Contracts for less than $10,000 and contracts for construction, research, agriculture, and other perishable products and secret and confidential projects are not included, so that that data figure probably constitutes substantially less than half of all the Federal projects of goods and services from American business. In other words, $2,900,000,000 of construction contracts for goods and construction is about 50 percent of what we are actually doing, because under the Walsh-Healey Act and under this Department of Labor Bureau, the atomic energy plants are not included, for example. And when we build these plants, Mr. Chairman, we can insist, and we ought to insist by congressional statute, the fair employment practices provisions be included in the awarding of the contracts. The volume of expenditures estimated by the Division of Public Contracts results in the direct employment of approximately 550,000 people. However, for most employers, Government contracts constitute only a small portion of their business. Consequently, the Public Contracts Division estimated in 1941-and this is the last available figure that 5,000,000 persons were affected by the act during that fiscal year. No estimates have been made since then, however. Sufficient data are not available to permit a total estimate of State and local employment arising from Federal-State joint programs and other grants-in-aid programs financed either in part or entirely by the Federal funds. For example, there is the Federal Highway Act. Here is an area again where vast amounts of Federal funds are granted for the construction of a great network of Federal highways, with State cooperation. I submit to you, Mr. Chairman, that in that kind of act, we should have requirements for fair-employment practices all the way down the line and, of course, that should be enforced by a Fair Employment Practices Commission. Federal grants-in-aid amount to $1,500,000,000 in the fiscal year of 1948, and nearly $2,000,000,000 in the fiscal year of 1949. Much of these funds were for individual beneficiaries, such as recipients of public assistance. Of the funds which go into administrative expenses, some are used for pay rolls, at the State level. But a considerable amount trickles down to county and local levels. After consulting with the staff members and the agencies which are most concerned with Federal-aid programs, it is my estimate that outside of the field of construction, where you had over 500,000 people involved, there are 2,000,000 persons in the employ of State and local governments who are paid in part or entirely from Federal funds. That is 700,000 there. Then add to that 2,200,0000 Federal employees, and add to that another 175,000 people, which are by direct public construction, and you have a sizable number of American citizens employed by State, local, and Federal Governments, where Federal funds are directly involved. I give you these facts, Mr. Chairman. National fair-employment legislation in my mind is mandatory. It is mandatory for economic and social and humanitarian and political reasons. Legislation will make it possible for minority workers to gain for themselves and their children education and training which will enable them to develop fully their potential skills. 90748-49- -8 Furthermore, the day-to-day contacts between the members of different races, of religions, and ethnic and national groups in employment are the best possible device for building mutual understanding respecting good will. It is through this kind of educational process that we will break down these false and vicious stereotypes which have grown up in our society because of the limited and unnatural status of intergroup contacts. Many, many times, impassioned pleas have been made for trade between the nations. Those pleas have been based not only upon the economic benefits, Mr. Chairman, that are derived from trade between the nations, but more so upon the fact that we have said the way to maintain peace in this world is to get to know our neighbors. And the only way that we can know our neighbors is through trade and commerce, or at least one of the main ways to know our neighbors is through trade and commerce, business activity, economic activity, and cultural activity between the nations. I submit, Mr. Chairman, that you can apply that international principle of trade between the nations which promotes international good will and understanding to economic opportunity in employment in America where men and women of different races, groups, and nationalities get to know each other and learn about each other and find out that some of the stereotypes which have been so often placed before the American people are false, and that they are not only false, but they are iniquitous in the effect that they have upon American life. This increase in personal acquaintance with members of other groups will lead us to treat all of our fellow men as individuals, and will teach us the truth of Mark Twain's observation: If a fellow is a human being, he can't be any worse. Speaking in terms of ethics, our conscience in America has become corroded and encrusted with a bitter feeling of guilt because we profess a belief in justice and equality of opportunity, but we practice injustice all too often and discrimination against the members of minority racial, religious, and national groups, in every one of these United States. The outlawing of discrimination in employment by effective legislation is a major step toward lifting this burden of guilt from the American conscience. It is a step that should be taken in every city and every State and by the Federal Government as a clear and unequivocal statement of national policy. The enactment of this legislation by the Congress would represent a long stride toward the solution of the American dilemma by bringing our practices into harmony with those high principles of justice and equality of opportunity to which we all subscribe. Finally, I want to emphasize the intimate interdependence between the solution of our human relations problems in our own communities and within our own national boundaries, and our major human task of bringing sane and decent and peaceful relations between the peoples of the world. If we are going to export democracy, we had better get cooled off before the mass production of it here at home. You cannot export something that you are short on, Mr. Chairman. And if we are going to export the ideas of democracy, the philosophy of democracy, and the spiritual qualities of democracy, we had better be tooled up for mass production of that product right here at the domestic level. We must deal with justice and mutual respect and good will with