chief need, as we see it, is motivation. We believe a clear-cut Federal law backed up by State and local legislation where it is needed will provide that motivation.

Third, we believe Federal legislation is necessary to assure the continued employment of Negro workers in many of the occupations and jobs they obtained for the first time during the war. More than 700,000 Negro workers went into industrial employment between 1942 and 1946. Until recently the vast majority of these workers were able to remain in industry. In the past 6 months, however, thousands of Negroes have lost these jobs along with thousands of other workers. In two larger corporations with which we are presently working, recent cut-backs have all but wiped out the jobs held by Negroes, most of whom had job seniority of 5 and 7 years. From practically every local league, we are receiving reports that the present temporary recession has displaced a disproportionate number of Negro workers. Within a few weeks we hope, and I am sure you do, that many of these workers will be recalled to their jobs. But we face that possibility with the uncertainty and skepticism which have long attended the job-finding efforts of Negroes. We have only to recall the early days of the war effort when Negroes were denied a chance to work even when the labor supply was all but exhausted. We believe, therefore, that the enactment of sound legislation to assure Negroes and other minority group workers a fair chance at an available job is a necessary step which the Congress should take.

Fourth, we believe, finally, that the enactment of antidiscrimination legislation will do more to discredit the critics of the American system than any single thing that the Congress can do. We are no longer an isolated Nation free to conduct its affairs as we see fit. We stand today as a model to freedom-loving people all over the world.

Our industrial genius and know-how have been important factors in raising our Nation to this enviable position in world affairs, I am certain, and I believe you will agree with me that in spite of our unprecedented, economical development, there are areas in our national society from which many capable citizens are almost completely excluded. Equality of opportunity in our economy is one of these areas. As a result of the inequalities in training and employment, a significant proportion of our population is forced to live at a standard far below an acceptable minimum consistent with our productive capacities. This situation we must remedy not only because it has serious international implications but because we must find a way to use the creative and productive resources of all Americans in order to safeguard the Nation's economic welfare.

We urge you, gentlemen, in the name of the National Urban League to enact legislation that will prohibit those un-American practices which deprive part of our citizenry of the opportunity to make its maximum contribution to the growth and prosperity of this Nation. We urge you to open wide the doors of opportunity to every American regardless of his race, religion or national origin.

Mr. POWELL. Thank you, Mr. Thomas. I want to congratulate the Urban League and you personally on the excellent work you have done in the industrial field.

I want to ask you if the unemployment which is rising now is affecting the Negro worker much more than the white worker? Is that true? Mr. THOMAS. Very definitely so.

Mr. POWELL. What percetnage would you say, if it can be boiled down to a percentage?

Mr. THOMAS. Well, it is rather difficult.

Now we see there are 3,500,000 people currently unemployed. We are getting reports from the Bureau of Labor Statistics and from the local urban league branches and upon that, broken it down by races, if we can do it, and it is a very difficult thing to do.

Mr. POWELL. Yes, we know.

Mr. THOMAS. I would say a good 15 or 20 percent of unemployed people today are Negroes.

Mr. POWELL. And tell us what they should be.

Mr. THOMAS. About two and one-half to three times the national ratio of unemployment.

Mr. POWELL. And as the picture gets worse that percentage may increase?

Mr. THOMAS. Definitely.

Mr. POWELL. As one young lady testified this morning, in Indianapolis in 1948, 68 percent of the Negro workers in Indianapolis were unemployed.

Mr. THOMAS. In Omaha recently we discovered that 30 percent of the Negro work force are unemployed. This was 2 months ago and there is no particular reason to believe the situation is going to improve materially.

Mr. POWELL. I was in Omaha myself in March. I didn't get the percentages but I did interview several people there.

Thirty percent sounds like the 1930's all over again.

I would like to ask you one last question.

Mr. THOMAS. Very well.

Mr. POWELL. Before you became director, you worked as local executive secretary in Atlanta, Jacksonville, and Louisville. From your experience then and from your experience now as National Director of Industrial Relations, what do you think would be the effect of passage of the FEPC legislation upon the Negro and white worker relationship in the South?

Mr. THOMAS. Well, I think in any work situation, whether it is in the North or South, when somebody makes up his mind that he is going to do it on a democratic basis, he has no program.

