drives, the delegates approved-with slight opposition-an increase from 5 to 8 cents per month in the per capita tax paid to the national CIO. It was stated that 2 cents of the increase was to carry on the activities of the southern organizing drive, and 1 cent was earmarked for general administrative purposes.

Election of Officers

Philip Murray was selected by acclamation for his ninth term as president of the CIO. James B. Carey was likewise unanimously selected as secretary-treasurer, the post which he has held since the formal establishment of the CIO in 1938. All of the nine incumbent vice presidents were also continued in office. These were: L. S. Buckmaster, president, United Rubber, Cork, Linoleum, and Plastic Workers of America; Joseph Curran, president, National Maritime Union of America; Albert J. Fitzgerald, president, United Electrical, Radio, and Machine Workers of America; John Green, president, Industrial Union of Marine and Shipbuilding Workers of America; Allan S. Haywood, CIO director of organization; Walter P. Reuther, president, United Automobile, Aircraft, and Agricultural Implement Workers of America; Emil Rieve, president, Textile Workers Union of America; Frank Rosenblum, secretarytreasurer, Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America; and O. A. Knight, president, Oil Workers International Union.

Three changes, however, were made in the executive board, which is composed of one member from each of the CIO's 40 affiliated national and international unions and organizing committees (in addition to the CIO president, secretarytreasurer, and nine vice presidents). These changes in representation-decided upon by each organization-resulted in C. H. Lindberg replacing Ed Hughlett for the Brewery Workers; T. M. McCormick replacing A. K. Kinstley for the Oil Workers; and Anthony Esposito in place of Alex Bail for the Novelty and Playthings Workers. The CIO's newest affiliate, the American Radio Association, named William Steinberg as its board representative.

Labor's Role in

International Relations

EDITOR'S NOTE: Observers of both the 1948 AFL and CIO conventions were struck by American labor's unprecedented interest in American foreign policy. No less were they impressed by labor's desire for a responsible role in international relations. For these reasons significant excerpts are reprinted below from the convention remarks of three Government officials who spoke directly of these interests and responsibilities: Paul G. Hoffman, Administrator of the Economic Cooperation Administration, who spoke to the AFL on November 15; W. Averell Harriman, Roving Ambassador for ECA, who addressed the AFL November 19; and William O. Douglas, Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court, who appeared before the CIO November 24.

ever, the outlook for sharp increases in productivity in many countries in Europe is encouraging. A most ambitious experiment in the form of the Anglo-American Council on Productivity is now under way in Great Britain. This Council was organized at the suggestion of Sir Stafford Cripps. Ten labor leaders, 6 from Great Britain and 4 from America, have joined with 10 industrialists, again 6 from Great Britain and 4 from America, to study methods by which an exchange of "know-how" between countries can be promoted.

Task

forces from British plants are shortly scheduled to visit counterpart American plants. These task forces consist not of technicians or top management but workers, shop stewards, and foremen.

** If ECA succeeds it must have the cooperation of American workers and European workers. If the workers lose faith in the program because they do not understand it, they have it within their power to undermine it. The strike in the French coal mines is a perfect example of the need of understanding.

*** It is true that the French miners, like other French workers, are suffering from economic hardship. * * Capitalizing on the sufferings of the miners, the Communists staged a strike. During that strike they took the unprecedented action of calling the maintenance men out of the mine. When the miners strike in this country they never resort to this extreme. All during the Nazi occupation, the French miners refrained from such action. Why? Because miners know that once the strike is settled, they want to resume work as quickly as possible.

The Communists ordered the costly coal strike with three aims in mind. They wished to:

1. Bring the French economy to a lower plane of accomplishment.

2. Cripple the recovery program.

It is part of the cold war against the Marshall plan.

3. Promote the imperialistic aims of the Kremlin dictatorship.

Around these viscious aims they have sought to throw the protective mantle of labor's ideology. They pretended the strike was the traditional effort to secure a better standard of living for the French miners. In actual truth, every closed mine has brought the French workers closer to freezing, and closer to economic paralysis.

It is a matter of much satisfaction to us in ECA that American trade-unionists quickly saw through these Communistic tactics. They recognized that their real purpose was to create general confusionto work for chaos, not recovery.

W. Averell Harriman to the AFL

Now, if I may step outside of my field

it is gratifying that you and the CIO have a bipartisan policy in relation to the Recovery Program. And I, for one, would like to express the hope that your working together abroad will lead to working together in other directions.

