case, and shall participate in the hearing only as a witness. Admissions made during conciliation shall not be received in evidence.

All hearings and investigations before the commission or a commissioner are governed by this act and by the rules of practice and procedure adopted by the commission. In the conduct thereof, the commission or commissioner shall not be bound by the common law or statutory rules of evidence and procedure, but may make inquiry in the manner, through oral testimony and records, which is best calculated to ascertain the truth of the matter in issue and carry out justly the spirit and provisions of this part. The case in support of the complaint, or of the commission's investigation, shall be presented before the commission or commissioner by one of its attorneys or agents. The testimony taken at the hearing shall be under oath and be transcribed. If, upon all the evidence at the hearing, the commission shall find that any unlawful employment practice as defined in this act has existed, exists, or is threatened, the commission shall state its findings and shall issue and cause to be served upon the person committing such unlawful employment practice, or threatened practice, an order requiring such person to cease and desist from such unlawful employment practice, or threat thereof, and to take such affirmative action, including (but not limited to) hiring, reinstatement, or upgrading of employees, with or without back pay, or acceptance into or restoration of membership in any respondent labor organization, as in the judgment of the commission or commissioner will effectuate the purposes of this act, and including a requirement for report or periodic reports of the manner of compliance. If, upon all of the evidence, the commission shall find that an unlawful employment practice has not been committed or threatened, the commission shall state its findings and shall issue an order dismissing the complaint or investigation. Any complaint filed pursuant to this section must be filed within six (6) months after the alleged unfair employment practice. Upon the written agreement of the party against whom the order will run, a consent order may be entered by the commission without a hearing.

SEC. 10. Judicial review of final orders of the commission shall be available to any party against whom the order runs, provided he shall petition for such review in the appropriate court within twenty (20) days after the entry of the order. The form of the review shall be certiorari. Such proceedings shall be brought in the District Courts of Appeal of the State of California, in the district wherein the unlawful employment practice which is the subject of the commission's order occurred. The commission's findings as to venue shall be conclusive. A copy of the petition must be served on the commission prior to the filing thereof. The commission must furnish to the district court wherein the petition for review has been filed a copy of the transcript, together with a copy of the commission's order from which the appeal has been taken, within twenty (20) days after the petition is filed. Failure to petition for review shall be conclusively presumed to constitute consent to the commission's order.

At any time after the rendition of its decision the commission may obtain a court order enforcing its order. Violation of an order of the commission after such order shall have been finally sustained upon appeal, shall constitute contempt of court. No objection that has not been urged before the commission shall be considered by the court, unless the failure or neglect to urge such objection shall be excused because of extraordinary circumstances. The court must enforce the commission's order unless it is contrary to law or unsupported by the evidence. If the court shall find that the commission's order would be enforceable if modified, the court must make the appropriate modification and enforce the order as modified.

All proceedings shall be heard and determined by the court as expeditiously as possible and with lawful precedence over other matters. Any court passing on orders of the commission must render a final decision within five (5) months after such petition is filed in such court, and judges of such court shall be required to make affidavit that they have complied with this requirement as a prerequisite to the payment of their salaries.

The court shall have the power to grant appropriate relief to the commission while the review is pending. The filing of a petition for review shall not operate as a stay of the commission's order. No court of this State shall have jurisdiction to issue any restraining order, or preliminary or permanent injunction, or any other restraint preventing the commission from performing any of its functions. Nor shall any court have jurisdiction to make any order affecting the commission or its orders, except as specifically provided in this act.

SEC. 11. 1. The term "person" includes one or more individuals, partnerships associations, or corporations, legal representatives, trustees in bankruptcy, re ceivers, the State or any political or civil subdivision thereof, and cities.

2. The term "employment agency" includes any person undertaking to procure employees or opportunities to work.

3. The term "labor organization" means any organization of any kind, or any agency or employees representing committee or plan in which employees participate and which exists for the purpose, in whole or in part, of dealing with employers concerning grievances, labor disputes, wages, rates of pay, hours of employment, or conditions of work.

4. The term "employer" includes the State or any political or civil subdivision thereof and cities, but does not include any person regularly employing fewer than five (5) persons, nor associations or corporations organized and operated exclusively for religious, charitable, scientific, literary, or educational purposes, nor clubs organized and operated exclusively for pleasure, recreation, and other nonprofitable purposes, no part of the net earnings of which inures to the benefit of any private shareholder or individual.

