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Senator JOHN L. MCCLELLAN,

Senate Office Building, Washington, D. C.:

LANSING, MICH., July 25, 1949.

Endorse Hoover Commission recommendation plan No. 2 which places Bureau of Employment Security under Labor Department.

G. MENNEN WILLIAMS,
Governor of Michigan.

MILWAUKEE, WIS., July 26, 1949.

Hon. JOHN L. MCCLELLAN,

Chairman, Senate Committee on Expenditures in the Executive Departments,

Senate Office Building, Washington, D. C.:

Mr. Voyta Wrabetz, appearing before your committee did not appear for or in behalf of Wisconsin State Federation of Labor (AFL). His views opposing the Reorganization Plan No. 2 are not the sentiments of Wisconsin State Federation of Labor. The Wisconsin Industrial Commission of which Mr. Wrabetz is chairman is the Labor Department of Wisconsin. Unemployment compensation and other social agencies are under administration of said industrial commission and in accord with principles of this State Federation of Labor.

WISCONSIN STATE FEDERATION OF LABOR.
GEORGE A. HABERMAN, President
WM. NAGORSNE, Secretary-Treasurer.

AUGUST 2, 1949.

The Honorable CHET HOLIFIELD,

Chairman, Subcommittee on Executive and Legislative Reorganization,

House Office Building, Washington, D. C.:

I have several long-established commitments in the West which prevent my appearance before the committee on the dates mentioned in your telegram. No doubt the committee will incorporate in its hearings the majority report upon the Labor Department made by the Commission on Organization of the Executive Branch o fthe Government. The Commission pointed out that the Labor Department has been steadily denuded of functions at one time established within it. It pointed out that good organization to prevent waste, overlap, and conflict require grouping of agencies as to their major purpose. It pointed out that the Department of Labor was originally created by the Congress for the exact purpose of bringing these agencies together. They are now diffused over many parts of the Government. The Commission pointed out that the overhead of the Department, in staff and expense, is equal to several other major departments of the Government, some of whom administer funds 100 times as great and have employees 100 times larger with the same overhead. With such overhead staff, the Department could better administer the various labor agencies than by diffusion over the Government. On pages 9 and 10 of that report, we enumerated the agencies which we believe should be placed in, or restored to, the Labor Department. We stated that these functions were more nearly related to the problems of labor than they were to those with which they were associaed in other agencies. The President's Reorganization Plan No. 2 does not transfer all of the agencies we recommended, but, so far as the plan goes, I can endorse it. I would like to suggest to the committee that it might call Mr. James Rowe, Jr., a member of the Commission, who is a resident of Washington and who is familiar with the studies of the Commission.

Senator JOHN L. MCCLELLAN,

Washington, D. C.

HERBERT HOOVER.

COPPES, INC.,

Nappanee, Ind., July 12, 1949.

DEAR SENATOR MCCLELLAN: I wish to take this opportunity as a representative of a small industry to state our views on the proposed transfer of unemployment compensation and employment services to the United States Labor Department. We employers in Nappanee feel that the Department of Labor is too closely connected with organized labor to properly give impartial service regard

ing unemployment compensation and feel that these matters should be left in the hands of an impartial Federal agency.

We cannot see that there would be any benefit derived from such a transfer and believe that there is a definite danger of destroying the present balance between labor and industry in the handling of employment services and unemployment compensation, especially in view of the fact that it appears these services will be enlarged in the future and are definitely a part of the economic policy of the Government.

Your committee has the jurisdiction over any move to reject the transfer plan and we sincerely hope that you will exercise your authority and protect not only industry but labor by leaving these matters in the hands of an independent board. Yours sincerely,

COPPES, INC.,

C. H. COPPES, President.

IOWA MANUFACTURERS ASSOCIATION,
July 19, 1949.

Hon. JOHN L. MCCLELLAN,

Chairman, Senate Committee on Expenditures in the Executive Department, Senate Office Building, Washington, D. C.

MY DEAR SENATOR: It is my understanding that your committee is now giving consideration to the proposal to transfer the Bureau of Employment Security to the Labor Department. This letter is a sincere protest on behalf of all Iowa manufacturers to the attempt to place in the hands of the Labor Department control of employment security to which the employers only make contributions. It always has been true and undoubtedly will continue to be true in the future that the Secretary of Labor and his deputies are in effect chosen by the American Federation of Labor and the CIO. Under such circumstances, no matter how hard those executives may try to be fair, their previous training and activities are such that they cannot give fair and just consideration to employers. All Iowa industry joins in opposition to such transfer. I trust that this letter will be incorporated in the record of your hearing.

Sincerely,

EDW. A. KIMBALL, Executive Vice President.

Hon. JOHN L. MCCLELLAN,

CUMBERLAND MILLS, MAINE, July 20, 1949.

