understanding of these issues and perhaps give us some guidance as to where we go from here in the wake of the Hardison decision. Thank you. Commissioner WALSH: I think the Chair expressed my feelings far better than I could and I agree. Chair NORTON: Thank you. I would like to call the first witness, Senator Jennings Randolph. I would like to note for the record that is is unusual for a United States Senator to appear at an agency hearing. It gives some indication of the importance of this subject. Today we have Senator Jennings Randolph with us, and he is the architect of the important section of Title VII which is the subject of these hearings. In 1972, of course, the Congress adopted the guidelines of EEOC and that was due to the efforts of Senator Randolph. The Senator has also sponsored a number of other pieces of legislation, as well as one of the most important pieces of legislation that he has sponsored recently and which is being signed by the President today. It is a piece of legislation that is important to us, as well, because it involves discrimination based on age, race and the retirement age. Instead of going to the White House to witness the President's signing of that bill, the important fact of a Senator who has been associated with some important pieces of legislation, Senator Randolph has chosen to come to these hearings to open them and I want for myself and for my fellow Commissioners to say that we appreciate him placing such importance on this issue that you came here for, instead of going to the White House today. Thank you very much, Senator Randolph. Senator RANDOLPH: Thank you, Eleanor Norton Holmes and Daniel Leach and Ethel Bent Walsh. I commend your statement and the agreement of Mr. Leach and Ethel Bent Walsh in what you have set forth. I think it is well balanced and I think it has the strength of realism and certainly I read in your words the sense of justice. I hope that I can be given a moment to discuss Daniel Leach's services in the Senate where, of course, he was associated with the former Majority Leader, Michael Mansfield, now our Ambassador to Japan or to talk about you, Ms. Norton or Chair Eleanor Chair NORTON: You may talk about anyone you like, Senator. Chair NORTON: Thank you. Senator RANDOLPH: Ethel Bent Walsh I believe is from Connecticut and I think you go back and see your children or grandchildren. Commissioner WALSH: That's right. Senator RANDOLPH: These evidences of heritage are important to what we do in the future. I am the only member of the Congress today who served in the first hundred days of Franklin Roosevelt's administration and that was in 1933, and the reason I am mentioning that is to lead up to the fact that I was a strong supporter of the Civil Rights Legislation in the Senate in 1964. I remember those long nights when we slept wherever we might take a few minutes. And I remember there was a cot in the old Supreme Court Chambers and I used one that was just under the bust of the Supreme Court Justice Rutledge. I felt that first night that he rather welcomed me, but night after night the smile that I thought I saw there became a scowl. I am just saying that it took a long time. It was a difficult task to debate and determine that first legislation. It is no chore for me to come here today. It is not too much of a responsibility, although I share that with all of you, but it is a genuine privilege to come as a member of the United States Senate. I am the Chairman of the Senate Committee on Environmental Public Works and also I am the ranking member of the Senate Human Resources Committee and, of course, of that Committee come so many of the laws that have to do with the nondiscrimination by those who are participants in the educational process, as well as the workforce of the country. Recently, as all of you must be aware, I'm sure, we have given to the handicapped people of this country a clear decree, mandate of equal educational opportunity. This is the first time that that has ever been done, and I commend Secretary Califano for the strength of his statement about the need for that action of the Congress to be practiced throughout our educational system. It has been so and the Committee that I chair, because we have brought forth the programs, the job bills, the public works activities and we are coping or attempting to cope with the problems of employment of hundreds of thousands of our citizenry that need jobs in the time or times of depression or a lessening of the strength of the economy in our country. I am, as you know, a citizen of the State of West Virginia, a native of that state, but today I come to talk with you and counsel you, members of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. I wish the President would appoint the other two members, not that you need the other two members, but I remember it took six months to get a certain person, even sent from the White House to the Committee chair. We are trying to set up a budget for a certain agency and we still didn't get the person who administered the agency and spends the monies. So it took six months to have that name come before us and we acted within a few days and reported the nomination favorably to the Senate and it was passed and he was on the job. I am not critical now. I am only calling attention to shortcomings. I do come this morning as an individual who chooses to worship as a member of the Seventh Day Baptist denomination with others. I am a Sabbath observer, and as such I join with the thousands of Americans in the work force whose religions and beliefs dictate that work and worship not be confused and commingled; that the religious holidays and Sabbath be originally observed. There are Americans, who because of religious observance have found that their available hours of work were more circumscribed than others. These are the men and women whose right to an equal chance to compete for jobs was assured, we thought by the Equal Employment Opportunity Act as amended. That was in 1972. You, the members of the Commission, the three of you have been asked to end employment