Guide to Senate Records: Chapter 14
Committee on Labor and Public Welfare and Related Committees
Committee records discussed in this chapter:
- Committee on Education (1869-1870)
- Committee on Education and Labor (1870-1946)
- Select and Standing Committees on Epidemic Diseases (1878-1896)
- Committee on Public Health and Quarantine (1896-1921)
- Select and Standing Committees to Establish a University of the United States (1895-1921)
- Committee on Labor and Public Welfare (1947-1968)
- Committee on Labor and Human Resources (1969-1986)
History and Jurisdiction
Nomination of Frances Perkins as Secretary of Labor on March 4, 1933. RG 46, Records of the U.S. Senate, National Archives.
14.1. The Committee on Labor and Public Welfare was originally established on January 28, 1869, as the Committee on Education, following approval of a resolution introduced by Justin S. Morrill of Vermont. Although Senator Morrill, who as a member of the House of Representatives sponsored the bill that created the land-grant college concept, was perhaps the foremost proponent of public education in the Senate, he was chairman of the Committee on Appropriations and therefore could not also chair the Committee on Education. Charles W. Drake of Missouri was appointed the first chairman of the committee. Less than 13 months after its establishment, on February 14, 1870, the committee was renamed the Committee on Education and Labor, due to the increasing number of petitions and memorials received by the Senate after the enactment of the first 8-hour workday law in 1868.
14.2. During the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the focus of the committee was on legislation concerning working conditions of Federal employees and federal aid to education, but in neither case was much legislation enacted, except for the Smith-Hughes Act of 1917 that funded vocational rehabilitation programs. As late as the early 1930's, even most labor-related legislation was referred to other committees. For example, the Norris-LaGuardia Act of 1932, limiting the issuance of injunctions in labor disputes, was referred to the Committee on the Judiciary, and the Davis-Bacon Act, regulating the wages of employees on public buildings and public works projects, was reported by the Committee on Manufactures. However, in 1935 the committee rose to prominence with its consideration of the National Labor Relations Act, followed shortly by the Walsh-Healey Public Contracts Act of 1936 and the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938. Thereafter, the committee figures prominently in labor legislation, particularly the Taft-Hartley Act of 1947.
Memorandum to Senator Jennings Randolph from Pat Forsythe regarding the Hearing on S. 6, the Education for All Handicapped Children Act, dated June 13, 1974. RG 46, Records of the U.S. Senate, National Archives.
14.3. During World War II, the committee investigated the lack of physical fitness of potential draftees and oversaw passage of nurse training legislation. After jurisdiction over the Public Health Service was switched in 1944 from the Commerce Committee to the Education and Labor Committee, the committee also reported legislation concerning public health measures and obtained passage of the Hospital Survey and Construction ("Hill-Burton") Act of 1946, which modernized and enlarged the Nation's hospital system.
14.4. Beginning with the 80th Congress in 1947, the name of the committee was changed to the Committee on Labor and Public Welfare as a provision of the Legislative Reorganization Act of 1946 (Public Law 79-601), which also expanded the committee's jurisdiction to include legislation affecting the rehabilitation, health, and education of veterans. Beginning in 1949, mine safety legislation was referred to the committee. In a major investigation of the late 1950's, four members of the Labor and Public Welfare Committee served on the Select Committee to Investigate Improper Activities in the Labor and Management Field, chaired by John McClellan, but the records were maintained by the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations of the Government Operations Committee.
14.5. During the 1960's, the committee further expanded its influence as the principal committee reporting the War on Poverty legislative proposal of the Johnson administration, enacted as the Economic Opportunity Act of 1964, and reporting numerous bills in the health, education, and manpower areas.
14.6. In 1970, the committee's jurisdiction over certain aspects of veterans affairs was transferred by the Legislative Reorganization Act of 1970 (Public Law 91-510) to the new Committee on Veterans Affairs. In 1977, pursuant to S. Res. 4, 95th Cong., the committee was renamed the Committee on Human Resources, but this change was short-lived. By S. Res. 30, 96th Cong., it was renamed the Committee on Labor and Human Resources.
14.7. For a more detailed history of the committee, see History of the Committee on Labor and Human Resources: U.S. Senate, 1869-1979 (S. Doc. 96-71, 96th Cong., 2d sess., Serial 13318).
