In order to effectuate the statements of policy, the War Shipping Administration has made arrangements with the agents and unions which provide that the Training Organization and the Recruitment and Manning Organization will use the manpower which has been recruited and trained to supplement the manpower already in the industry only. The port offices of the Recruitment and Manning Organization assign seamen, as well as trainees, to agents and maritime trade-unions on the request of such agents or unions for manpower. Where, for example, a maritime union is unable to man the deck department fully, the procedures of the War Shipping Administration permit the union to call upon the Recruitment and Manning Organization to supply seamen in the vacant ratings.

EFFECT OF EXECUTIVE ORDERS 8802 AND 9346 ON WAR SHIPPING ADMINISTRATION

The War Shipping Administration is charged with the operation of the merchant marine. Agents, general agents, and employees of the War Shipping Administration are governed by the Executive orders.

In accordance with the Executive orders, the War Shipping Administration has inserted a clause in all service agreements under which agents and general agents of the War Shipping Administration operate vessels for the account of this Administration providing:

"In any act performed under this agreement, the agent and any subcontractor shall not discriminate against any citizen of the United States of America on the ground of race, creed, color, or national origin.'

Employees. The War Shipping Administration Administrative Order No. 40, supplement 2, page 2, section 4, paragraph .02, provides:

"In accordance with Civil Service Rule 1, Executive Order No. 8802 of June 25, 1941, and the President's letter of September 3, 1941, to the heads of all Federal establishments, there shall be no discrimination in employment."

Section 310.15 of General Order 27, dated September 23, 1943, which refers to United States Maritime Service, provides:

Enrollment and training.-Enrollment and training in the Service shall be voluntary and shall be open to all licensed and unlicensed personnel of the United States merchant marine who comply with the requirements prescribed by these regulations and to American citizens who desire to train for service in the American merchant marine who quality for training under these regulations. In the selection of applicants for enrollment no discrimination shall be practiced because of the applicant's race or creed, or because of membership or nonmembership in any organization. Eligibility for enrollment shall be determined by the commandant in accordance with these rules and regulations."

Recruitment and Manning Organization.-Section 1, instruction No. 42, issued by the Recruitment and Manning Organization on January 16, 1943, provides: 'Executive Order 8802 sets forth the policy of full participation in the defense program by all persons regardless of race, creed, color, or national origin. Representatives of the Recruitment and Manning Organization, in accordance with this policy, shall refer to operators or unions all qualified persons.' In June 1943 the instructions were amended:

"Your attention is called to section 1 of the above War Shipping Administration Directive No. 2, issued October 30, 1942, which was addressed to masters and officers of all vessels of the United States merchant marine.

""The master of a vessel has full discretion in signing on crew members and may reject any person seeking employment. This power carries with it both the legal and moral obligation to use it judiciously and only for proper cause.

"Records shall be kept of the names of those rejected and of the reason for rejection and shall be submitted to the port office of the Recruitment and Manning Organization of the War Shipping Administration in the port in which the rejection occurs.

Generally speaking the general agents' attitude toward this problem is reflected in the policy of the various maritime unions holding collective-bargaining agreements with such agent. If a union admits to membership and refers for employment all qualified persons without regard to race, creed, or color, the employer or master accepts such persons, except in isolated cases where the other crew members object to his presence on shipboard.

At

Unions which refuse membership to certain persons because of race, creed, or color obviously do not refer such persons to a general agent for employment. times other crew members refuse to sail with individuals because of race, creed, or color.

Liberty vessels, which comprise most of the fleet, were originally designed to accommodate 40 merchant seamen and 4 members of the armed guard. Today those vessels are carrying 47 merchant seamen and 29 members of the armed

guard. Overcrowding of crews' quarters in these circumstances is inevitable. Length of voyages of ships now operated by the War Shipping Administration range from 3 to 12 months. Shore leave is restricted in many foreign ports, with the result that seamen have to work, berth, and mess together in crowded quarters over long periods of time without a break in their constant association with their shipmates. Utilization of deck space for cargo has further restricted their recreational facilities.

These two factors have a direct bearing on the maintenance of discipline so necessary to the efficient operation of the vessel; consequently, ships' masters must exercise good judgment in the selection of crew members so as to avoid so far as possible the mixing of personalities, which under the circumstances set forth above might clash and disrupt the entire working force of the vessel.

Under procedure established within the War Shipping Administration, any person who feels that he has been denied employment because of race, creed, or color may file his complaint with any port office of the Recruitment and Manning Organization. The port office then contacts the general agent responsible for the denial of employment to ascertain the facts and if the complaint appears to be well founded, to direct the attention of the employing officer to the Executive orders and the policy of the War Shipping Administration. If this action fails to bring about the employment of the individual concerned, a report is made to the Assistant Deputy Administrators for Recruitment and Manning and for Maritime Labor Relations. The matter is then officially brought to the attention of the employing agent with a view of obtaining compliance with the provisions of the Executive order.