our neighbors if we are to qualify as decent citizens of the world. I am very grateful, Mr. Chairman, for the opportunity to testify on this important piece of legislation, and I encourage the House of Representatives to lead the way. Let us not be worrying about which House is going to act on this first. Somebody has to lead. The world needs leadership today, and so does the Congress, by the way. The House of Representatives has the chance to give leadership, and it is in the beginnings that we have importance. The beginnings are more important than the endings, because if you do not have the beginning, Mr. Chairman, you never get any of the endings. This legislation has always been tossed back and forth on the basis of, well, one House would not enact it because the other House for sure was going to kill it. Now, Mr. Chairman, we do not get things done in America that way. We have a bicameral system of government in our legislative process. But leadership on legislation oftentimes rests in the House of Representatives; oftentimes it rests in the Senate. I hope that there will always be healthy competition for that leadership. But I can assure you that today the American people are not particularly concerned which one of us is going to act first. They just want to be sure we act. And I am not going to be able to go home to my constituents, and I do not think I can say honestly to the people of this Nation, those that I meet and talk to, that we have done our job until we have made every effort, every effort that it is humanly possible to make, to enact this legislation. The time is late, Mr. Chairman. We are not going to gain by waiting. We gain only by trying. And you would be surprised. Sometimes in just the trying, the walls of Jerico, which are the walls of our own indifference and prejudice, just come "tumbling down." And I am of the suspicion that these walls are a little bit jittery right now. If they are not jittery in Congress, I can assure you that when we go home in the summertime, if we ever make it, we will find out that some people are going to be asking us some embarrassing questions, and I want to be able to give them some honest answers. Thank you very much. Mr. POWELL. I want to thank the Senator for his very excellent presentation and to concur with him wholeheartedly in the fact that the House of Representatives should never wait for the Senate to do anything that we feel is right, just as the Senate did not wait for us on national aid to education, which never came up in the House in the last Congress, but by virtue of the fact that the Senate did enact it, it will come up in the House this time. Senator HUMPHREY. That is right. Mr. POWELL. And I feel here that we should move ahead. This committee is going to be ready to report this back to our full conmittee at the end of this month, and Chairman Lesinski has promised that it will immediately be brought before the full committee, and if we get it out of full committee and we go before the Rules Committee and the Rules Committee is not going to give us a rule, we will just use our new rule and bring it up on the floor in 21 days. Senator HUMPHREY. Mr. Chairman, may I say this, that the American people look upon the House of Representatives as their representative body. The Congressmen are elected from the districts on the basis of population proportion. In the Senate, it is two Senators from each State, regardless of the size of the State, the population of the State, its wealth, or anything else. It is one of our great compromises in American Government. But the House of Representatives, by and large, is the voice of the American people. It is the people's body. And whether the Senate ever acts on this or not, I think it would be a resounding challenge to the world if the House of Representatives passed this legislation and said to the people of America and to the people of the world, "We are for fair employment practices legislation," and then the Senate will be on the spot, as we say, and I am perfectly willing, as I said earlier, to join hands in wholesome fellowship with every good Republican and Democrat in the Senate of the United States and try to get this legislation across. Thank you. Mr. POWELL. Thank you. The committee stands adjourned until 9: 45 tomorrow morning. (Whereupon, at 12:45 p. m., an adjournment was taken until the following day, Thursday, May 12, 1949, at 9:45 a. m.) FEDERAL FAIR EMPLOYMENT PRACTICE ACT THURSDAY, MAY 12, 1949 HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, SPECIAL SUBCOMMITTEE OF THE Washington, D. C. The subcommittee met, pursuant to adjournment, at 9:45 a. m., Hon. Adam C. Powell, Jr. (chairman), presiding. Mr. POWELL. The committee will come to order. Our first witness is Representative Biemiller, of Wisconsin, and there are three or four other Members of Congress whose testimony could not be included yesterday. We will hear them today. TESTIMONY OF HON. ANDREW J. BIEMILLER, A REPRESENTATIVE IN CONGRESS FROM THE STATE OF WISCONSIN Mr. BIEMILLER. Mr. Chairman and members of the committee, I am Andrew J. Biemiller, representing the Fifth District of Wisconsin. May I say that this is a most auspicious day in the eyes of those of us who are interested in fighting discrimination on racial or religious grounds because of the splendid action which the Air Force has taken within the last 24 hours. I am delighted to see that the Air Force is carrying out the intent of President Truman's Executive order to ban discrimination in the armed forces, and I am hopeful that the Army will follow through in similar vein. I also had the pleasure about 6 weeks ago of being on the carrier Franklin D. Roosevelt, and noted there that there had been progress made in assimilating people into the work of the Navy purely on the basis of their abilities and with no discrimination, and I hope that additional progress will be made in that respect. I would also like to call the attention of the committee to the fact that my own State has just passed, and the Governor has signed, a bill barring discrimination in the National Guard of the State of Wisconsin, which I think is further proof that progress has been made. I am in favor of the passage of the present bill because of my deep conviction that our American democracy means freedom of opportunity. It was my privilege to be one of the sponsors of the civilrights plank which was adopted at the 1948 Democratic national convention. That plank reads: We again state our belief that racial and religious minorities must have the right to live, the right to work, the right to vote, and the full and equal protection of the laws on a basis of equality with all citizens as guaranteed by the |