14.8. This chapter describes the records of committees concerned with labor, education, and public health matters, including the Committee on Education and the Committee on Education and Labor (130 ft.), the Select and Standing Committees on Epidemic Diseases (7 in.), the Committee on Public Health and National Quarantine (7 in.), the Select and Standing Committees to Establish a University of the United States (3 in.), and the Committee on Labor and Public Welfare (295 ft.).
Records of the Committee on Education, 40th-41st Congresses (1869-1870)
Records of the Committee on Education and Labor, 41st-79th Congresses (1870-1946)
- 41st-73rd Congresses (1870-1934)
- 74th-79th Congresses (1935-1946)
14.9. As described above, the Committee on Education was short-lived. Only one petition, concerning aid to a national homestead for orphans of soldiers killed at Gettysburg during the Civil War (40A-H6), was referred to the committee.
14.10. Records of its successor, the Committee on Education and Labor, on the other hand, total 130 feet. They include committee papers, 1885-1946 (99 ft.), chiefly records of two of its investigative subcommittees, and petitions, memorials, and resolutions of State legislatures and other bodies that were referred to the committee, 1870-1946 (31 ft.). Although the committee was established in 1870, there are no committee papers until 1885 (49th Congress). There are also no committee papers for the 51st, 54th, 58th, 59th, 62d, 65th, and 67th-69th Congresses. For papers supporting specific bills and resolutions referred to the committee, 1901-1946, see Chapter 20. Records of two of the committee's investigative subcommittees, Robert LaFollette's subcommittee investigating violations of free speech and the rights of labor and Claude Pepper's subcommittee on wartime health and education, comprise 83 feet of the total 99 feet of committee papers.
Records of the Committee on Education and Labor, 41st-73d Congresses (1870-1934)
14.11. There are few unpublished committee papers for the late 19th and early 20th century. The records consist of legislative case files, 1887-1901, on bills referred to the committee; a few executive communications and Presidential messages that were printed as either Senate or House documents such as Department of the Treasury records relating to the importation of prison-made goods, 1913 (63A-F6), and the original message of Woodrow Wilson transmitting the report of Seth Low on the disturbances in Colorado coal fields, 1914-15 (64A-F8); correspondence relating to a convict labor bill and the 8-hour workday (56A-F8); petitions supporting H.R. 3076, 57th Cong., an 8-hour workday bill (57A-F7); original hearing transcripts on a temperance education bill, 1886 (49A-E8); and annual reports of the Boy Scouts of America, 1927-44 (70th-78th Congresses). An investigation of conditions in the Paint Creek coal fields of West Virginia (1913), pursuant to S. Res. 37, 63d Cong., chaired by Claude A. Swanson of Virginia, includes original hearing transcripts (9 vols.) and coal company payroll records submitted during the hearing as exhibits (63A-F6).
Petition from the Iowa Federation of Women's Clubs in favor of Child Labor Reform, dated December 21, 1907 (SEN 60A-J32). RG 46, Records of the U.S. Senate, National Archives.
14.12. The petitions and memorials referred to the committee address a wide range of labor, education, and reform issues. The labor-related petitions focus on improving on-the-job working conditions, such as obtaining an 8-hour workday (41A-H6.1, 42A-H7, 50A-J7.5, 51A-J8.1, 52A-J8.1, 53A-J8, 61A-J22, 62A-J22, 62A-J23), restricting or eliminating child labor (54A-J9, 57A-J12, 59A-J19, 60A-J32, 61A-J22, 63A-J15, 64A-J19), and investigating or prohibiting sweatshops (52A-J8.3, 52A-J8.5, 54-J9); improving union members' competitive position by opposing use of convict labor in manufacturing and public works projects (50A-J7.5, 52A-J8.5, 53A-J8, 54A-J9, 55A-J8.1, 57A-J12, 59A-J21, 63A-J19), favoring amendment of the alien contract labor law (51A-J8, 52A-J8.5), and favoring immigration restriction (53A-J8); creating a Federal Government office, department, or commission to deal with labor problems (42A-H7, 52A-J8.5, 53A-J8, 53A-J8.1, 58A-J15); and establishing a bureau to collect economic statistics for objective evidence of the condition of the laboring classes (46A-H6, 48A-H6.1, 52A-J8). Petitions supporting studies of social conditions, such as Senator John Kean's proposed Freedmen's Inquiry Commission (57A-J11) and Senator Jonathan Dolliver's proposed laboratory to study "criminal, pauper, and defective classes" (60A-J35) were also referred to the committee.
