record-breaking 91-percent occupancy. Because of manpower, food and supply shortages, many hotels are forced to curtail their dining-room service while patrons still are standing in line for tables. Consequently, dining-room sales in most cases cannot be increased to any appreciable degree.

To expect hotels to increase their sales 7.1 percent, under present conditions and OPA ceilings, is expecting the impossible.

Irrespective of the possible merit of proposed Federal action-legislative or administrative seeking to increase the minimum wage rate to 65 cents an hour, I feel it is my duty, as president of the American Hotel Association, with 5,500 members throughout the Nation, to call your attention to the effect such a wage increase would have upon the hotel industry if individual operators must meet this additional pay-roll cost under today's OPA ceilings on rooms, food, and beverages.

I am presenting the results of this Nation-wide survey now in order that you may be fully cognizant of the serious financial situation facing hotels and, therefore, appreciate why hotel operators will be forced to seek relief from present OPA ceilings if operating expenses continue to rise.

Senator TUNNELL. Thank you, gentlemen.

The next witness on my list is Dr. Claudius Murchison, the Cotton Textile Institute.

TESTIMONY OF CLAUDIUS T. MURCHISON, PRESIDENT, THE COTTON TEXTILE INSTITUTE, NEW YORK (ACCOMPANIED BY H. E. MICHL, ECONOMIST)

Mr. MURCHISON. My name is Claudius T. Murchison. I am president of the Cotton Textile Institute, whose main office is at 320 Broadway, New York City.

The Cotton Textile Institute is the central trade association of the spinning and weaving divisions of the cotton textile industry. The industry as a whole consists of about 1,200 manufacturing plants, employing currently about 413,000 people.

The institute embraces in its membership both southern and northern mills, and represents 75 percent of the cotton spindles of the United States.

At the outset, Mr. Chairman, I would like to take a few moments to describe the scope of this industry and its functions.

This industry is composed of about 1,200 mills engaged in spinning cotton yarn and thread and weaving fabrics. Its products cover a wide variety of goods, ranging from the heavy duck to fine voiles.

Except for a few items, such as bed sheets, pillow cases, and towels, the industry does not produce finished products for the ultimate consumer. It is rather a producer of raw materials which are subjected to further processing by the finishing and dyeing industries, which are considered to be separate industries, and are then sold to the various industries which fabricate them into finished products for the consumer for apparel, household, and industrial uses.

This industry presently employs 413,800 workers and in peacetime is one of the largest employers in the country.

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the majority of the workers are semiskilled, representing about 56.2 percent of the labor force. The remaining workers are skilled and unskilled in almost equal proportions. These proportions vary considerably as between the spinning and weaving divisions. In the spinning division 76.3 percent are in the semiskilled group, 8.4 percent are skilled, and 15.3 percent are unskilled. In the weaving division, 46.5 percent are skilled, 28.5 percent are semiskilled, and 25.0 percent are unskilled. Cotton textile industry and the act of 1938: The cotton textile industry has as long an experience with minimum wage legislation as any manufacturing industry in the United States. It was the first industry for which an industry committee was appointed under the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938.

After almost 9 months of careful deliberation the committee recommended a minimum wage of 32%1⁄2 cents, which became effective on October 24, 1939. This rate was in force until June 30, 1941, when the minimum wage was raised to 371⁄2 cents. That rate prevailed until April 30, 1942, when it was increased to 40 cents, the highest mandatory rate pérmitted under the act.

Since then wage rates have continued to move up as the result of both directives issued by the War Labor Board and voluntary action

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