LABOR EDUCATION EXTENSION SERVICE

THURSDAY, APRIL 15, 1948

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES,

SUBCOMMITTEE No. 1,

COMMITTEE ON EDUCATION AND LABOR,

Washington, D. C.

The subcommittee met, pursuant to adjournment, at 10 a. m., Hon. Edward O. McCowen (chairman of the subcommittee) presiding. Mr. McCowEN. The hearing will be in order.

The first witness will be Mr. Walter Mason. Please state your name and connection.

TESTIMONY OF WALTER J. MASON, NATIONAL LEGISLATIVE REPRESENTATIVE OF THE AMERICAN FEDERATION OF LABOR

Mr. MASON. My name is Walter J. Mason, national legislative representative of the American Federation of Labor, Washington, D. C. My office address is 901 Massachusetts Avenue NW., Washington, D. C. Mr. McCowEN. You may proceed. You have 15 minutes, if you need that much time.

Mr. MASON. Mr. Chairman, I have prepared a brief statement here. With your permission I would like to read it and then discuss it. Mr. McCOWEN. That is all right.

Mr. MASON. Mr. Chairman, I appreciate the opportunity afforded us to appear before your committee to express briefly the views of the American Federation of Labor in support of H. R. 6202. President Green deeply regrets his inability to appear before you in person, and he has asked me to bring to you his remarks and the position of the American Federation of Labor with respect to the Labor Extension Service bill now being considered by your committee.

At the outset I want to emphasize how deeply the American Federation of Labor feels that it is involved in this legislation. Last July, President Green sent a personal letter to all the affiliated organizations calling their attention to the bills which had been introduced in both Houses of Congress with respect to Labor Extension Service, and urging their active support. The response to this letter is best illustrated by the action of our sixty-sixth annual convention, held at San Francisco in October 1947, which unanimously adopted a resolution in support of this legislation. This is the third convention of the American Federation of Labor which has gone on record in support of Labor Extension Service.

The American Federation of Labor believes that the Agricultural Extension Service has been a most practical agency in promoting the welfare of farmers along sound lines, and that a similar service should

be provided for workers. Since the policy of giving a similar service is already law, only implementation is needed.

Let me summarize the legislation developing the Agricultural Extension Service and the Federal educational policies adopted which should extend equally to workers' needs.

Beginning with the Morrill Act of July 2, 1862, the United States initiated a policy of Federal grants-in-aid for specific types of education. This legislation, as the title of the bill indicates, applied equally to labor: "An act donating public land to the several States and Territories which may provide colleges for the benefit of agriculture and the mechanic arts." The second Morrill Act-1890-reasserted and widened the purpose of the first act to endow and support colleges to benefit agriculture and the mechanic arts. The Hatch Act of March 2, 1887, established the United States policy of annual grants for research and experiment stations as local agencies in agricultural education. Later legislation-the Bankhead-Jones Act of 1935-authorized expenditures for basic research in the broadest terms.

The Smith-Lever Act of 1914 gave discretion to the Secretary of Agriculture to withhold certifications for allotment of funds under specific conditions and inaugurated the practices of matching funds and the service of diffusing useful and practical information on subjects relating to agriculture and home economics. Section 2 of the act defines its scope:

That cooperative agricultural extension work shall consist of the giving of instruction and practical demonstrations in agriculture and home economics to persons not attending or resident in said colleges in the several communities, and imparting to said persons information on said subjects through field demonstrations, publications, and otherwise; and this work shall be carried on in such manner as may be mutually agreed upon by the Secretary of Agriculture and the State agricultural college or colleges receiving the benefits of this act.

This act puts the Agricultural Extension Service on a cooperative basis, the initial request to come from the individuals to be served.

Although provisions of the laws initiating the Agricultural Extension Service included workers as well as farmers, workers themselves were not sufficiently organized to take steps to share in the services of land-grant colleges as did the farmers. We did, however, use these laws to support our program for vocational education-1917. There is no cooperative Labor Extension Service for workers paralleling that for farmers. The need for such a service has been obvious and has been considered from time to time. We hope Congress will wipe out this discrimination.

Our executive councel in its annual report recommended a cooperative extension service for workers which has been found practical and helpful by farmers and by employers. In planning the promotion of their welfare, wage earners have felt the need of technical and research services which they might freely consult. Unionists have expressed the need of many kinds of statistical, industrial, and union information that are not freely available. Such material as is available should be analyzed and interpreted in order to throw light on current and special problems. A Labor Extension Service administered through an Extension Division in the Department of Labor, which would have liaison representatives in all bureaus and divisions of that Department, should cooperate with agencies in each State to implement projects proposed by unions and developed by wage earners. It would

provide workers with the information and services they need for wise decision on well-based policies.

Such a Service would operate only as proposals were submitted by workers in various States. For the Extension Service to plan instruction or determine services, except in response to requests of workers, would be a violation of the spirit of free trade-unions, which is a basic element in our democratic way of life.

We urge that these principles be included as the guide to administration within States:

1. All relationships within the service to be voluntary.

2. All services to be provided at the request of those served.

3. At every level of the Service, administration shall operate in consultation with advisory committees of union representatives-that is, a national committee, a State committee, and local committees and special project committees.

4. The Labor Extension Service shall provide instruction only at the request of appropriate persons or unions and shall provide service, information, special manuals, consultation, demonstrations, and so forth.

It is a basic American principle that control over education shall rest with the locality or the persons concerned.

5. The cooperative Labor Extension Service must be administered by the Department of Labor, which was created to serve workers and their unions.

The inauguration of such a service would be the acceptance of a sound policy to provide for labor research services comparable to those already available to industry and agriculture.

