COMMITTEE ON EDUCATION AND LABOR UNITED STATES SENATE SEVENTY-EIGHTH CONGRESS SECOND SESSION ON S. 2048 A BILL TO PROHIBIT DISCRIMINATION IN EMPLOYMENT 63628 AUGUST 30, 31, SEPTEMBER 6, 7, AND 8, 1944 Printed for the use of the Committee on Education and Labor UNITED STATES WASHINGTON: 1944 CONTENTS Rabbi J. X. Cohen, Chairman, Commission of Economic Discrimina- tion of the American Jewish Congress.. Bishop G. Bromley Oxman, Federal Council of Churches of Christ... Clarence E. Pickett, executive secretary, American Friends Service Rev. Francis W. McPeek, chairman, legislative committee of the Council for Social Action of the Congregational Christian Churches. Rt. Rev. John A. Ryan, D. D., National Council for Permanent Fair Rev. William H. Jernagin, chairman of the executive board and direc- Miss Helen Raebeck, educational secretary, National Council of Jew- Dr. Emily Hickman, chairman, Public Affairs Committee of the Na- tional Board of the Young Women's Christian Association... Miss Milly Brandt, national chairman, Legislative Action Committee; Women's Division, executive secretary, commission of law and legislation, American Jewish Congress- Arnold Aronson, chairman, division of employment, Chicago Council Against Racial and Religious Discrimination. Robert B. Beach, executive secretary, National Association of Build- George L. P. Weaver, director, National Congress of Industrial Organizations committee to abolish racial discrimination.___ Kermit Eby, assistant director of Research and Education, Congress Clarence Anderson, executive secretary, Metropolitan Detroit Coun- cil on Fair Employment Practice, Detroit, Mich.. Miss Thelma Stevens, executive secretary, Womens Division, Chris- tian Service of Board of Missions and Church Extension of the Rev. Aron S. Gilmartin, chairman, executive board, Workers De- fense League, and official representative of American Unitarian III Dorothy Detzer, national secretary, Women's International League, Dr. Frederick E. Reissig, Washington Committee on Interracial Russell Smith, legislative secretary, National Farmers Union_. Mrs. Helen Loeffler, National League of Women Shoppers- William Kohn, president emeritus, Upholsterers International Union Robert C. Weaver, representing Mayor Kelly's Committee on Race Malcolm Ross, chairman, Committee on Fair Employment Practice- Dr. Carlos E. Castaneda, special assistant on Latin-American prob- lems to the chairman of the President's Committee on Fair Em- Mrs. Anna Arnold Hedgeman, executive secretary, National Council for a Permanent Committee on Fair Employment Practice_ R. J. Thomas, international president, United Automobile Workers W. C. Hushing, chairman, national legislative committee, American 194 FAIR EMPLOYMENT PRACTICES ACT WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 30, 1944 UNITED STATES SENATE, SUBCOMMITTEE OF THE COMMITTEE ON EDUCATION AND LABOR, Washington, D. C. The subcommittee met at 10:30 a. m., pursuant to call, in room 357 Senate Office Building, Senator Dennis Chavez (chairman of the subcommittee) presiding. Present: Senators Chavez and Aiken. Also present: Senator Capper. Senator CHAVEZ. The committee will come to order. We are extremely sorry that other members of the subcommittee are unable to be present; they have duties elsewhere, but we have been assured that we will have a larger committee representation at future hearings. I want to thank Senator Aiken for his interest in coming to the meeting. It is my purpose, first, to give an outline of the proposed legislation for the benefit of the committee and the public. We are here to consider today a bill which was introduced by its sponsors in the best of faith and for what is considered to be the best interests of the country. S. 2048 is designed to promote in peace the same national unity we have achieved in war, to give body to our declarations of freedom from want and freedom from fear, to raise the standard of living and purchasing power of our people, and finally, but not least, to confound our enemies who hope by dividing us class by class, race by race, group by group, to snatch from us all permanent gains out of winning the war. We have not won final military victory as yet, but we have won the battle of production which will make final victory possible. Faced as we were in the battle of production with the forced labor of the dictatorships, aided by the conscripted labor of the work slaves of their conquered countries, we won the battle of production without sacrificing the principles of democracy, without a labor draft at home, precisely because we adopted a national policy of full utilization of all available manpower in the United States without discrimination because of race, creed, color, or national origin. We are all familiar with Executive Order 8802, June 25, 1941, and its amendment, Executive Order 9346, May 27, 1943, prohibiting discrimination because of race, creed, color, or national origin in the Government service, defense industries, and in the war effort, and we know the thousands of skilled workers which those Executive orders added to our industrial might. But some of us are not so thoroughly aware that these Executive orders have a peacetime base which is 1 |