14.13. Many other petitions concerned particular incidents related to and including strikes and most tended to be sympathetic to workers. Jacob Coxey and his "army" of jobless men (53A-J8, 53A-J8.1) and the imprisoned Mary "Mother" Jones (63A-J16) are two significant figures who are subjects of petitions. Strikers in the famous Pullman, IL, confrontation of 1894 also petitioned the Senate, stating in highly emotional terms their lack of confidence in the Congress and calling for direct election of Senators (53A-J8.1). Petitions concerning labor conflicts in Idaho (52A-J8.5), Colorado (58A-J15), Washington (64A-J23), and West Virginia (63A-J19, 67A-J19) are also present. During World War I, however, the committee received many petitions favoring prohibition of sympathy strikes, strikes by railroad workers and coal miners, and enforcement of laws against labor agitators (66A-J12). From the late 1920's to the mid-1930's, petitioners urged unemployment insurance and relief legislation (70A-J8, 71A-J21, 72A-J20, 73A-J15).
14.14. For this period, petitions and memorials requesting aid to various forms of public education by the Federal Government were common, although rarely effective. Some of the earliest of these urged financial support for education of the blind and support for the American Printing House for the Blind (41A-H6.1, 44A-H6). During Reconstruction and into the 1880's, petitioners seeking aid for Wilberforce University in Ohio (41A-H6, 54A-J9.2) and other black educational institutions, especially in the South, proposed that Congress use the unclaimed colored Civil War soldiers' bounty fund to finance the development of these schools (44A-H6, 45A-H6, 46A-H6, 48A-H6.1, 49A-H7.2). In the early 20th century, Congress was asked to reimburse the Freedmens' Savings and Trust Company to aid industrial education of blacks in the South (60A-J36, 61A-J22, 62A-J26). Petitions favoring prohibition of aid to sectarian schools also placed emphasis on financial support for public education (50A-J7.3, 51A-J8.6, 52A-J8.4).
Petition from the State Federation of Pennsylvania Women for an investigation into the industrial conditions of women, dated April 5, 1906. RG 46, Records of the U.S. Senate, National Archives.
14.15. Petitions also advocated development of specialized programs to standardize the national alphabet and spelling (41A-H6, 52A-J8.5, 53A-J8.1, 54A-J9.1), to eradicate illiteracy (Kenyon Americanization bill) (66A-J12, 67A-J19), and to promote vocational education (66A-J10), physical education (66A-J10), and maternity and infancy protection (67A-J18). Petitions supporting incorporation of the National Education Association (59A-J24) and creation of a Federal department of education (60A-J36, 66A-J17, 67A-J18, 68A-J18, 70A-J7, 71A-J22, 72A-J21) were also referred to the committee.
14.16. Reformers from temperance organizations, churches, and civic groups were prolific petitioners of the Congress. Moral issues with labor and education implications that concerned these groups included prohibition and temperance education (numerous Congresses), the study and control of social vice (50A-J7.5, 51A-J8.3, 52A-J8.5, 54A-J9.1), Sunday rest legislation (50A-J7.4, 51A-J8.5), and Federal censorship of motion pictures (63A-J18, 64A-J21).
Records of the Committee on Education and Labor, 74th-79th Congresses (1935-1946)
14.17. The year 1935 was an important watershed in the history of the Committee on Education and Labor. Major labor legislation of the New Deal, beginning with enactment of the National Labor Relations Act of 1935, ensured an important role for the committee.
14.18. The committee papers of this period contain many of the same types of annual reports and other executive communications as the earlier period, but on a somewhat broader range of subjects. These include reports of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) on the textile industry, 1935-36 (74A-F7, 75A-F7); a report of the congressionally appointed Advisory Commission on Education, 1938 (75A-F7); and National Resources Planning Board regional development plans (77A-F9 [oversize]). The series also includes correspondence of the committee chairman, Elbert D. Thomas, 1939-43 (76A-F6, 77A-F9, 2 ft.), and letters and telegrams received concerning the Smith bill to restrict labor activities during World War II (77A-F9, 2 ft.).
14.19. The most extensive records of the committee are those of two of its subcommittees. Records of the Subcommittee Investigating Violations of Free Speech and Labor, 1936-41 (78A-F9, 57 ft.), were accumulated as part of an investigation led by Senator Robert M. LaFollette, Jr., pursuant to S. Res. 266, 74th Cong. The genesis of the LaFollette subcommittee inquiry was a National Labor Relations Board investigation into methods used by employers in certain industries to avoid collective bargaining with unions. Between 1936 and 1944, the subcommittee published exhaustive hearings and reports on the use of industrial espionage, private police systems, strikebreaking services, munitions in industrial warfare, and employers' associations to break strikes and to disrupt legal union activities in other ways. The records consist of correspondence, memorandums, subject files, and hearing exhibits. Various versions of subcommittee hearing transcripts and reports constitute a substantial portion of the total volume. The records are, however, incomplete and do not include any material related to the subcommittee's studies of the "Little Steel" strike of 1937 and of employers' associations and collective bargaining in California in the early 1940's. An unpublished finding aid accompanies the records.
