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 C THE iMEEC'R C0.IPANY, I1iC.
 0 Joplin, i.Iissouri.
 p
 -7 ij[arch 8, 1935.|

Mir. Howvell Cheney
Industrial Advlsorry Board ,1
National ecovery Adiainistration
Washington, D. C.

Der Sir: .PH|

 With reference to your recent communications relative to our
position in the h.ndbcg industry and our contention that we should havq1'
a "age differential, J-n( that we should be permitted to employ learnersi
at less than the minimum "-:ge.

 71e want you to kno"w that we fully uoppreciate the interest ya.Q
are taking in our case. It is the first rel interest that has ever be
shown by anyone connected Tith the Administration, with none shown by
Code Authority.

 7We particularly :,..)preciate the advice in -our letter of Feb.
19th that 'e ende&'or to interest different agencies you mention in te
tifying as to the conditions we are operating under in order to show
ve are really entitled to 'what vwe are contending for.:

 The Code as it now stands provides for learners if the Admini
trator sees fit to grant such. 7e have been unable to get the Code
thority or any of the "7ashington authorities that have heretofore been.
watching this Code to give us such permission; E.ll of them probably fe
ing that if the-,- ere to grant us the privilege of working learners at
less than the minimum wjage, theu- would d porob'obl;o h-.ve to do it for other.
manufacturers. Others may be entitled to such provisions the same as
are.

 We realize there is a surplus of experienced labor in the
but there is no such surplus here in our to-'n; nobody en-oloying labor 4
our- kind except ourselves. There are no other concerns of our kind in
this-pert of the entire coantry,.iii

 As for the differential that 7!e think -"e are justly entitle:d.:-i
to, %:hen the public hearing on the Code ras held in Decemnber 1933 in ..
Wc'shington, which -,as the only meeting we have attended, no objection
a differential was voiced by the le\7 York oeo-le. i.

 A letter addressed to the writer b7 Mar. A. Littenthal, who AM0 :
heads the Handbag Code, is enclosed. This will sho-, you the attitude' '
that then prevailed as to our contention for a differential, and appar2lY
the reason it -ias not incorporated in the Code -.,hen it -as finally ad i :6d.


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