Outlawing Incrimination Through Permanent FEPC

KONVITZ, MILTON R.

Outlawing Incrimination Through Permanent FEPC By Milton R. Konvitz SIXTEEN Southern railroad* issued a statement on December 18, 1943, challenging the legal and constitutional authority ot the...

...The President received from Malcolm Ross, FEPC chairman, a certification that the committee had reached an impasse with the railroads...
...The two groups are working together harmoniously...
...He'then appointed a three-man special committee to study the case of the railroaos Before the case of the Southern railroads arose, legal experts were in fear that ultimately the auth rity of the FEPC would be challenged by a recalcitrant employer or union, for, in the absence of an act of Congress giving the FEPC statutory recognition, its orders were open to defiance...
...The person sggrieved by the order may apply to the same court for review thereof...
...which may be called the right or center, and of I .in go Caballero, Araquistan and Wenceslao Ca-rillo, generally thought of as the left...
...Both Germans and Japanese have made of terror a met hod of government...
...The conflict between this minority and the great majority of Spanish republicans and socialists Concerns itself chiefly with the various intrigues originating among the Communists...
...The New York bill should be amended so that in n citizens, too, will be afforded the civil right granted by the measure...
...It is to be noted that under the Third Republic Spanish refugee* in French Africa were never permitted to nublish a oaoer...
...Said the railroads in their statement to the committee: . . The undersigned railroads submit that your committee was and is wholly without constitutions...
...The General Union of Workers (UGT), the great labor organization of Spain, is represented by five outstanding members who have back of them such important federation as those of the Transport Workers and the Agricultural Workers...
...They informed the FEPC that they would net comply with its orders...
...The Germans in Poland, in Austria, in Germany itself, did just such things, descended to the very same depths...
...We should be throwing aside standards by which we have thus far won victories and adopting those by which the enemy is losing on every front...
...Their undercover men do not hesitate to scour the globe to accomplish their purpose...
...Underground activities are increasing and finding more and more support, even in unexpected places...
...Formed for the accomplishment of definite purposes, this committee is made up of specialists...
...The term "discrimination" should be defined in the bill to include segregation...
...Employers affected are those •"ploying twenty-five or more persons...
...At the same time a bill has been introduced in the New York Assembly (No...
...Spanish Liberation Junta in Action By Victor Serge *?*HE Spanish Liberation Committee, made up of the most authoritative representatives of the Spanish parties and of the republican government, is expanding its activities in order to prepare itself for effective participation in events which are rapidly unfolding It has begun the publication of a periodical called Etpana...
...THE New York bill would set up a State Board of Fair Employment Practice...
...A person aggrieved by such an order may have judicial review in the above-named Court...
...and legal jurisdiction and power to make and issue the directives which it made and issued...
...But after having fought hard and won their victory, they were acting the part of civilized human beings...
...In the new organization the two chief tendencies are well represented...
...598) by William I Condon, calling for the establishment of a New York State FEPC...
...Pedroso and Amor Luis Lecina represent the Socialist Party...
...When, after a hearing, a person is found to have violated the statute, an order will be issued directing aim to desist from unfair employment pratices...
...The bill docs not contem piste sn FEPC limited to the duration of the war, but as a permanent agency of the Federal Government, based not.only en the Government's war powers, but also its power to regulate interstate Commerce...
...The news from Spain indicates that the fascist regime of Franco grows more and more shaky...
...The bill in Congress declares that "the right to work and seek work without discrimination becsuse of face, creed, color, national origin, or ancestry is declared to be an immunity, of all citisens of the United States, which shall not be abridged by any state or by an instrumentality or creature cf any state...
...If the Board males a cease and desist order, it may Petition the State Supreme Court for enforcement of) the order and a temporary injunction...
...In ailing thus our fighting men were setting a fine example to civilians...
...This opposition centers about the political friends of Juan Negrin, Alvarez del Vayo, and the Communists...
...The two wings are those of indalerio Prieto...
...The commission will also have power to conduct investigations and to issue rules and regulations...
...The hills deserve analysis...
...The Spanish Socialist Party has reorganized with a large membership and has undertaken the publication of a journal, called Renovation, at Orsn...
...To cover this situation provision should be made foi formal proceduir to permit charitable, religious, communal and fraternal organizations to except from the application of the act employees of certain classifications The hill should he amended also to c< ver employers of one employee or more, or at least to conform vuth the Federal bill which applies to employers of five or mote employees...
...The presiding officer is Gabriel Bonilla, professor of law and diplomacy, assisted by Pedro Bosch Gimpera, professor of history, and Manuel Pedroso, professor of law and economics and formerly Ambassador to Moscow, acting as vice-presidents...
...With regard to the nature of future changes, the recognized parties reserve complete liberty of action...