5. Coverage does not include any individual employed by his parents, spouse or child or in the domestic service of any person in the home of such person. 6. The term "commission" means the State Fair Employment Practice Commission created by this act.

SEC. 12. Any person who shall willfully resist, prevent, impede, or interfere with the commission or any of its members or representatives in the performance of duty under this act, or shall willfully violate an order of the commission, shall be guilty of a misdemeanor and be punishable by imprisonment in a county jail for not more than six (6) months, or by fine of not more than five hundred dollars ($500) or by both; but procedure for the review of the order shall not be deemed to be such willful conduct.

SEC. 13. The provisions of this act shall be construed liberally for the accomplishment of the purposes thereof. Nothing contained in this act shall be deemed to repeal any of the provisions of the civil rights law or any other law of this State.

SEC. 14. If any clause, sentence, paragraph, or part of this act or the application thereof to any person or circumstance, shall for any reason be adjudged by a court of competent jurisdiction to be invalid, such judgment shall not affect, impair, or invalidate the remainder of this act and the application thereof to other persons or circumstances, but shall be confined in its operation to the clause, sentence, paragraph, or part thereof directly involved in the controversy in which such judgment shall have been rendered and to the person or circumstance involved.

SEC. 15. To carry out the provisions of this act there is hereby appropriated out of any money in the State treasury the sum of two hundred fifty thousand dollars ($250,000) or so much thereof as may be necessary continuously for each fiscal year commencing with the Ninety-eighth (98th) Fiscal Year; subject to the provisions of Section 16304 and Section 13320 to 13324 of the Government Code.

The appropriation made by this section shall be available for expenditure in addition to any other moneys appropriated to carry out the provisions of this

act.

STATEMENT OF FREDERICK F. UMHEY, EXECUTIVE SECRETARY, INTERNATIONAL LADIES' GARMENT WORKERS' UNION, NEW YORK, N. Y.

The purposes of S. 984 are supported wholeheartedly by the International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union. Our membership of 380,000, scattered through some 34 States, is made up of a cross section of almost every national, racial, and religious group in the United States. Workers and employers of different color, different creed, different national ancestry have worked together side by side in harmony. Within our union and industry we do not and never have practiced any kind of discrimination either with regard to membership in the union or employment in shops under agreement with our union. This achievement is to a considerable extent responsible for the proud record of industrial peace which we have achieved in our industry. We believe that American industry, American workers, and the American consumer will benefit, as our industry, workers, and consumers have, if all barriers to employment based on color, or creed, or ancestry are removed.

The adoption of S. 984 will further the cause of American democracy and carry out the principles of the Declaration of Independence in its proclamation of self-evident truths: "That all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness." The declaration of policy of S. 984 clearly recognizes that the right of employment without discrimination because of race, religion, color, national origin, or ancestry is a civil right of all the people of the United States, a right recognized by the Declaration of Independence and our Constitution. The bill also furthers our international obligations, assumed by us as signatories of the Charter of the United Nations, to promote "universal respect for, and observance of, human rights and fundainental freedoms for all, without distinction as to race, sex, language, or religion." It is a clear demonstration to the forces of foreign totalitarianism that democracy flourishes in the United States and that the right of the people to enjoy civil liberties, the right of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, is not only preserved but is also implemented in a direct and a forthright

manner.

We dot not view the problem of employment discrimination as a sectional problem. It is a national problem. It requires a national remedy. The testimony already presented to the subcommittee has indicated the extent to which industrial discrimination leads to industrial depression. Where discrimination prevents the employment of skills of minority groups, the economy suffers from the waste involved in denying these workers the right to make their full share to the Nation's productive efforts. The purchasing power of such minority groups is restricted with the result that not only do the individuals in these groups suffer but the economy as a whole pays the price of discrimination. Again, the burden of relief payments, which are the direct result of discriminatory practices, is ultimately borne by the general public. Minority groups which cannot look forward to developing skills or being advanced are not and cannot be expected to be highly productive workers. Workers who cannot afford to pay for adequate housing, sufficient food, medical care, and reasonable recreation are not and cannot be expected to be efficient workers. We cannot achieve economic stability and economic prosperity as long as there are barriers to the development of the highest potential level of economic productivity. And we cannot achieve such a level until we remove all of the discriminatory practices which are as millstones on the necks of approximately 22,000,000 Catholics, 13,000,000 Negroes, 5,000,000 Jews, 3,000,000 Americans of Mexican or Hispanic origin, -11,000,000 foreign-born, and 23,000,000 children of foreign-born.