For example, I have just completed an analysis of employment practices in 150 industries, which analysis will appear in the form of a book, I hope, as soon as I can finish writing it. I went into a number of plants in the middle South-Memphis, Louisville, and other cities. I went into the plant of the International Harvester Co. and some of the large national corporations and I saw in those plants some of the best work situations I have seen anywhere in America, and I think I have been in almost every State in the last 6 years. ticularly International Harvester, which has a very forward-looking position on this subject and has completely integrated 26 percent of its production work force in its plant in Memphis and 16 percent in its plant in Louisville and they are employed in every skill from machinist to janitor, and it is much more difficult to get a janitor's job filled than it is to get a machinist's job.

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They are members of the union. There is absolutely no separation of the workers in the plant. They work on assembly-line operations and there have been no problems in the work situation.

Now I believe that wherever any industry or any business decides that it is going to operate under the provisions of legislation as it now operates in New York and the other States, there is enough know-how and there is enough procedure that can be used to safeguard him against any of these difficulties we customarily associate with it. Thank you.

Mr. POWELL. All right. I am sorry we do not have more time for your testimony. I have a number of vital questions I would like to ask you, but our memorial services begin in 3 minutes, so we will recess now until 2 o'clock.

(Whereupon, at 11:57 a. m., the subcommittee recessed until 2 p. m. of the same day.)

AFTERNOON SESSION

Mr. POWELL. The committee will kindly come to order.

I have a statement from the United Office and Professional Workers of America, CIO, and it has been requested that it be included in the record.

Without objection, it is so ordered.

(The statement referred to is as follows:)

STATEMENT OF JAMES H. DURKIN, PRESIDENT, UNITED OFFICE AND PROFESSIONAL WORKERS OF AMERICA, CIO

The United Office and Professional Workers of America, representing approximately 50,000 white-collar workers throughout the country, wholeheartedly supports H. R. 4453, a bill to prohibit discrimination in employment because of race, color, religion, or national origin. We urge its immediate adoption by Congress.

It is our belief that to maintain and to increase the security and living standards of American workers and their families the democratic principle of equality of opportunity must be extended to all segments of the population. To the shame of our Nation, minority racial, national, and religious groups have long suffered the ill effects of discrimination. The time is overdue when congressional action must be taken to wipe out forever this un-American practice.

The UOPWA condemns all forms of job discrimination. Our major concern at this hearing, however, is directed to racial discrimination, because (1) this practice is the most virulent of all, and (2) it affects the lives of a tremendous number of people, some 14,000,000 Negroes.

With the limited means at its disposal, the UOWPA is attempting to break through the barriers to equal job opportunities in those companies with which it has contracts. But even our maximum victories would not scratch the surface of this problem. It is the responsibility of the Federal Government to take the leadership through legislation to guarantee to every man and woman an equal chance to acquire and utilize skills to earn a decent living in accordance with his ability.

The precedent for national action was established in 1941 in Executive Order 8802. The fact that fair employment practices legislation was introduced recently in 18 of the 42 States whose legislatures were in session, indicates that both the demand for and sentiment in favor of such legislation is widespread. The legislative safeguard of the right to a job regardless of race, color, religion, or national origin, however, cannot await individual State action. It is incumbent upon Congress to enact a Federal law immediately to insure its Nationwide observance.

H. R. 4453 is predicated on faith in the American people to support just treatment of all groups. It presupposes the willingness and ability of Americans to take corrective measures when undemocratic practices are exposed and condemned.

Sufficient evidence is available in the experience of the defunct national Fair Employment Practices Committee and the States where antidiscrimination laws now exist, that the effect of such measures has been to promote the freedom unity, and harmony of the people in this country, and thereby strengthen their faith in the democratic processes.

EQUALITY OF OPPORTUNITY IS INDIVISIBLE; H. R. 4453 SHOULD APPLY TO ALL EMPLOYERS

H. R. 4453 presumes an acceptance of the principle of equality of opportunity. That being so, there can be no justification for exceptional treatment. This legislation should be applicable to all employers of workers, regardless of the size or the nature of the establishment.

UOPWA proposes the elimination of section 3 (b) which excludes from coverage employers of less than 50 employees, political subdivisions of the Federal Government, religious, charitable, fraternal, social, educational, and sectarian organizations.

These exemptions cover, for the most part, companies and agencies, predominantly white collar, the major field in which discrimination against Negroes is so widespread. There is no reason why employers of thousands of employees in these areas should not also be compelled to observe so basic a right as that to a job.