...The secretary i* Mariano Granados, a justice of the Supreme Court...
...The pro-communists and fellow travelers have been left outside...
...The act is to apply to any employer, having in his employ store than five persons, who is engaged in interstate er foreign commerce, or is under contract with the United States or any agency thereof, or is a subcontractor under a contract to which the United States or any agency thereof is a party...
...Then the commission may apply to the Circuit Court of Appeals for enforcement of the order and a temporary •¦junction (thus following the procedure for the enforcement of orders of the National Labor Relations Board...
...It has set up a committee to serve as a sort of provisional cabinet...
...It is not to be supposed that our men out there have any great love for the Japanese...
...Don Diego Martinez< Barrio, president of the Committee of liberation, recently outlined in sn address delivered here the strictly provisions...
...It provides that employees of equal ability shall have "the equal opportunity to seek, obtain or hold gainful employment without discrimination or abridgement on account of *»*e, color or religion...
...We wage war against systems and ways of acting diametrically different from ours...
...In reference te the present situation, Martinez Barrio sssU hi the foreground the fact that up to recently Spanish industry has been controlled by the Nazis and is, in fact, merely auxiliary to that mt Germany...
...According to then calculations it was expected to cow anil reduce to submission such "soft" peoples as the "British and (he Americans, it has obviously failed to achieve its put pose If we were to adopt the enemy standards of action he would have achieved a psychological victory...
...The Board will have investigatory powers and the ri«*ht to make rules snd regulsticns...
...and constitutions...
...An incident which illustrates how things are going is the seising of a vessel by the republicans in the most carefully guarded harbor of Spain, Bilbao, and the successful escape with it...
...And quickly on the heels of the horror tales came pictures from the Pacific of Hounded Japanese prisoners cared for by our Hid Cross nurses while American soldii rs eased then pains by placing lighted cigarettes between their lips...
...The Liberation Committee encounters the hostility of only a small minority, generally considered insignificant and discredited...
...In order to clear up the question effectively, a hill has been introduced in Congress (IIU 3986) by Representative Scanlon of Pennsylvania, popularly referred to as "The Bill for a Permanent FEPC...
...But such expressions were far from general...
...He stressed the necessity, unanimously recognized, of s deep socisl transformation of the republic...
...Outlawing Incrimination Through Permanent FEPC By Milton R. Konvitz SIXTEEN Southern railroad* issued a statement on December 18, 1943, challenging the legal and constitutional authority ot the President's Fair Employment Practice Committee (PEPC) to issue directives to cease discriminatory practices affecting employment af Negroes...
...We do, however, wish to point out that the Federal bill is silent on the subject of segregation by labor unions and on the job...
...There was even, from some quarters, the suggestion that we should fight fire with fire, cruelty with greater cruelty...
...It was inevitable that the first American reaction to the latest revelations of our Navy and Wai departments should be an outburst of horror and hate...
...the bill applies also to the State and its subdivisions and employment bureaus...
...The Common ist Party is exerting every effort to concentrate in French Africa political forces sufficiently numerous to csrry out the orders which come to them from a distsnce...
...U/E receive excellent news from French Africa...
...Each of the bills is eminently deserving unqualified support...
...Anyone reading the dastardly details of tortures in the Philippines has the nightmarish feeling of having seen it all before...
...AN EDITORIAL— Terror Wins No Victories *J*HERE is a curious fellowship in ferocity exhibited by the Germans and the Japanese...
...In this case East and West did meet- -and on the lowest possible level...
...This step was not taken until there had been received numerous messages of approval and acceptance from groups in England, Africa and various parts of the Americas...
...It is to apply to a labor anion which has five or more members in the employ of an employer as above dettneu...
...These men are: Bellai mino Thomas, Vidal Rosell, Pedro Garcia, Carlos Hernandez Zancajo, Calderon (who has been expelled from the Communist Party...
...The question of the legal status of the FEPC, set up by Presidential order, but without direct Congressional sanction, was squarely presented...
...function of the national committee...
...The Board is •'*» authorized to sdopt a comprehensive educational Pfogram with the cooperation of the Department of Education aad Board of Regents and other agencies, "calculated to instil into the minds of the pupils of the public schools snd colleges of this state and all other residents of this state the purpose and meaning of this article and the importance of establishing and maintaining a truly democratic form of government, free from discrimination against any citizen because of rsce, color or religion...
...and charitable, religious, communal or fraternal organizations should be made subject to its provisions, except where the religion of an employee will affect his ability to perform his duties...
...It will be the business of this committee to work out in advance the preliminary step* to he taken on the ground—when the time come*—to liberate Spain and to set up a republican democracy...
...It excepts charitable, religious, communal and fraternal organizations...

Vol. 27 • February 1944 • No. 7


 
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