discrimination in America. You have been asked to strike down the barriers to job opportunity because of race and sex or national origin, or as I understand it, for religious beliefs. I think this is a heavy responsibility that you have, but it is one that I think you look upon as an opportunity, as well as a responsibility; because in the Government today we need to end the exclusion of individuals, workers from equal economic opportunity. How difficult it has been in the past several years, how difficult to speak of job opportunities. For example, in the face of an economy that at various times, as I have indicated, has given us the opportunity for jobs. How difficult in the face of legal interpretations that have served to restrict and confine the concept of equal employment opportunity. The aspect of this concerns religion and its place in the work force. Freedom from religious discrimination has been considered by most. Americans from the days of the founding fathers and mothers as one of the fundamental rights of the people of the United States. I have often. thought when we read that preamble, you know, it says "We the people." It doesn't say an Emperor or King, but "We the people." So, from the very beginning we were thinking of the people making these decisions, rather than a decree that would be handed down by someone who was not chosen through the participation of the American ballot. So freedom from religious discrimination, I repeat, has been considered by most Americans from the days of the founding fathers and mothers as one of the fundamental rights of the citizens of the United States. Yet, the courts have on occasion determined that this freedom could be weakened, at least in some manner or in some ways. It has been my desire and determination to assure that freedom from religious discrimination in the employment of workers is for all time guaranteed through law. I am certain that all of you are aware that there are several religious faiths. We could call them religious sects. We can call them denominations. They could be large in membership, but with certain strong convictions, some, of course, with not large memberships. The belief that there should be a steady factor of observance of the Sabbath is part of certain religious needs. They require observance of the day of worship, the day of the Sabbath, other than on Sunday. I'm not sure of these statistics, but we think there is approximately 750,000 men and women who are Orthodox Jews in the United States. I am not discussing today how they observe the Sabbath. That is an individual's responsibility and those who are in the work force and to fall in this category of persons. There are perhaps an additional 425,000 men and women in the work force who are members of the Seventh Day Adventist religion. I am a member of a denomination which is very, very small in numbers. I hold my membership in Washington, D. C., the Seventh Day Baptist Church. At this time, I pause to indicate that several years ago there was a young man, a minister from one of our very, very small churches in West Virginia, a Seventh Day Adventist Church and he worshipped in London, in a great cathedral. He was, of course, in a sense astounded by the magnificance and the service. He waited until he had the opportunity after the service to meet that noted clergyman from England. He said, you know, this is a very new experience for me because I am the pastor of a church in West Virginia with a very small membership and he told me the story of that clergyman placing his arms around the shoulder of this West Virginia minister and saying that there is no large church and there is no small church. Your religion is in your heart and I believe that. So whether the denomination is large in number or very small in number they have an equal standing before the courts. When Charles Evans Hughes came to Washington, D.C., as a member of the Supreme Court he was a member of the Baptist denomination. He desired to have his membership from a certain church transferred to the Calvary Baptist Church. The Calvary Baptist Church has withstood changes in population shifts, the so-called obsolescence and deterioration of the inner city of the National Capital and there it stands and when people drive, visit, go sixty miles or what not to be in the Calvary Baptist Church it holds out that place of worship for men and women. Charles Evans Hughes, as I've indicated, was to become a member of that church. He stood on a certain morning before the Pastor, whose name escapes me at this moment, he stood beside a little Chinese laundryman. Charles Evans Hughes is a very tall man and the laundryman was very short of stature and the minister, he looked at them and placed his hands on both of them and said, "When you stand at the foot of the cross the ground is level." I think that we have to consider that very, very realistically whether we are a large denomination or small denomination from the standpoint of members, that this equal opportunity as to a day or even a form of worship. In West Virginia and not to belabor the point, we have a church in Salem, the community in which I was born. We have a church some twenty miles out by a large creek near Clarksburg, the County Seat of Harrison County. I hope I may be pardoned for saying that Clarksburg was the birthplace of Stonewall Jackson. I don't want to carry it too far, but when the forces were falling back in the war between the states in a certain battle and when the commanders were apparently weakening, Lee pointed with his hands and said, "Look at Jackson. He is standing like a stone wall." That is the way his name came into being. I think without drawing comparisons we have to stand very firmly today in the manner that we discussed because it is a matter of deep concern. We have a third church at Berea out in a rural countryside section of West Virginia. Those are the three churches. We have a Sabbath-keeping group of Seventh Day Adventists who are here in New York City and we have many churches. We only have about 40 churches, 45 in the country, in the United |