The CHAIRMAN. The next witness is Mr. Daniel S. Ring, Director, Division of Shipyard Labor Relations, Maritime Commission.

STATEMENT OF DANIEL S. RING, DIRECTOR, DIVISION OF SHIPYARD LABOR RELATIONS, MARITIME COMMISSION

The CHAIRMAN. Mr. Ring, I understand you have a statement to present to the committee?

Mr. RING. The statement, Madam Chairman, is attached to Admiral Land's communication. It is a factual statement with respect to what has happened, in a general way, under the operation of the Executive orders. It deals with approximately the same subject matter as these bills pending before the committee.

The CHAIRMAN. It seems to be a comprehensive statement and it was put in the record in connection with Mr. Wyckoff's statement. Mr. RING. We have gone through this for the purpose not only of stating what has happened, but also stating what our relationships with the F. E. P. C. have been; and with respect to policy, not only the Maritime Commission but also the Army and the Navy join in. And in addition to having presented what that policy is, we have also outlined the procedure which carries that out in operation and have included in the record the means whereby we have sought to take care of the adjective part or the procedural part in effectuating the policy. That is all in the record.

The CHAIRMAN. Do you believe permanent legislation will be necessary in the post-war era?

Mr. RING. Admiral Land has stated that he feels that the laboreconomic side of this question can best be answered by other agencies principally interested in that. Our action thus far has been directed by war production needs and by the directive of the President in issuring the Executive order which was primarily based upon obtaining workers for the production program.

We have restricted ourselves to obedience of the Executive order and its directions.

With respect to a permanent set-up, the Maritime Commission, being basically a procurement agency of the Government and not directly engaged in the formulation of labor-economic policies, looking to other agencies of the Government for that, would prefer to allow those other agencies to comment upon the need for legislation along that line.

In other words, we are a production agency and when the President in his Executive order said, "This is the way to get production; we want everybody in the country working in view of the shortage of manpower, and this discrimination shall not be allowed to interfere with our production program," we said, "O. K., we go right along." The CHAIRMAN. In other words, you are under orders? Mr. RING. We are under orders, yes, ma'am.

The CHAIRMAN. Will you proceed with your testimony, Mr. Ring? Mr. RING. Would you like me to read the methods whereby we put those orders into effect?

The CHAIRMAN. I think that would be very interesting.

Mr. RING. At the outset, after Executive Order 8802 came out, we wished to establish with the President's Committee a method whereby, first of all, we both would understand what was meant, and to that end prepared and presented to the President's Committee, about July 2, 1942, a joint letter, emanating from the War Department, the Navy Department, and the Maritime Commission, which was also submitted to the War Manpower Commission, with respect to our responsibilities. It was understood and agreed that we regard it an obligation to insure by a contractual clause, included in all of our contracts for shipbuilding, the requirement of nondiscrimination presented in the Executive order.

It was further made clear that those agencies recognized that methods of providing equal employment opportunities for all qualified persons, regardless of race, creed, color, or national origin, will vary in different parts of the country and in different types of plants, so that the following principles were outlined as a general guide in handling minority group questions:

(a) Efforts will be continued, particularly in cooperation with the War Manpower Commission, to provide equal opportunities for employment, in-service training, and advancement to all qualified citizens, regardless of race, creed, color, or national origin, to expedite maximum production.

I might interject here that the whole keynote of all this was to expedite production in the war in accordance with the President's directive.

(b) Such equal opportunities for minority groups may be provided either parallel to or integrated with the opportunities afforded majority groups, and thus may be arranged and provided for to conform to existing State laws and community customs.

(c) In the practical application of this policy every effort will be made to open available employment opportunities to minority groups in such numbers and in such classes of positions as will expedite maximum produciion and as governed by the available supply of qualified workers.

In the event of any misunderstanding we will be glad to clarify our positions as set forth in this document with any specific agency or business concerned.

Then we said that "we are prepared to issue, in conformity with the foregoing" the following letters to our contractors, and that the letters would include the following points:

(a) That Executive Order No. 8802 should be complied with, and specifically. (b) That recruitment, in-service training, and upgrading of employees should

conform thereto.

(c) That any reference to race or religion should be deleted from employment forms if such exist.

(d) That recruitment should not be confined to any source that results in discrimination against workers solely because of race, creed, color, or national origin, provided of course that the National Labor Relations Act and the laws regarding aliens must be complied with.

