it can be what our forefathers wished it to be, if we but do the thingas lawmakers to shut up the gap, to pass those laws which will put in operation movements that will support the underlying principle of the Constitution.

I have listened to arguments against this committee, most of which were very unreasonable. For instance, some say it is dictatorial. How can any committee be dictatorial that does not have the power of punishment or arbitrary enforcement? How can any committee be dictatorial when the members of that committee must depend upon persuasion in order to achieve objectives?

I have heard others say that the working activities of the President's Fair Employment Practice Committee breed disunity within the Nation. Those who make that claim are the authors of or adherents to the philosophies which make the existence of a Fair Employment Practice Committee a necessity. Men and women who are denied the right to work within the country and who see their sons called to die for the country may have a just cause to be disgruntled, and when the class of those who are so rightfully disgruntled reaches the size of one-tenth of the population of the Nation, then you do have a situation which is bound to engender low morale which makes for national disunity in time of war. But those who would deny to other citizens the right to work when their Nation is at war, and when manpower is short, and when the very war effort itself is being hindered by lack of workers, and who would resist the efforts of the Government to use every bit of available manpower among its citizens, regardless of race, color, or national origin, are the breeders of nationaĺ disunity.

I also heard some say that the majority of those who worked for the F. E. P. C. were Negroes. Yes, the Negroes of America are the largest minority group. They constitute the biggest problem of unemployment, and we must face that.

Then, if you are going to endeavor to obtain someone to go out and do this job, what better person could you find than a member of that very group itself? If a Negro can by the powers of persuasion, get other Americans to conform to the directives of the F. E. P. C., is there anything dictatorial about it, or is there anything unfair about it? I am sure that there can never be any fear of anyone armed only with the power of persuasion, and who is better fitted to speak for any people than a member of those people? Nobody knows except a Negro what it means to be segregated and discriminated against because of race; what it means to be turned down on a job when you have seen their advertisements for men and then you walk up and ask for a job-you know how much depends upon a job-you have a family and then they turn you down because of color.

So, take this problem from any angle you wish, and it appears to be a necessary thing, both in wartime, as a member of the War Department said, and also in time of peace, in order to assure fair play to other nations, in order to guarantee to other nations, that the Four Freedoms for which we fight will not be empty words but something that we will live up to. It will be an empty promise to them as long as we deny to those within the confines of our own country the Four Freedoms that we are claiming to be fighting for for other countries.

Therefore, it seems to me that any way we look at it, this F. E. P. C., both in time of war and in time of peace, is a matter that the Congress of the United States ought to do something about.

The President has set the pace. The results that have been obtained by this present committee, if looked at fairly and seen without bias, will be regarded as one of the greatest war efforts put forth by any committee during this entire emergency.

Madam Chairman and members of the committee, I do hope that this committee will report this matter out favorably to the House.

The CHAIRMAN. Thank you, Mr. Dawson. You have made a very fine and clear presentation of your case, and I take it from what you have said that your interest lies particularly in economic equality; is that right?

Mr. DAWSON. That is right.

Mr. KLEIN. I would like to add this one comment. I agree with the chairman, and we all commend you, Mr. Dawson, on the fine statement you have made. I agree that the Negroes today are the outstanding victims of economic persecution, but you will admit, I am sure, there are other minorities as well who are also subjected to the same sort of thing.

Mr. DAWSON. I do, sir, but I feel that when the day comes that we are broad enough to encompass the Negro within the confines of the Constitution all other minority problems will be solved.

Mr. KLEIN. I agree with you wholeheartedly. I simply wanted to point out that all other minorities would probably gain from an act such as this. Democracy is just a hollow word if we are going to permit discrimination to exist, as we have been doing in all parts of the country.

The CHAIRMAN. Again I want to thank you, Mr. Dawson, for the very clear and fine statement you have presented to the committee. I think that you have stated your case remarkably well, and we are very grateful to you for it.

Mr. DAWSON. Thank you.

The CHAIRMAN. As we have no other witnesses to appear this morning, we will stand adjourned until 10:30 o'clock tomorrow morning.

TO PROHIBIT DISCRIMINATION IN EMPLOYMENT

FRIDAY, JUNE 2, 1944

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES,
COMMITTEE ON LABOR,
Washington, D. C.

