National Reports
HAMILTON, HOWARD D.
National Reports Michigan's New Fair Employment Law By Howard D. Hamilton Lansing Enactment on May 26 of a Fair Employment Practices statute climaxed a heated six-year Legislative struggle...
...Suddenly it was reported out and adopted by wide margins in both chambers...
...Its administrative provisions were crippled by some Senate amendments which forbid the FEP Com-mission to initiate complaints, to establish conciliation councils, or to subpoena witnesses and documents...
...It prohibits discriminatory labor practices including segregation by any employer of eight workers or more, any labor organization, and any employment agency...
...Cramton has a remarkable record of over 50 years of public service???as a state utility commissioner, state representative, congressman for 18 years, attorney in the Interior Department, circuit judge, and state representative again...
...Two developments appear responsible for the successful deal on FEPC this year: reapportionment of the House by a 1953 statute, with some accompanying change in the membership of the State Affairs Committee, and the Democratic victories in the 1954 and 1955 state elections...
...Most Republican senators fought it to the last ditch...
...This tradition nullifies official discharge rules...
...His long career is one of the few remaining links with the now nearly forgotten Progressive Era...
...a state Minimum Wage Law and some other significant legislation, appears to reflect a belated realization by Republican leaders that elections are won by being on the popular side of some important issues elections in Michigan, at least...
...Last year Cramton was told to wait until 1955 when a Republican governor could claim credit for FEPC...
...In session after session Cramton has doggedly plugged his bill and with tears has pleaded with his fellow partisans to behave like the party of Lincoln...
...And why did it succeed in the 1955 session...
...The Legislature's volte face was the result of an unusual and secret agreement between legislative leaders, made early in the 1955 session...
...Had the bill escaped the State Affairs Committee, it would have passed, but House Republicans obeyed the directive of the floor leader to reject the motion, regardless of their views on FEPC...
...Why did it require six years to enact an FEPC statute in a state which has been progressive in race relations, which is the stronghold of the CIO...
...The answer to the first question is principally the unrepresentativeness of the Legislature in both structure and procedure...
...To maintain complete control over their respective little bailiwicks, legislators permit each committee to be a separate little legislature...
...The reapportionment made the House relatively representative, while leaving the Senate a Republican pocket borough...
...Republican leaders promised to report out an FEPC bill after the state's April election if the Democrats would refrain from making it a campaign issue...
...Passage of the Cramton FEPC bill, which had been repeatedly defeated, came as a surprise to many people...
...Until late April, it had been pigeonholed by the House State Affairs Committee, which had blocked a dozen FEPC bills since 1949...
...and in which both party platforms endorsed it...
...In Michigan, as in most other urbanized states, legislative apportionment has not kept pace with population changes because conservative and rural interests are reluctant to relinquish the keys to power...
...The Cramton Act was a personal triumph for its sponsor, Representative Louis C. Cramton, an ex-congressman and retired judge from rural Lapeer County...
...Recently Howard University conferred on him an honorary degree in recognition of his work in behalf of Negro civil rights...
...He entered Congress in the Bull Moose election of 1912...
...In 1954, after the Senate had passed an FEPC bill, Cramton initiated a discharge motion...
...The Commission may, however, petition any Circuit Court to issue subpoenas on its behalf...
...A second obstacle to FEPC was the despotism of the standing committees...
...Both parties scrupulously fulfilled the agreement, notwithstanding intense dissatisfaction by Republican stalwarts...
...Although not a National Progressive, he supported many Progressive measures, particularly conservation legislation, and became the ranking member of the House Appropriations Committee...
...In a dramatic tribute to him, the House Democratic floor leader declined the honor of co-sponsorship...
...National Reports Michigan's New Fair Employment Law By Howard D. Hamilton Lansing Enactment on May 26 of a Fair Employment Practices statute climaxed a heated six-year Legislative struggle between liberal and conservative forces in Michigan...
...The scope and general provisions of the act follow the pattern of FEPC laws in other states...
...This session's passage of FEPC...
Vol. 38 • June 1955 • No. 25