(e) That the contractor should not in any other way discriminate against loyal qualified applicants or employees solely because of race, creed, color, or national origin.

It was pointed out at that time in a statement by Admiral Land, Secretary Knox, and Secretary Stimson that

Success in carrying out these policies must depend largely upon the cooperation of all parties concerned, including the War Manpower Commission, the Federal contracting agencies, your own committee

that is, the President's Committee

and minority groups, unions, State and local officials, and the citizenry of particular localities. The molding of public opinion in any given working force and community is of great importance and should be the concern of all.

Notwithstanding the difficulty of this problem, we recognize the importance of securing compliance not only with the word but with the spirit of Executive Order No. 8802, and we will continue to cooperate with your committee in all practicable ways in reaching a satisfactory solution.

That letter was addressed to Mr. McLean, who was then Chairman of the President's Committee on Fair Employment Practices.

Following the issuance of that letter, and in order to insure that the policies laid down therein would be carried out so far as the Maritime Commission was concerned, we issued a labor relations bulletin, which is the method whereby we carry to the field to our contractors the requirements of the Commission insofar as policy is concerned. And here let me interject that the sole basis upon which we proceeded was our contractual relationships with the contractors that had contracts to build ships. We inserted in the contract the requirements that they should observe and operate under and in accordance with the Executive order on nondiscrimination.

We then, therefore, issued Shipyard Labor Relations Bulletin No. 2 outlining the employment practices that we expected to be followed as a contractual obligation with reference to Executive Order 8802. That is already in the record. We recited, in giving notice to our contractors, what the policy was that was agreed upon. It required them, after having this notice, to observe the same. It outlined what we believed to be the responsibilities of the contractors under the contracts that they had, with respect to nondiscrimination; and then we stated [reading]:

With respect to insuring application of this policy, the procedure will be that complaints as to nonobservance which are received by the President's Committee on Fair Employment Practice will be referred to the undersigned whenever shipyard relationships are involved. In turn, the undersigned will clear all such matters through the regional construction directors who, of course, are fully authorized to deal with any complaints in this respect coming directly to them. It would be appreciated if reports on complaints immediately directed to the regional construction directors and acted upon by them will be given to the Division of Shipyard Labor Relations.

That was signed by me.

For the information of the committee, the regional construction directors are those who are in control of the Maritime Commission's responsibilities for shipbuilding in the various zones. One is in San Francisco, one in New Orleans, one in Chicago, and one in Philadelphia, to take care of the east coast, Gulf, Great Lakes, and Pacific coast

zones.

We attached to the Labor Relations Bulletin attachment A, which was a copy of the Executive order, and attachment B, containing specific requirements to insure fulfillment of Commission policy with respect to Executive Order 8802, and observance of contractual obligations with respect to the clause involving observance of that Executive order.

We recited the four points that I have previously covered, and which we stated would be carried to our contractors.

At a later time it became evident that there was need for a detailed method of processing complaints; and, after conference with the President's Committee, we issued Supplement 1 to Shipyard Labor Relations Bulletin No. 2 stating the procedure in detailed manner which would be gone through when any such complaints arose.

At the time 9346 was issued we transmitted that also to the field and have endeavored to maintain a source of information to our contractors with respect to the national policy regarding nondiscrimination.

I think that about completes the steps we have taken in order to insure that the Executive order would be carried out.

The CHAIRMAN. Your statement has been very interesting, Mr. Ring. Have you had very much difficulty with contractors in carrying out the conditions of Executive Order 8802?

Mr. RING. At the outset there was some difficulty, Madam Chairman. There was a lack of understanding of the purposes of the order. There was a feeling that it was primarily designed along social lines rather than upon war production lines; but after sufficient contacts with them, and in the face of a shortage of manpower, it became very generally recognized, as far as contractors were concerned, that regardless of what the pigment of a man's skin was, when we had to build ships we had to have men, and if they were available and had the qualifications, they were to be employed. The contractors themselves recognize that.

The CHAIRMAN. You believe that Executive Order 8802 has provided greater and badly needed employment in the Maritime Commission; do you not?

Mr. RING. I believe that Executive Order 8802, as far as the Maritime Commission is concerned, has paved the way for obtaining a broader field of employment in shipbuilding, and wherever we could expend the field of employment, our sources of employment, we could get in more man-hours; and the more man-hours we could get the more ships were built. The answer is self-explanatory.

The CHAIRMAN. Thank you very much, sir.

Have you any questions, Mr. Fisher?

Mr. FISHER. I have one question.

As I understand you, you are not here expressing any opinion as to the wisdom of a permanent Fair Employment Practice Committee set up as contemplated in the pending bill?

Mr. RING. That is correct; in line with Admiral Land's statement.