Is Mr. Robert Parker here?

Mr. PARKER. Yes, sir.

Senator CHAVEZ. Please come forward.

STATEMENT OF ROBERT PARKER, COCHAIRMAN, PHILADELPHIA METROPOLITAN COUNCIL FOR EQUAL JOB OPPORTUNITY, PHILADELPHIA, PA.

Senator CHAVEZ. Kindly give your name and background to the reporter for identification purposes.

Mr. PARKER. My name is Robert Parker. I am the cochairman of the Philadelphia Metropolitan Council for Equal Job Opportunity. I should add that my full-time occupation is as area director of the National C. I. O. War Relief Committee in Delaware and eastern Pennsylvania.

Senator CHAVEZ. Are you affiliated now with the C. I. O. organization?

Mr. PARKER. Yes; I am; but I am here officially representing the Philadelphia Metropolitan Council for Equal Job Opportunity.

Senator CHAVEZ. Will you give the reporter a little of your own personal background for the record?

Mr. PARKER. Yes; I will be glad to. I have been connected with the labor movement for about 15 years now, starting as a worker in the various plants, various types of auto plants, and machine shops. I have also been active in workers' education and for the past 4 or 5 years have had various positions in the labor movement. I have been in my present job with the C. I. O. War Relief Committee for 2 years

now.

I have a prepared statement, Senator, and if I may, I would like to read it.

Senator CHAVEZ. You may proceed.

Mr. PARKER. As I said, I am here to testify in favor of the bill to create a permanent Fair Employment Practice Commission and I am here officially representing the Philadelphia Metropolitan Council for Equal Job Opportunity.

You will be interested in learning what the council is and what it represents. Twenty-two important community organizations are members of the council, which was organized more than a year ago. These organizations are the American Jewish Congress, Anti-Defamation Council, Armstrong Association (which is the local unit of the National Urban League), Association of Philadelphia Settlements, Catholic Interracial Council, A. F. L. Central Labor Union, Chamber of Commerce and Board of Trade, Chester U. S. O. Interracial Committee, Delaware County C. I. O. Industrial Union Council, Philadelphia Federation of Churches, Federation of Negro Women's Clubs, Fellowship House, Interracial Discussion Group, Labor Education Association, Lawyers Guild, National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, National Conference of Christians and Jews, Philadelphia C. I. O. Industrial Union Council, Swarthmore College Student Assembly, Young Men's and Women's Hebrew Association, Young Women's Christian Association, and the Youth Committee for Democracy.

I especially call your attention to the fact that both great labor organizations A. F. L. and C. I. O.--and the chamber of commerce. and board of trade are active participants in the work of the council.

The council believes that the creation of a permanent F. E. P. C. is essential to the future well-being of our Nation. We are now fighting a world-wide war. If we are fighting it in defense of the principles of democracy, then it becomes our responsibility to provide a democratic way of life to our own people before we can offer it to the rest of the world. The tenets for which we have mobilized the vast productive power of America and sent 11,000,000 of our men and women into every corner of the earth make it mandatory that in our own back yard we give every American an equal opportunity to get a job at his highest skill, without regard to race, creed, or color.

We in Philadelphia are especially interested in the enactment of this measure since the recent evilly inspired work stoppage by the employes of the Philadelphia Transportation Co. The events that occurred in connection with this stoppage were too well publicized to make it necessary for me to go into the details of what happened; I shall be glad to answer any questions which the members of the committee may have. But certain conclusions can be drawn from this incident which relate to the advisability of and necessity for a permanent F. E. P. C.

The plans for the stoppage were extremely well laid. The complete effectiveness of the strike, and the few hours which were required to stop the operation of every streetcar, bus, subway, and elevated train in the Philadelphia area, make it evident that this was no spontaneous affair. I have had enough experience in my work with the labor movement to know that you cannot completely shut down a farflung enterprise like the P. T. C. without many, many hours of careful planning. Had there been in existence a fair employment practice commission established by act of Congress, with definitive powers to enforce its rulings, the strike might well have been prevented. But the fact that the F. E. P. C. ruling on the upgrading of Negroes on P. T. C. and its authority was questioned and defied by the same elements which brought on the strike made it possible for them to force a delay in the application of the F. E. P. C. directive and gave them adequate time to make their plans.

How was the transportation system finally forced back into operation? Only through the concerted and forceful action of governmental agencies and the pressure of public opinion, backed up by the might of the Army. If we are to break down discrimination in employment because of race, creed, or color, we must have, in addition to the very important educational process, the legal and policing authorities of the Federal Government.