Discriminatory practices in employment must be eliminated before we can achieve any degree of economic stability. Discriminatory practices must be eliminated before we can pretend to any degree of political equality. We cannot tell the many millions of our veterans that our political ideals apply only during wartime, that once out of uniform our soldiers cannot expect to be treated as Americans only but as members of so-called minority groups. We cannot hope to be free of, totalitarian movements so long as we provide them with fertile soil on which to grow.

We, therefore, believe it imperative that the purposes embodied in S. 984 become a part of our Nation's law. There is no doubt that with the passage of time it will be recognized that the scope of this bill needs to be expanded and its provisions further broadened and improved. Its adoption at this time will mark a significant declaration of our faith in democracy and in the equality of men.

LETTER OF ALMA VESSELLS, R. N., EXECUTIVE SECRETARY, NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF COLORED GRADUATE NURSES, INC., NEW YORK, N. Y.

Senator CLAUDE PEPPER,

Washington, D. C.

JULY 2, 1947.

MY DEAR SENATOR PEPPER: At the first postwar biennial convention of the National Association of Colored Graduate Nurses just concluded in Atlanta, Ga., it was unanimously voted by the 400 delegates representing 26 States that we send you the following resolution:

"Whereas the National Association of Colored Graduate Nurses has always been vitally concerned with the health of all the people, and whereas the health of the Nation's largest minority, the Negro people, should be of particular concern to the entire country: Be it therefore,

"Resolved, That we strongly urge the passage of the National Health Insurance and Public Health Act of 1947, S. 1320, without discrimination as to race, creed, or color."

We respectfully urge its inclusion in the record of the Senate Subcommittee on Health.

We wish to express our sincere appreciation for your untiring efforts in behalf of legislation which will insure greater health benefits for all of the people of our Nation.

Respectfully yours,

ALMA VESSELLS.

LETTER OF FRED A. VIRKUS, CHAIRMAN, CONFERENCE OF AMERICAN SMALL BUSINESS ORGANIZATIONS, CHICAGO, ILL.

JULY 23, 1947.

Re S. 984.

Hon. FORREST C. DONNELL,

Chairman, Subcommittee of Committee on Labor and Public Welfare,

United States Senate, Washington, D. C.

DEAR SENATOR DONNELL: The following views are submitted on behalf of this conference, concerning Senate bill No. 984, on which hearings were held last week. In accordance with our telegraphic request dated July 17, 1947, we ask that this memorandum be included in the record of the hearings.

The cornerstone of small business management is the right to hire and fire, and any abridgement of this right is a burden on small business, no matter what may be claimed for it.

As shown by its creation of a special committee in each House on the subject, the Congress desires to aid small business, but the passage of such a bill as S. 984 would do more harm to small business than all the good accomplished in all other ways combined.

Under this bill the businessman is presumed to be guilty until he proves himself innocent. He is palced on the defensive by a person who may be, and frequently would be, of questionable veracity and character.

Consider, if you will, the practical situations which will arise. A man or woman applies for a job, at some establishment employing 50 or more people. Judgments on hiring employees are in the highest degree intangible, and involve the art of adjusting human relationships, not just the science of applying skills and aptitudes. No matter how well suited to the job as regards skills and knowledge, the applicant may not fit into the organization. Are you going to compel the employer to hire him or her anyway? Then you wreck the foundation of enterprise, which is the art of managing people.

Now, if the employer does not hire this person, for his own good and sufficient reasons, then (under the bill) at any time within 1 year, upon the basis of a sworn statement, the Commission "shall investigate" the situation. "If it shall determine after such preliminary investigation that probable cause exists for crediting such written charge, it shall endeavor to eliminate any unlawful employment practices," etc. (sec. 7 (a)).

