Monthly Report of Labor Secretary, March 4, 1949

MONTHLY REPORT OF LABOR SECRETARY

March 4, 1949

 

Labor Legislation

NAACP requests to be heard on repeal of the Taft-Hartley Act were not acted upon favorably by the Senate Committee on Labor and Public Welfare. We, therefore, submitted a written statement at the committee’s request on February 10.1 Thereafter, we sought support of individual committee members for the Association’s amendments. By February 22, we had commitments for support of non-segregation provisions from Senator Humphrey (D., Minn.), Senator Douglas (D., Ill.) Morse (R., Ore.) and Senator Neely (D., W. Va.).

On February 23, we were invited to present our views in a five-minute statement before the committee. We declined to appear on the ground that this would not give sufficient time for a fair presentation. Other organizations appeared on these terms. One person made the dangerous proposal that the Fair Employment Practice Bill be made a part of the legislation replacing the Taft-Hartley Act. At the hearing, Senator Taft (R., Ohio) was the only committee member who made any kind of statement which was different from what had already been given to the NAACP. The Ohio Senator said he would like to know of just one case in which segregation in unions had been approved under the Taft-Hartley Act. We promptly sent the senator four such cases.2 He has made no reply at the time this report is being written.3

State FEPC Legislation

Apparently the spade work done by the NAACP and other organizations in Pennsylvania counties is beginning to pay off in support of Fair Employment Practice Legislation in that state. It will be recalled that the Labor Secretary spent nearly two months at various intervals working in Pennsylvania at the request of the State Conference and the Pittsburgh branch. It now appears that there are enough votes to get the bill out of committee in the Senate. House leaders believe it will have little trouble in that body. The Governor has given the measure his support.4

The Labor Secretary also made visits to Illinois and Ohio at the request of branches in connection with efforts to pass FEPC legislation in those states. In Ohio, a large part of the work of mobilizing public support for FEPC legislation has been carried on by Charles Lucas, Executive Secretary of the Cleveland Branch. Maynard Dickerson, President of the Ohio State Conference, has also carried a significant part of this work-load.

In Pennsylvania, Mrs. Jeanne Scott, Secretary of the State Conference, has maintained a most cooperative liaison with the Labor Secretary. Dr. Harry J. Greene of Philadelphia is the Association’s representative on the State Committee for FEPC.5

Other states in which branches are pressing for FEPC legislation include New Mexico, Utah, Oregon, Indiana, and Washington. There may be others, but these have not been brought to the attention of this department.6

Employment Services

Our long standing opposition to segregation and Jim-Crow job orders in state employment services continues. Since the funds are now channeled to the states through Mr. Oscar Ewing, Federal Security Administrator, we have asked a restudy of state budgets to eliminate funds spent for separate offices based on race. We have also asked that any qualified colored personnel working in such offices be integrated with white personnel with “great care and persistent scrutiny” to avoid discriminatory firing.

Government Matters

The volume of complaints involving government agencies continues to be heavy although we are now making some progress under the President’s Executive Order establishing a Fair Employment Board. Members of the Board seem ready to do a good job, but the Chairman and Executive Secretary are overly-cautious. We could easily write several lengthy reports on these problems each month, but, to avoid boring readers, we confine ourselves to short paragraphs such as this.

Speeches, Meetings, Etc.

During the month, the Labor Secretary has filled engagements in Pennsylvania and Ohio, mainly on FEPC matters. He also appeared twice before the Capitol Press Club on the labor legislation. The AfroAmerican included the Labor Secretary as one of ten persons on its 1948 Honor Roll in Washington. The citation was for work against government discrimination. The Afro also attacked the failure of the Labor Secretary to appear at the five-minute hearing on the Taft-Hartley repeal. This subject has been given attention by columnists Louis Lautier (NNPA), Alfred Smith (Chicago Defender), and Lem Graves (Pittsburgh Courier). We believe Mr. Smith’s comments the most objective, but we are glad these matters are getting the public notice that they deserve, even though we do not always agree with what is said.

MS: NAACP II: A-656, DLC.

[1] In the statement, Mitchell said the NAACP had watched the operation of the law for more than a year and had “found no reason to change our position.” He noted that the Thirty-ninth Annual Conference of the NAACP in Kansas City had passed the following resolution:

Experience under the Taft-Hartley Act shows that this law has not promoted industrial peace. Instead, it has created an atmosphere of strife which has resulted in serious attacks upon such unions as the United Packing House Workers, the Cafeteria Workers in Washington, and the United Steel Workers.

We condemn this law as at previous conventions and call for its repeal. We particularly condemn the use of injunctions against unions in labor disputes which this law has revived. We instruct our Labor Department to give its full support to the plans of organized labor for the repeal of this law. (Statement on the Repeal of the Taft-Hartley Law, 2/10/49, MP)

For his earlier statement on the Taft-Hartley law, see 2/20/47, Hearings 1254–64; see also, among others, 3/1/47, 4/1 and 5/2/49, as well as the headnote on the NAACP, the Taft-Hartley Act, and the National Labor Relations Board.


[2] Mitchell explained that, under the Wagner Act, the NLRB approved racial segregation in auxiliaries and separate locals. The doctrine for this segregation was established in the case of Larus & Brother, Company, 62 NLRB, 1075. This doctrine, he said, prevailed in the following four cases: Norfolk & Southern Bus Corporation, 76 NLRB, 76; Texas & Pacific Motor Transportation Company, 77 NLRB, 87; F. W. Wint Company, 76 NLRB, 71; and Veneer Products, Incorporated, 34-RC-30. Mitchell letter to Taft, 2/28/49; this and the subsequent exchange of letters between Mitchell and Taft in which the lobbyist further documented the depths of discrimination under the Taft-Hartley law are in NAACP WB-103, DLC.


[3] In a memorandum to Walter White, Thurgood Marshall sought to help plan strategy, assuming that repeal advocates would lose their current battle in Congress. Marshall suggested the NAACP write Phillip Murray, president of the CIO, and William Green, head of the AFL, to assure them that, among other things, the NAACP would “fight all the harder to repeal the Taft-Hartley Bill and to enact other progressive legislation.” Marshall memorandum to White, 3/6/49, NAACP II: A-203, DLC.


[4] See 1/31, 4/1, 5/2, 5/31, 9/30, and 12/21/49, as well as the headnote on the Struggle for a Permanent FEPC.


[5] See, especially, 12/1/48 and 4/1 and 5/2/49 for related developments.


[6] See the headnote on the Struggle for a Permanent FEPC.