*

In this fight the development of the free tradeunion movement in Europe is an integral part of our objectives. The Kremlin has declared war on recovery in Europe. They know, as we know, that effectively organized free labor, under free and responsible leadership, is one of the bulwarks of a free and productive society

*

They have been perverting and using the tradeunion movement in certain countries, particularly France and Italy, for their own ends. In these countries the true fighters for a free labor movement are struggling to regain from totalitarian influence control of the organizations of the workmen. It is, as you well know, a bitter struggle.

In this battle American labor can play an important role.

*

You

This

The free European labor groups have organized, as you know, the ERP-TUAC. are affiliated with this movement. * committee has great opportunity to assist in attaining the objectives of the program-increased production, increased opportunity for profitable employment, increased productivity to the end that a decent standard of life can be maintained without outside assistance. Beyond this, one of the important aspects of the program is the pledge of the European nations to assist each other, and to develop permanent cooperation among the participating countries. Labor has long been accustomed to working across international boundaries to attain mutual objectives of improving standards of living, and now organized labor can be effective in stimulating cooperation among the nations for mutual assistance in helping to break down barriers and bringing about greater unity within western Europe.

Labor is peculiarly qualified to bridge a gap that has been growing between the United States and Europe. There is a reason for this.

A new Europe is being born. New leaders have come to power in the countries of western Europe. In almost every case their political strength is in the labor movement.

It is in this precise respect that American labor can render a unique service, whether it represents the Government in particular missions, or sits as an observer of the European scene, or acts as an educator of the rank and file of the people.

American labor can help America understand that Europe under the political management of Socialists is not a continent turning Communist but a people struggling for things that are precious to men everywhere. These labor governments of Europe are not to be scorned or feared. They seek to preserve the values of western civilization by holding the middle ground. They commonly have economic theories which are not wholly acceptable to a great many of our people. Yet on the fundamentals-the rights of man, his liberty, his dignity, his security-they are truly democratic. The spiritual values which they espouse make them our brothers. We have the same ideals of justice. We need them and they need us if totalitarianism is not to rule the world. These are the things that American labor can help the American people to understand.

We in this country will not understand the European labor movement unless we remember that it has to a considerable degree a class base

The idea of class is foreign to us in this country We are unable to function on a class basis for the simple reason that it is no part of our tradition. Part of this attitude is due to our history. We did not build this country on class lines. Nor did we have to displace a "class society" when we cleared the forests and built our cities and highways.

While the aim of European political parties has been to draw men of different ideologies into separate disciplined groups, the aim of our parties has been to unite divergent groups into one. That means compromise of various ideas and ideologies and the doctrinaire acceptance of none. It means the elimination of extremistsboth Right and Left-and the development of middle-of-the-road policies.

American labor can show how a human welfare state creates health and stability throughout the whole economy. Our workers are free

men, free to vote, free to speak, and free to worship as they please. Their unions are not

*

Standards Advocated by Conference

on Labor Legislation

JEANNETTE M. WATSON1

SERIOUS DISCUSSION characterized the proceedings of the Fifteenth Conference on Labor Legislation, held in Washington on November 30, December 1 and 2, 1948. Delegates from 42 States, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and Alaska included State labor officials and representatives of organized labor. Canada also sent a representative.

An opening address by the Secretary of Labor stressed the improvement in labor conditions over those in effect when the first conference of this kind convened in February 1934.3 Secretary Tobin pointed out, however, that even in this day of "full employment and full production," problems exist "to build sound labor standards throughout the length and breadth of America, to improve the well-being of our working people, to increase production, to prove beyond question that free workers can enjoy an economic health that is impregnable against the dark forces of tyranny." He challenged the conference to recapture "the drive and the determination" of its early days-to unite with 44 State legislatures and Congress "to turn the tide of antilabor legislation and to build sound labor standards."

Addresses were also made by other officials of the Department of Labor and by former Secretary of Labor Frances Perkins, who called the first conference. A representative of the Research

Of the Bureau's Office of Publications.

For a more complete account of the conference, see Résumé of Proceedings of Fifteenth National Conference on Labor Legislation, 1948 (Bulletin No. 104, Bureau of Labor Standards, U. S. Department of Labor, Washington). See Twenty-second Annual Report of Secretary of Labor, Fiscal Year Ended June 30, 1934 (p. 8).

♦ Legislatures of 44 States will convene in regular session in 1949.

briefly on the importance of legally correct wording in drafts of proposed laws. The conference, however, devoted most of its time to consideration of committee reports concerning standards for legislation to be recommended in the fields of relations between the International Labor Organization and the States, child labor, safety and health, workmen's compensation, industrial relations, wages and hours, and State programs of labor statistics. Summaries of the recommendations and resolutions adopted by the conference follow. State Relations With ILO

An amendment to the constitution of the International Labor Organization gives to the separate States of the United States Government a major role in implementing ILO Conventions, providing that the Federal Government refer to the States for action those Conventions appropriate wholly or in part for State action.