RELATIVE ECONOMIC POSITION OF NEGRO AND WHITE WORKERS

Practically all Negroes are dependent upon their wages for a livelihood. The incomes they receive are, therefore, a reflection of the jobs they hold. It is not by accident that a comparison of the relative economic status of the Negro (nonwhite) and white population reveals the following sharp differences: 1 (1) Median annual wages of workers, by race, 1947

Job discrimination is expressed in many forms. Some of its major manifestations are:

(1) Outright exclusion of Negro workers, the absence of Negroes altogether in certain industries and occupations.

(2) Employment of Negroes in only the most menial capacity in industry, or on a quota, token basis.

(3) Differential in wage rates for the same occupation.

(4) Lack of opportunity to acquire training to qualify for promotions or job openings.

An analysis of the findings of the Census Bureau over the decades points out sharply the glaring disproportionate distribution of Negro workers among the Nation's occupational groups, with the overwhelming preponderance of Negro workers in unskilled and service jobs.

Although the Negro population constitutes one-tenth of the Nation, 50 percent of all employed Negro workers as of 1947 were concentrated in farming, domestic service and nonfarm laborer groups."

It is significant that in the white-collar field where employer influence has succeeded to a large degree in retarding trade-union organization, discrimination in employment because of race is the most flagrant. Only an infinitessimal number of Negro workers obtain jobs in the offices of private industry and Government agencies as professionals, clerks, salespeople, and other such positions. The employment of Negroes as proprietors, managers, and professional workres did increase after 1940, but 7 years later still accounted for less than 3 percent

1 Current Population Reports, series P-60, No. 5, Bureau of the Census. 2 Monthly Labor Review, U. S. Department of Labor, December 1947.

of the total employment in these occupations. Only 5 percent of nonfarm Negro workers were employed in 1947 as clerks and salespersons.

As of 1947, only 1.8 percent of all employed female clerks and salesgirls were Negro; 2 percent of all employed male clerks and salesmen were Negro. In the professional and semiprofessional categories, Negro males comprised but 2.6 percent of all employed males professionals; Negro females, 6.5 percent.* Stated conversely, the stark fact of discrimination becomes more vivid; the white-collar occupations are 97 percent "lily white."

The distribution of jobs among Negroes has changed but little since 1940, as is shown in the Census Bureau's table below. Indeed, both during and after World War II, Negroes constituted a larger proportion of the country's nonfarm laborer group that they did before the war.

1 Monthly Labor Review, U. S. Department of Labor, December 1947.

The opportunity for Negro workers to apply freely for available job openings is severely restricted. In the State of Illinois 55 percent of all job orders filed with the employment service contains specifications as to race. In Chicago the percentage is 12 percent higher.5

Today in California between 80 and 90 percent of all job orders placed with the employment offices specify "white only." The only jobs for which there usually is no discrimination are foundry workers, unskilled laborers, and domestic servants.

The occupational guides prepared by the United States Employment Service frankly admit that job openings for nonwhites in the white-collar field are rare indeed."

A survey recently completed by the Urban League discovered that only 6 percent of the Negro workers in Louisville, Ky., are in the high-income groups of professionals, proprietors, and officials, as compared with 18 percent of the white workers residing there.

In the city of New York, one of the largest centers of white-collar employment, the same general pattern of occupational discrimination exists, with Negro workers concentrated in the lowest-paying menial jobs. According to the latest survey of the Bureau of the Census, April 1947, 35 out of every 100 employed Negro workers (male and female) were domestic and service workers, as compared with 11 out of every 100 employed white workers (male and female). Proportionately, twice as many of all employed white workers found jobs in the white-collar classifications-clerical and sales as well as professional and semiprofessional-as did Negro workers.'

Discrimination against Negro women is especially acute. Whereas 45 out of every 100 employed white women in New York worked as clerks and salesgirls, only 13 out of every 100 employed Negro women were so engaged. Three percent of all employed white women earned a living as domestic servants as compared with 36 percent of Negro women.

3 Ibid. 4 Ibid.

Illinois Labor Bulletin. Illinois Department of Labor, January 1949.
California CIO Council.

Occupational Guide, Bookkeeper 11, Labor Market Information, U. S. Department of

Labor.

8 Six Times a Year, National Urban League, April 1949.

Special Tabulations, White and Negro, New York City, 1947 and 1940, Bureau Census.