Chairman, Senate Committee on Expenditures of Executive Departments, The United States Senate, Washington, D. C.

DEAR SIR: We note that your committee is considering the transfer of the Bureau of Employment Security from the Federal Security Agency to the Labor Department.

It does not appear to us that such a transfer would be to the best interests of social security administration and we wish to register with your committee our hope that such a transfer may not be effected.

We would ask that you incorporate this letter into the record of your hearings. Yours very truly,

Hon. JOHN L. MCCLELLAN,

S. D. WARREN CO.,
EVERETT P. INGALLS,
Mill Manager.

INDIANAPOLIS CHAMBER OF COMMERCE,
Indianapolis 4, Ind., July 20, 1949.

Senate Office Building, Washington, D. C. DEAR SENATOR MCCLELLAN: We are writing you to urge, after much deliberation on our part, that you vote against the approval of the President's Reorganization Plan No. 2, if and when a resolution on this subject comes before Congress for action. Inasmuch as the Senate Committee on Executive Expenditures is to hold a hearing on this matter starting next Monday, we conclude that such action may be proposed.

We are not unmindful of the fact that this particular proposal was recommended by the Hoover Commission. While we have recognized the great value of the studies and recommendations of this body for greater efficiency and economy in the Federal Government, and the dangers of attack by all who may feel they are detrimentally affected by some particular proposal, we are constrained, nevertheless, to urge that this particular proposal not be approved.

In doing so we call your attention to the fact that this proposal was not one of those recommended by the investigating task force of experts which worked for the Commission. Rather it was seemingly somewhat of an afterthought of the Commission based on the fact that the President and others feel the Department of Labor has been deprived of some of its functions, and ought to have them restored.

We, in common with many others who have taken a deep interest in our unemployment-compensation system since its beginning, now over 13 years ago, opposed these very changes when they were twice before urged by the President and resoundingly vetoed by the Congress, each time. We did so because we profoundly believe that both the unemployment-compensation system and the administration of the Employment Service have a much wider public interest than just the interest and concern of organized labor.

There has been a continuing campaign of some labor organizations throughout the history of the unemployment-compensation system, for example, to destroy the principle of merit rating, to promote the use of unemployment compensation to pay strike benefits, and otherwise to alter the basic principles upon which our system is founded.

It is our belief that the administration of these important services, so closely intertwined with State and local administrations, belong in an agency that represents the entire public interest, and not just union labor alone as does the United States Department of Labor.

In these past several years, the 48 States of our country have built their own systems of unemployment compensation based, each one, on its peculiar conditions of commerce and industry, and none can successfully say that these systems have not been evolved and operated in the best interests of both the employees and the entire country.

The efforts to federalize these services especially emphasize the efforts of some within the Federal Government to create a greater and still greater Federal Government, centralizing more and more administrative and regulative power there, all of which ultimately will destroy State and local government. We urge that such a policy is a contradiction of the principle of government that has perpetuated our individual freedom and made this the finest and greatest country in entire history.

We respectfully, but with emphasis, urge your vote against approval of this Presidential plan.

Sincerely yours,

FRANK HOKE, President.

P. S.-We respectfully request that this letter be recorded on the record of your committee hearings relating to this matter.-F. H.

WILLIAM LAVELLE,

NEW YORK, N. Y., July 26, 1949.

Assistant CIÓ Legislation Representative,

718 Jackson Place NW.:

I have been given to understand that Mr. Robert Hatton, chairman of the Kentucky Unemployment Insurance Advisory Council testified today before a congressional committee that the Kentucky Advisory Council voted unanimously to oppose the proposed transfer of unemployment insurance and employment service from the Federal Security Agency to the Department of Labor. If this be true, Mr. Hatton is in grave and serious error because the labor or employee representatives of the Kentucky Unemployment Insurance Advisory Council of which I am one, were unanimous for the proposed transfer. I want you to please enter this wire and also a copy of the resolution which the Kentucky Advisory Council passed over the vigorous dissent of the labor representatives and which I am mailing to you tonight, into the record of the congressional hearings for me. AL WHITEHOUSE,

President Kentucky CIO Council and Secretary Kentucky Unemployment Insurance Advisory Council.

Whereas the President of the United States by Executive order proposed the transfer from the Federal Security Agency to the Department of Labor of unemployment insurance and employment service; and

Whereas this transfer will become effective unless action to the contrary is taken by the Congress of the United States, the Kentucky Unemployment Insurance Advisory Council, Commonwealth of Kentucky, composed of representatives representing the public, management, and labor have this day opposed the transfer for the following reasons:

1. The unemployment insurance and employment service are now being efficiently and impartially administered by the Federal Security Agency.

