Imágenes de páginas
PDF
EPUB
[blocks in formation]

1085

1093

Trimble, Gilbert K., president, Midwest Rubber Reclaiming Co., East St.
Louis, Mo., letter to Chairman Roosevelt.___.

1087

Veeder, Nicholas P., chairman of the board and president, Granite City
Steel Co., Granite City, Ill., letter to Chairman Roosevelt.
Willis, C. E., regional vice president, Farmers Insurance Group, Aurora,
Ill., letter to Chairman Roosevelt--

1090

1087

EQUAL EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITY

MONDAY, JANUARY 15, 1962

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES,

SPECIAL SUBCOMMITTEE ON LABOR OF THE COMMITTEE ON EDUCATION AND LABOR, Washington, D.C. The subcommittee met at 10 a.m., pursuant to call, in room 429, Old House Office Building, Hon. James Roosevelt (chairman of the subcommittee) presiding.

Present: Representatives Powell, Roosevelt, Dent, Pucinski, Smith, Ayres, and Goodell.

Also present: Don Lowe, subcommittee director; Adrienne Fields, subcommittee clerk; Richard Burress, minority clerk, Committee on Education and Labor; Tamara Wall, assistant general counsel for labor-management, Committee on Education and Labor.

Mr. ROOSEVELT. The subcommittee will come to order, please.

In opening these hearings of the Special Subcommittee on Labor of the U.S. House of Representatives, I want first to express my regret at having to be absent part of today and tomorrow, and I want to thank my good friend and colleague, the Honorable John H. Dent of Pennsylvania, for consenting to take up the gavel in my absence. Our subject, equal employment opportunity, has largely comprised the work of the subcommittee for several months. During late October and early November regional hearings were held in Chicago, Los Angeles, and New York City. Our assumption that such hearings were badly needed could almost be called the understatement of the century. The subcommittee found that, despite many encouraging developments, denial of equal employment opportunity is hardly a less pressing matter today than when it first became of concern to the executive branch of the Federal Government over 20 years ago. We have heard strong testimony to the effect:

That employment discrimination of some kind can be found in almost every industry-if not with respect to initial employment, then certainly with respect to opportunity for promotion; That, as a consequence especially when age and sex factors are taken into consideration-employment discrimination probably adversely affects fully 50 percent of our Nation's population;

That arbitrary denial of equal employment opportunity unquestionably contributes to our current staggering welfare assistance costs. For example, Mr. Raymond M. Hilliard, director, Cook County Department of Public Aid, conservatively estimates that $70 million additional yearly cost in Chicago's welfare grants can be attributed solely to employment discrimination.

717

That industries, traditionally the prime employers of young people, are perhaps the most flagrant practitioners of employment discrimination.

That, accordingly, denial of equal employment opportunity contributes to disillusionment of high school students and increases school dropouts, currently an acute national problem. That organized labor, despite solid advances, has much yet to do, particularly in the area of apprenticeship training; and

That all is far from right in the employment practices of the Federal Government itself, where, above all, complete fairness ought to be the rule.

In these final Washington hearings, we shall complete the regional picture by hearing witnesses from the South, Southeast, and Southwest areas of the country. We shall, in addition, hear top-level reaffirmation of our regional findings; we shall hear testimony concerning full manpower utilization in the next critical decade and testimony concerning the importance of our subject matter to the international relations of our Nation; we shall, finally, hear testimony from religious leaders of various faiths as to basic moral right in connection with equal employment opportunity legislation.

This last aspect of our concern should not be taken lightly, for, as has been frequently said, and I have said it, too, I would hope that something besides mere expediency would be sufficient to move us to action. The right of a person to fulfill the potentialities of his best self, the right of a society to be enriched by the full contribution of each of its members-these are matters vital to the very fabric of our democratic way of life. These matters pierce deeply to our basic sense of right and wrong. What the rest of the world thinks of us pales into insignificance in comparison with what we think, really think without benefit of rationalization, of ourselves. If America is, or if we can make America become, the America of all Americans, then we need have no fear of our "image" in the eyes of the world.

Following the conclusion of this week of hearings the subcommittee will meet in executive session Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, January 22, 23, and 24, 1962, in order to agree upon the final form of the bill to be introduced, and to be presented to the full committee for consideration.

Our first witness this morning is Mr. Herbert Hill, the labor secretary of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.

Mr. Hill will testify, No. 1, on the patterns of employment discrimination in the South, and No. 2, on the views of the NAACP on the proposed legislation.

Mr. Hill, we are delighted to have you with us as a long-time student of this important subject matter, and particularly this year, when, at long last, considerable hope has been presented to us that perhaps we can do something about it.

STATEMENT OF HERBERT HILL, LABOR SECRETARY, NATIONAL ASSOCIATION FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF COLORED PEOPLE

Mr. HILL. Thank you very much.

In the interest of saving time, I shall read portions of my prepared statement, with the request that my entire statement go into the record.

« AnteriorContinuar »