The third conclusion is that the majority of the people of Philadelphia have no objection to the employment of Negroes as motormen and conductors. This was evidenced by the almost universal disapproval of the action of the strikers as expressed by resolutions of protest, public statements, and letters to the editors of the press. Immediately following the end of the stoppage, two of the daily papers took a poll on this matter. The majority of those questioned stated their support of the right of Negroes to have a chance at these jobs.

Yes; the people of Philadelphia want democracy and fair play in their city. They look about the country and see Negroes employed, without any untoward incident, on the transportation systems of New York, Detroit, San Francisco, Chicago, Buffalo, Cleveland, Tulsa, Winston-Salem, and Flushing, Long Island. They want no discrimination against the members of any minority group. Give everyone an equal opportunity, they say. They say it when organizations representing more than a half a million people join hands in a joint endeavor like the Council for Equal Job Opportunity to fight employment discrimination. They say it when 9 leading industrialists send a letter to the mayor of Philadelphia stating their opposition to such discrimination and urging him to issue a forthright statement on the subject. With your permission, Senator, I would like to read this letter to you, the signers of which include the heads of 2 large department stores, of an electrical manufacturing company, of a shipyard, of a steel company, of a hat-manufacturing company, and of 3 other large factories in the Philadelphia area. These 9 concerns employ more than 80,000 workers. I now quote from the letter, which is dated August 28, 1944.

DEAR MAYOR: Whether or not it is customary for you to issue an annual Labor Day statement, it would seem that recent occurrences in Philadelphia make such a statement highly appropriate this year. The welfare of our citizens and the interest of our commercial and industrial enterprises call for a strong and forthright enunciation from your office that will serve to develop and maintain the best possible employer-employee relations during the months and years to come.

We have, therefore, respectfully drafted the following declaration that might be endorsed by you as the official head of the city or you may care to issue a somewhat similar statement, incorporating the broad principles set forth as follows:

"That all individuals are entitled to an opportunity to work and to receive all other benefits of our economy without any regard whatsoever to race, creed, color, or national origin. Racism and discrimination are abhorrent to all patriotic Americans. The ability to educate one's children, to provide a family the essentials of a decent and normal life and the right to worship as one sees fit shall be guaranteed to each and every citizen. The officials of the city of Philadelphia join with those of the State of Pennsylvania and the Federal Government in proclaiming that these principles shall be safeguarded."

As businessmen of this community we are deeply interested in its future welfare as we know you are, and it is only in this spirit that this letter is being sent to you.

As another evidence of the reaction of the people of Philadelphia to the P. T. C. strike, I would like to read the following editorial in the September 2, 1944, issue of the Saturday Evening Post. It is entitled "The Home Front," and it is as follows:

As this issue of the Post was being prepared, Post employees, like all working Philadelphians, were getting to and from their jobs on foot. Trolley-car, bus, and elevated employees, defying their union leaders, were on strike to prevent the Philadelphia Transportation Co. from complying with a War Manpower Commission order to employ Negroes as operators.

The strike was probably a good thing for coddled editorial legs. To vital war industries of the Philadelphia area, including the Philadelphia Navy Yard, it was a body blow, markedly slowing the national war effort. Translated in plain terms, that means that more American youths will lie for the rest of time in graves far

overseas.

That is serious enough, but it is not the most serious implication of the walk-out. The wasting of the Nation's precious time strikes at the lives of American fighting men; the cause of the walk-out strikes more terribly at the things they are fighting for things we had hoped would some day add up to a citizenship of human beings.

Many American Negroes have died in battle. We cannot speak for them nor say what things in this homeland of theirs they found so precious that they laid down their lives to defend and preserve them. We may guess, we think, that they died for that sometimes nebulous and so often crucified idea we call democracy. Democracy, nailed to one of its crosses, is the right of white men to strike against sharing employment with their Negro fellow Americans. It is a bitterly ironic thing that a symbol of that right is the unknown Negro G. I. who lies beneath the sod of a Normandy or Saipan, his big stilled feet pointing tirelessly toward the stars.

Now, Senator, if I may, I would like to insert this in the record to show while we think the P. T. C. race strike was evil that perhaps some good could have come from it. I am quoting from the Chicago Defender, a Negro paper published in the city of Chicago, the issue of September 2, 1944. This article has a byline by John LeFlore, Mobile, Ala.

The millennium or a reasonable facsimile thereof reached this city in the deep South this week!

Consider these sensational developments in this traditionally Confederate stronghold:

1. For the first time in the city's history a white man was given a stiff fine of $100 for slapping a colored woman "without provocation.'

2. Four white men who brutally assaulted several Negroes without provocation were arrested and charged with assault with intent to murder.

