration as regards classified
 wage rates, and in particular an interpretation of the phrase tt"asing
 rates".

 The Administration will not in the future approve Codes of Fair
 Competition containing union agreements or classified wage scales. It
 will, however, approve codes containing two or three basing rates. Such
 basing rates are to be in no way confused with the so-called "classified"
 rates. The term "basic rates" may best be explained by an example.
 Where there exists a clear, well-defined and logical separation of emoloy-
 ees in an industry into two or three groups, a basic wage may be set for
 each group. Thus, in the steel industry, for example, there is a very
 sharp line of demarcation between skilled and unskilled labor. If you
 will remember, in our conference last Friday, I suggested that it might
 be possible to set one minimum wage for manufacturing employees and a
 another minimum for non-manufacturing employees. The difficulty of such
 a proposal became at once apparent, however. Someone else, Ur. Waldman
 I believe, suggested that the line be drawn according to skill or length
 of time employed. The term "skilled", however, is one very difficult
 to define and the length of service is by no means an adequate criterion.

 So far as I am able to judge, there is no clear basis on which a
basic rate above the minimum may be fixed in your industry. Th-re does
not exist in this industry any such clear separation of employees into
groups as there does, for instance, in the steel industry. Should the
Ladies' Handbag Industry desire to set a basic rate above the minimum,
it might be done by some such plan as this: The minimum might be defined
to apply to the so-called non-manufacturing employees and the twc or
three types of manufacturing employees who customarily receive the lowest
wages paid in the industry. Following that basic rate might be provided
for manufacturing employees, except for those employees as are already
included in the above group. I think such a plan might be workable.

 I hope that I have clearly set forth the policy of the Administration
in this matter. I urge you to complete the negotiations on this code as
quickly as possible. I should like to set a date for hearing sometime
this week at the very latest, next week.
 I appreciate your cooperation in the past and anticipate your
continued cooperation in the future.
 Very truly yours,
 cw/g James C. Worthy, Assistant reouty Administrator.
 jcwlg
 CC sent to Schlesigner and Waldman
9811