The 1948 Conference on Labor Legislation recommended that the United States Department of Labor provide the States with the information and guidance essential to the development of effective State participation.

Wages and Hours

"Millions of workers are still without the protection of either Federal or State law," the conference asserted, "they do not have a minimum wage, equal pay for women, limited workdays and workweeks, an assured day of rest, adequate provision for meal periods, or regular pay days and the means of collecting unpaid wages."

It further stated that "40 cents will now buy little more than half the amount it would when the Fair Labor Standards Act was enacted, although 40 cents then was recognized as inadequate to meet * * *the minimum standard of living necessary for health, efficiency, and general well-being of workers." It therefore urged a minimum wage of $1 an hour for all workers, whether in continental United States or in the Territories and possessions, with overtime after 8 hours a day and 40 hours a week at not less than time and a half. Another change endorsed was elimination of the statutory ceiling for industrycommittee wage rates, to permit increases above

the general $1 minimum as soon as economic conditions warrant.

The following changes in the Fair Labor Standards Act were recommended: Elimination of all provisions for exemptions from minimumwage and overtime requirements, to permit these requirements to apply to many workers who should receive the benefits of the act; provision of a 5-year statute of limitations and of authority under which the Wage and Hour Division may help workers who desire such aid in collection of wages under the act; and expansion of inspections to insure more general compliance.

Establishment through State wage-hour laws of a minimum of $1 an hour was advocated. Specific provision should also be made for overtime after 8 hours in 24 and after 40 hours in a week, based on one and a half times the regular rate, and for wage-board authority to increase the statutory rate in individual industries and to set broad working-conditions standards. Prohibition of discrimination on basis of age, sex, or race was recommended, also enactment of Federal and State laws providing for equal pay for women, the latter to include the strengthening of existing State equalpay laws by elimination of weakening exemptions.

Adoption for all workers of a standard maximum 8-hour day and maximum 40-hour week was urged, payment of overtime to be required on the basis specified above. (Further reduction in working hours below 8 hours a day was also encouraged.) Other provisions advocated were a limit of 8 hours a day and 48 hours a week for women workers, with overtime after 40 hours; establishment of rest and meal periods and a weekly day of rest; reduction of night work for both men and women to the minimum necessary for essential processes and services; shift differentials in pay and more desirable working conditions to be provided when night work is a practice.

The conference asked that States make legal provision for wage payment in full, in cash or its equivalent, on regular pay days, at least semimonthly; enact adequate wage-payment and wagecollection laws, which, "in addition to helping workers generally, would greatly strengthen the effective enforcement of all State laws regulating wages and hours"; and amend statutes of limita

tions for wage claims to conform to those set for other types of claims, in no case to be for a period less than 5 years.

The conference advocated elimination of home work as a social evil and an inefficient system of production. It urged application of prescribed wage and hour standards, without discrimination, to all workers in the Territories and possessions as well as to workers within continental United States.

Child Labor

As "a guidepost to improved child labor standards that must be constantly reviewed," the conference approved the following:

All gainful occupations of children should be covered, including agriculture, excepting only those children who work on their home farms. The minimum age should be 16 years for employment during school hours; 14 years for employment outside school hours and during vacation; 16 years for employment at any time in manufacturing, mechanical, and processing establishments.

Daily hours for minors under 18 should not exceed 8; weekly hours should not exceed 40; days worked in a week should not exceed 6. A daily lunch period of not less than 30 minutes should be provided. For minors under 18 working outside school hours, combined hours of school and work should be limited to 8 a day. Work by children under 16 between 7 p. m. and 7 a. m. and work by children 16 and 17 between 10 p. m. and 7 a. m. should not be permitted. Work of minors under 18 in specified hazardous occupations should be prohibited. In case of injury to an illegally employed minor, at least double compensation under workmen's compensation law should be allowed.

Employment certificates for all employed minors under 18 should be required, the State labor departments to have general supervision over their issuance and review as to legality of work. Places of employment should be inspected by adequately staffed State departments of labor that should be authorized to bring legal action. A program should be carried on by the labor commissioner to bring about understanding of employer, union, parent, child, and school, and cooperation of citizen groups in enforcement. Fair Labor Standards Act provisions concerning child labor should be strengthened "to include areas of inter