In order to arrive at such a conclusion, the Commission must find that the refusal to employ was based on "such individual's race, religion, color, national origin, or ancestry" (sec. 5 (a) (1)). Since any or all of these factors may enter into personality, the Commission is charged with the impossible task of analyzing the individual's personality to see whether the refusal to hire was based on any of those elements specified in the statute, or was merely the valid exercise of the art of management, based on some other intangible.

The possible number of border-line cases, and the opportunities for petty annoyance and racketeering, stagger the imagination.

These are the characteristics of sumptuary legislation.

Were the bill, like the eighteenth amendment, merely an attempt to regulate conduct outside of the business, so to speak, it would be subject to the same criticism as other sumptuary legislation.

But it is more than this. By striking at management of small business, it strikes at one of the economic foundations of our country. This country needs more prosperous small businesses in every possible line. Already it is difficult enough for small businesss to succeed financially, in the face of taxation, shortage

of venture capital, Government regulation, unionization with its accompanying rigidity of wage scales, material shortages, and a host of other plagues. Why add another? No matter what the aim or motive, such a bill as S. 984 will definitely burden commerce as far as small business is concerned. For any evil it relieves, it will create a host of others.

Small business just cannot continue taking the rap for measures to improve the lot of this, that, and the other special group-always at the expense of commerce and enterprise. A bill of this kind is a thrust at the vitals of business management.

Regardless of the provisions for judicial appeal, rectification of alleged injury, etc., the bill if enacted cannot fail to become burdensome. Small business simply cannot afford to take these appeals, even if they were to be successful. The small businessman hasn't the funds, the time, or the energy with which to fight the bureaucrats, not just on his doorstep but within the very walls of his employment office.

It is in the successful hiring of help that the small businessman gets his start. Here, if anywhere, he must have complete freedom of judgment. On the exercise of this judgment, the success of his business depends. Hamper the small businessman at this point, and you have done more than you could do anywhere else in his business to cripple it.

Respectfully submitted.

CONFERENCE OF AMERICAN SMALL BUSINESS ORGANIZATIONS.
F. A. VIRKUS.

STATEMENT OF REV. O. Walter Wagner AND REV. CHARLES A. HILL, COCHAIRMEN, COMMITTEE FOR A STATE FEPC, DETROIT, MICH., JUNE 21, 1947

The State of Michigan comprises one of the most highly industrialized areas in the United States. It is an important manufacturing center, hub of the automotive industry, and employs millions of workers in its factories and offices. During World War II Detroit was the "arsenal of democracy" for planes, ordnance, and munitions of all descriptions. The population of Michigan has always been cosmopolitan in character with a large foreign-born minority. Detroit has 350,000 citizens of Polish origin alone. Since 1914, when the Ford plants started hiring workers at the then unheard-of wage of $5 a day, a stream of migration toward Michigan industrial areas was set in motion. The First World War cut off the supply of foreign labor and increasing numbers of southerners, both black and white, left their fields and mountains for the North. Between June 1940 and June 1943, it is estimated that 500,000 persons moved into the Detroit area alone, not to mention the many thousands who moved into the other industrial areas of the State. With them, the white southerners brought their racial prejudices and they became the special targets of great numbers of religious and political fanatics who made Michigan their national headquarters.

Increasing attempts were made to demote and replace minority national and racial groups from any skilled jobs they may have had in favor of the 100 percent white American. Intimidation, violence, mob action, wildcat strikes, and even murder were committed by organizations like the Black Legion to achieve this mythical white supremacy.

The serious retardation of the defense program before the outbreak of World War II led to the issuance of Executive Order No. 8802 in 1941 which established a Fair Employment Practice Committee. This was later implemented in 1943 when a new Executive order was proclaimed which clearly stated that "it is the policy of the United States to encourage full participation in the was effort of all persons in the United States regardless of race, creed, color, or national origin, in the firm belief that the democratic way of life within the Nation can be defended successfully only with the help and support of all groups within its borders," and that "a successful prosecution of the war demands the maximum employment of all available workers regardless of race, creed, color, or national origin."

Without coercive powers, and using informal methods of persuasion and conciliation almost exclusively to secure compliance, FEPC processed nearly 10,000 complaints in 3 years, of which only 2 had to be certified to the President by the refusal of a party to cease discrimination.

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