2. This council is not of the opinion that the transfer would be in the interest of efficiency or economy.

3. The Federal Security Agency is an agency dedicated to the welfare of the public in general and is not responsible to any particular segment of our public life: Be it further

Resolved, That the chairman of the Kentucky Unemployment Insurance Advisory Council be directed to forward a copy of this resolution to the Kentucky representatives in the Congress of the United States, to the chairman of the respective committees of the Senate and the House of Representatives of the United States, and to the Kentucky Unemployment Insurance Commission. The persons to whom this resolution is forwarded should be advised that the action of the Kentucky Unemployment Insurance Advisory Council was not unanimous; that the employee representatives dissented for the following reasons: 1. The transfer was recommended by President Harry S. Truman and Vice President Alben W. Barkley upon the recommendation of a commission commonly known as the Hoover Commission which, after much study, recommended the change be made in the interest of greater efficiency and economy. Public representatives:

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Chairman Senate Committee on Expenditures in the Executive Departmens,
Senate Office Building, Washington, D. O.

MY DEAR MR. CHAIRMAN: The Senate Committee on Expenditures in the Executive Departments has scheduled hearings on Reorganization Plan 2, to transfer the United States Employment Service to the Department of Labor, commencing July 25.

I am enclosing herewith, for the information of your committee, Resolution 32, approved by the National Executive Committee of the American Legion at its May 4 to 6, 1949, meeting, on this subject matter.

Sincerely yours,

JOHN THOMAS TAYLOR,

Director, National Legislative Commission.

RESOLUTION No. 32-BUREAU OF EMPLOYMENT SECURITY

Whereas the Bureau of Employment Security is now a part of the Federal Security Agency and its functions are properly a part of the other bureaus and agencies embraced within the Department of Labor, and the American Legion has heretofore urged the placing of the employment security services in the Department of Labor: Now, therefore, be it

Resolved by the National Executive Committee of the American Legion, Indianapolis, Ind., May 4 to 6, 1949, We urge that the Bureau of Employment Secu94651-49- -22

rity, now a part of the Federal Security Agency, be transferred to the Department of Labor, and that the American Legion support whatever administrative measures or legislative actions necessary to effect this objective.

Hon. JOHN L. MCCLELLAN,

Chairman of the Senate Committee on

ED. SCHUSTER & CO., INC., Milwaukee 1, Wis., July 21, 1949.

Expenditures in the Executive Departments,

United States Senate, Washington 25, D. C. DEAR SENATOR MCCLELLAN: I wish to voice my objection to the adoption of the President's Reorganization Plan No. 2 which provides that the Federal Administration of Unemployment Compensation and the Employment Service be transferred to the Labor Department unless disapproved by the Senate or the House.

In 1935, Congress passed the Social Security Act in the interest of protecting the individual, and by so doing benefiting society as a whole. I believe that this philosophy is still sound, and that our social-security program should be administered in the interest of all of society. In order to attain this objective, the Federal department responsible for this program should be impartial, fair, and not representative of any one segment of society. In my opinion, it would be impossible for the Labor Department to give the required impartial administration, and carry out the purpose for which it was created, namely, to "foster, promote, and develop the interests of wage earners."

It is my understanding that the President's proposal would result in no economy, and all indications point to a more expensive operation. People in this community are greatly concerned over the present excessive governmental expenditures, and cost should be given careful consideration.

I sincerely trust that your committee and the Senate will see its way clear to disapprove the President's Reorganization Plan No. 2.

Yours very truly,

HUGO KUECHENMEISTER, Controller.

(I would respectfully ask that my letter be included in the record.)

NEW ORLEANS ASSOCIATION OF COMMERCE,
New Orleans 5, La., July 21, 1949.

Hon. JOHN L. MCCLELLAN,

Chairman, Committee on Expenditures in the Executive Departments,

United States Senate, Washington, D. C.

DEAR SENATOR MCCLELLAN: President Truman has submitted to the Congress plan No. 2, which proposes to transfer the Federal Administration of the Unemployment Compensation and Employment Service programs from the Federal Security Agency to the Department of Labor. On three occasions, through a period of 13 years, Congress has decisively decided that the Nation's employment security program should be administered by an independent agency. The reasoning behind this decision is just as sound today as on the three occasions in which Congress so expressed itself.

The board of directors of the Association of Commerce on February 24, 1948, opposed this transfer and so indicated that fact to the Louisiana congressional delegation. At its regular meeting on June 21, 1947, the board reaffirmed its position against the transfer of the Unemployment Compensation and Employment Service programs from the Federal Security Agency to the Department of Labor.

It is true that the Hoover Commission recommended the transfer of the unemployment service function to the Labor Department, but the background reasons for such recommendations should be taken into consideration. It is reported that the task force employed by the Hoover group, after careful examination of Labor Department and Federal Security Agency functions, failed to recommend such a transfer.

The funds provided for Unemployment Compensation are supplied entirely by management and actually are an insurance plan in which not only labor but management and the public have a large stake. It is most essential that such

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