These broad services would promote efficient production and better utilization of the products and services of industries. Only as the welfare of wage earners keeps step with technical progress can we maintain maximum production and employment which flow from a balanced economy. Adequate consumer purchasing power is necessary to sustain a balanced economy.

The cooperative labor extension program should provide for research services to supply needed data, dissemination of data available in Federal, State, or local offices, consultation between specialists and workers, instruction in labor economics, demonstrations in home economics for wives of workers, availability of consumer standards, and so forth. The Service should deal with all the problems involved in promoting the welfare of workers and their families.

Only when we approach labor problems as matters to be determined on a basis of facts and experience do we reduce the conflict area in labor relations and extend the field of peaceful adjustment through collective bargaining. We make progress as we substitute mutual contracts for decisions by force. Congress must first act to provide funds to have information and data gathered so that they can be distributed to those who can use them.

Cooperation between management and labor is essential to best services to consumers at most economical costs. That sort of cooperation is possible only when workers know how to present proposals which have grown out of their experience in carrying out work orders. Production is a cooperative undertaking and is most successful when policies and work orders are based on both the experience of workers and

management. Representatives acting for workers should be serviced so that they can advance as their industry makes progress.

Our basic purpose is to provide workers with information essential to the formulation of wise and intelligent policies and to promote the welfare and the status of all who perform necessary work.

We urge early and favorable action on H. R. 6202, in order to enable our unions to have materials for such workers' education as we need.

This concludes my prepared statement, Mr. Chairman. However, I would like to amplify further on this particular subject by pointing out some additional reasons for the need of this legislation, so far as the American Federation of Labor is concerned.

The American Federation of Labor was founded on three cardinal principles: Organization, education, and fraternity. Over the past 65 or 70 years, in the field of education, labor has done the best it knew how to educate the wage earners of this country with the limited resources it had on hand. It promoted educational conferences in all the communities throughout the country. It encouraged educational committees in local unions.

In 1921 it established a workers' educational bureau, which has operated since that time and has done a splendid job in assisting local and international unions in setting up educational courses in an effort to teach the wage earners of this country the American way of life. Mr. Connors, who is director of that institution. will testify before your committee, and he is better qualified to explain our work.

Over that same period the American Federation of Labor has stood out as the one and only institution that fought communism—not only for the last few years, but over a period of 50 or 60 years. I believe the Members of Congress will agree with that. It is still continuing this fight.

At the present time the American Federation of Labor has representatives in Greece, China, Japan, Germany, and Italy, trying to educate the workers in those countries with respect to the government we have here and the advantages of a democratic system.

However, at the same time I do not know whether that is enough or not. We should have a hundred times as many people over there as we have, because for every one that we have in Europe today, the Soviet Union has hundreds. Their Communist agents are treacherous. They have no principles. They have no respect for law or order. We are doing the best we can under the circumstances, and I think education can do more for those people in Europe to fight communism and to preserve a free government than all the billions of dollars we are sending over there. Particularly if they are educated by the workers themselves. We are closer to them and have a better understanding of their problems.

At the same time we do not have sufficient labor representatives to send over there to combat that movement now on foot.

We also are confronted with an underground movement of that kind in this country. The American Federation of Labor is doing everything possible to combat that movement.

We feel that in the last year, Congress has not helped us any. We feel you made the job harder. We feel that the passage of the TaftHartley Act has helped to feed a force that is out to destroy our demo

cratic system. You cannot fight communism by trying to inject fascism, or by trying to weaken our democratic system.

The only way you can fight communism or any other kind of ism is to try to educate our people on the values of our democratic system, our free enterprise system.

Last year, before Congress passed the Taft-Hartley Act, they asked labor for some suggestions. We had no proposals other than that contained in the legislation which is now being considered by your committee. Over a period of 150 years, this country has prospered under our free enterprise system. We want to continue that system. That system must live.

Occasionally there is a weak spot in that system and that is industrial strife.

Last year Congress felt it was necessary to pass restrictive legislation in order to correct that weak spot.

Our proposal last year was the proposal we are discussing with you here today, and that is to educate the wage earners of this country to the values of our free enterprise system and what it means to us. After we educate them to that system, to a point where we minimize industrial strife, we will have accomplished everything this country could ask for and it would be money well spent.

Mr. McCowEN. I might say your time is up, but we will give you

another minute.

Mr. MASON. The point is, Mr. Chairman, that this is a very important subject to the American Federation of Labor which represents close to 8,000,000 workers. I do not know who arranged the 15-minute time, but I think we need more than 15 minutes to try to point out to this committee the reasons why we think we need some immediate action on this most important problem, particularly at this time.

Mr. McCowEN. I would like to answer your question, if I may. The schedule was fixed by the persons interested in this legislation in conjunction with the secretary of this committee. They set up so many witnesses for each 2-hour period. We cannot go beyond 12 when Congress meets at 12, under the rules of the House. That is why we have to limit each speaker to a certain period of time. We do not care how long each one talks if we finish the schedule by 12 o'clock.

So we did not limit the time. The time was limited by virtue of the 2-hour schedule, and the number of witnesses that were supposed to be heard in that time.

Mr. MASON. The point is, I think Congress realizes that we are in a crucial period. The situation is critical at this time. The American Federation of Labor is doing everything it can with the resources it has on hand to defeat the spread of communism. It has fought this undemocratic movement over these years.

It needs help now. We feel the Government has not been concerned about this most important problem up until 2 or 3 years ago, but we have been fighting it for 50 or 60 years.

Now, I just want to point out that during the war I served on the War Labor Board. I served as a panel member of the Regional War Labor Board in Cleveland, Ohio, then I served as a member of the National War Labor Board here in Washington and as a member of the National Wage Stabilization Board.