The committee met at 10:30 o'clock a. m., Hon. Mary T. Norton (chairman) presiding.

The CHAIRMAN. The meeting will please come to order.

On yesterday, as you know, we started the hearings on H. R. 3986, H. R. 4004, H. R. 4005, the Scanlon-Dawson-LaFollette bills, and we recessed to 10:30 this morning.

This morning we have with us Mr. James B. Carey, secretarytreasurer of the C. I. O.

Mr. CAREY, we would like to have you tell us what you know about the conditions that we are trying to relieve, and whether or not you are in favor of these bills.

STATEMENT OF JAMES B. CAREY, SECRETARY-TREASURER, NATIONAL CONGRESS OF INDUSTRIAL ORGANIZATIONS

Mr. CAREY. I appear before this committee to endorse the proposed bills designed to create a permanent commission to prevent unfair employment practices, for the purpose of eliminating discrimination because of national origin, race, creed, or color.

These bills declare it to be the policy of the United States that the right to work and seek work should be guaranteed without discrimination because of race, creed, color, national origin, or ancestry, and that this principle be embodied in United States Statutes, with enforcement machinery to insure that it will become more than a pious platitude. The Congress of Industrial Organizations met this problem foursquare in the early days of our organization. We realize that the strength of America does not rest on its ability to restrict the number of workers in any given occupation-but rather on its ability to extend opportunities to every citizen.

Organized labor has proved that it is one of the most powerful forces in the struggle to preserve the basic rights and privileges which American democracy guarantees. Labor's long and successful struggle to improve the economic standards of millions of wage earners and to secure for them some measure of security and humane consideration is ample evidence of the soundness and practicality of its objectives. That real progress has been achieved, no one will deny. But the ultimate goal has not been reached.

Today America is challenged to demonstrate its capacity and willingness to assume even larger responsibilities. In a world at war, free America must produce the supplies and equipment needed by the

United Nations' fighting forces, and the consumer materials necessary for minimum health and comfort.

America is rising to this responsibility. Labor's record of production is phenomenal. The C. 1. O. has proved to thousands of new workers that the democratic process at work in the labor movement makes no distinction of race, religion, color, or nationality.

The C. I. O. felt when it originally demanded the present Fair Employment Practice Committee, that America could not afford to fail to utilize all the skills and strength of every American workman to shorten a bloody and destructive war.

We contended, and do contend for the postwar period, that if America refuses to rid herself completely of the blind prejudices that deny people who are "different" a fair deal, we undermine the strength of our country and threaten the hard-won gains achieved during the last few years. How America acquits herself under the pressure of post-war tension, may well be the yardstick by which is determined the prosperity and stability of the rest of the world.

The present Fair Employment Practice Committee is a war agency. When the war is over, it will be out of existence. What fair-minded person, after an objective examination of the record this agency has compiled, will deny that this agency has been of inestimable value to the war effort? A brief glance at the record will show that the present F. E. P. C. has closed more than 2,200 cases during the last year, with 879-approximately 40 percent-resulting in satisfactory adjustments eliminating the discriminatory practices involved.

It is also significant that more than 98 percent of the cases closed were settled by negotiation and mutual cooperation between field examiners and representatives of unions and management. Of the nearly 10,000 complaints received by the committee since its inception in 1941, only 11 public hearings have been held. This points up the highly laudable technique of persuasion rather than methods that smack of force and are irritants.

Because problems of minority workers have been involved in many labor disputes, F. E. P. C. examiners have been called upon by management and procurement officials to aid in the settlement of 23 strikes. Nearly all of these cases involved vital war production. Commendations have been received by the committee from the War Department and the Mexican Government for its work with the Mexican-Americans of the Southwest.

With the coming of peace, and all the attendant problems, America will be very much in need of a permanent Commission, with statutory enforcement powers to aid the transition from a wartime economy to a peacetime economy. Without the proper safeguards, job discrimination will not only continue in the post-war period, but in all probability will be even more serious in its effects than it is today.

There will be tremendous difficulties in the reconversion to peacetime production, in the transfer of workers from one industry to another, from one section of the country to another, in the placement in jobs of 10,000,000 returning servicemen. We must avoid the confusion and strife that would result from discharging workers in wholesale lots for no better reason than they are black, brown, Catholic, or Jewish.