Behind the sudden change in law-enforcement tactics in Mobile is the feeling of leading white citizens that this Alabama city was grievously libeled by Northern newspapers which recently referred to the Philadelphia race-hate strike as something to be expected in Mobile rather than in the City of Brotherly Love.

Furious because Philadelphia's anti-Negro transit strikers were compared with lawless race rioters in Mobile, law-enforcement officials here launched an unprecedented race-rights drive to prove that "it can't happen here."

Sheriff William H. Holcombe, who announced the arrests of the four white men charged with promiscuously attacking Negroes, warned against such practices and said:

"These arrests were made after a thorough investigation in which it was shown the Negroes were grossly mistreated. Such a thing will not be tolerated in Mobile despite statements to the contrary by the newspapers of New York and Washington."

Sheriff Holcombe's remarks were aimed at editorials published in Washington and in New York concerning racial trouble in the Philadelphia traction strike. The newspapers in identical editorials, said:

"No doubt some way will be found of restoring the traveling facilities of the city [Philadelphia] so that war-production schedules can be resumed. That is important, but there is another aspect to the strike that is of much wider significance. That is the rather frightening flare of race prejudice that might be expected of Mobile, Ala., but not of Philadelphia."

To prove to the Nation that racial attacks will be handled here, the sheriff's department declared that the full force of the law would be thrown against race haters in Mobile.

We of the Council for Equal Job Opportunity are particularly concerned with this problem as it will be affected by the post-war situation. Today Philadelphia is designated by the War Manpower Commission as a critical labor shortage area. There is little unemployment. Practically all ablebodied men are at work and many women. In September of 1943, for example, there were only 17,602 Negroes employed in this area, out of more than 250,000. But by March 1944, according to W. M. C., this number had grown to 68,436. But what will happen to those workers when cutbacks become the order of the day? Events on the military front are moving so rapidly that it is almost impossible to keep abreast of the news of our Army's advances. But the closer we come to victory over the Fascist forces overseas, the more acute becomes this problem-what happens to the

Negroes and members of other minority groups, who have finally managed to get decent jobs only because of the severe shortage of labor?

The answer, in my opinion, is twofold. One, we must have a fair employment practice commission created by legislative action, with adequate finances and enforcement powers. Second, it becomes the responsibility of all of us to see to it that a program of full employment is achieved in the post-war period. We have mobilized undreamed-ofproductive power for destruction; can we do any less to provide jobs for all our citizens and build a world fit for humans to live in?

The present President's Committee, operating as it has under continual criticism, with inadequate funds and surrounded by suspicion. and enmity, has nevertheless been able to do an extremely effective piece of work. I am sure that other sources will have presented to you in detail the story of just what the F. E. P. C. has been able to accomplish. From my own experience, I know that it has been able, in addition to safeguarding the rights of minorities, to aid materially in keeping war production operating at full blast. In the Jones and Laughlin plant at Aliquippa, Pa., and in the Carnegie-Illinois plant at Clareton, Pa., some months ago, disturbances over the employment and upgrading of Negroes caused work stoppages. The United States Conciliation Service was called in and failed to adjust the situation. Navy Procurement and Army Ordnance also failed; and then the F. E. P. C. was called in. Where all other forces were unsuccessful, F. E. P. C. was able to work out a schedule of advancement which satisfied all parties concerned, and work was resumed. So valuable has been the work of the F. E. P. C. that I understand representatives of the Army have officially commended the Committee for its success in maintaining production.

We have come a long way in the past few years in recognizing the need for specific agencies to handle especially acute problems of human relationships. The growth of such agencies as the National Labor Relations Board, the United States Conciliation Service, and many others, has proved that the expert handling of such problems by agencies skilled in their particular fields results in an accumulation of social gains and the elimination of group tensions.

This problem of job discrimination affects not only Negroes. It affects Jews, Catholics, Mexican-Americans. The evil of discrimination spreads out in all directions and assumes many forms. If America is to be a democratic nation, it must fight this disease, wherever it appears, by every means at its disposal. Basically, those of us who discriminate against fellow Americans must be taught that every one of us, regardless of the color of our skin or the place of our birth or our religion, is entitled to a job at our highest skill, without discrimination. Most of us believe this now; the rest will learn in time. But until they do learn, we need an act of Congress which will say: The might of the Government of the United States is firmly behind the quest of each of its citizens for a job; let no one interfere with that right under penalty of the law.

Yours is a great responsibility, gentlemen. By approving this bill and recommending its adoption by Congress, you can show oppressed persons throughout this entire earth that America firmly believes in the "four freedoms"; you can arouse among millions of Americans