14.20. Records of the Subcommittee on Wartime Health and Education, 1943-46 (79A-F8, 25 ft.), were accumulated during an investigation of educational and physical fitness of the civilian population as related to the national defense, pursuant to S. Res. 74, 78th Cong. Subcommittee Chairman Claude Pepper of Florida held hearings in Pascagoula, MS, selected as an example of a typical war-crowded community, and Washington, DC. Many of the recommendations of the subcommittee, particularly on hospital construction and health education grants, formed, after the end of the war, a significant part of the legislative agenda for the committee. The records include correspondence of the chairman, subject files, completed subcommittee questionnaires, and other records relating to the subcommittee's investigation of juvenile delinquency, the economic status of fixed-income groups in a wartime economy, the Nation's wartime health program, and medical research; these are fully described in a National Archives preliminary inventory (see Appendix G).
14.21. The subjects of the petitions and resolutions of State legislatures and other bodies referred to the committee include the Wagner labor disputes bill, which was enacted as the National Labor Relations Act (74A-J9); various housing bills (74A-J9, 75A-J8, 76A-J9); New Deal public works programs (75A-J7, 75A-J10); the migrant problem in California (76A-J7); the Smith antistrike bill (77A-J6); the Wagner-Murray-Dingell national health insurance bill (79A-J7); and the fair employment practice bill (79A-J7).
14.22. Records of the Senate Special Committee to Investigate Unemployment and Relief, 1937-39, authorized by S. Res. 36, 75th Cong., are described in Chapter 18.
Records of Select and Standing Committees on Epidemic Diseases, 45th-54th Congresses (1878-1896)
14.23. The Senate Committee on Epidemic Diseases began as a select committee, established by a Senate resolution on December 4, 1878, to investigate yellow fever and allied epidemic diseases. A standing committee was established on December 12, 1887, which was renamed on March 3, 1896, the Committee on Public Health and National Quarantine.
14.24. The records of the standing committee include committee papers, 1879-92 (3 in.), and petitions, memorials, and resolutions of State legislatures referred to the committee, 1878-92 (4 in.). The committee papers concern the establishment and functions of the National Board of Health, including copies of its annual reports (46A-E24, 47A-E26, 48A-E25); and the control of infectious diseases such as yellow fever (46A-E24, 48A-E25, 50A-F7), cholera, and diphtheria (51A-F9); and scarlet fever in the District of Columbia (51A-F9). The petitions and memorials request enactment of a national quarantine law and establishment of quarantine and immigrant inspection stations (45A-H26, 47A-H29, 50A-J8), appropriations for studies of sanitary matters and the causes of infectious diseases (48A-H7), restoration of the National Board of Health (48A-H7, 49A-H8), and prohibition of the manufacture, sale, and importation of cigarettes (52A-J9). For further information on the Select Committee on Epidemic Diseases and other health-related select committees, see Chapter 18.
Records of the Committee on Public Health and National Quarantine, 54th-67th Congresses (1896-1921)
14.25. The Committee on Public Health and National Quarantine succeeded the Committee on Epidemic Diseases on March 19, 1896. It considered many of the same issues as its predecessor until it was abolished on April 18, 1921, by S. Res. 43, 67th Cong. The records consist of committee papers, 1896-1921 (2 in.), and petitions and memorials referred to the committee, 1896-1921 (5 in.). There are no committee papers for the 1901-1919 (57th-65th Congresses) nor petitions and memorials for 1903-09 (58th-60th Congresses) and 1911-19 (62d-65th Congresses). The main issues considered by the committee related to the Marine Hospital Service and establishment or removal of quarantine stations (54A-F28, 55A-F27, 55A-J31, 56A-F33, 56A-J35) and establishment of a national health commission or Federal department of public health (56A-F33, 56A-J35, 57A-J61, 61A-J88). Other subjects of petitions include investigation and prevention of contagious diseases, particularly yellow fever and cholera ( 55A-J31, 56A-J35); establishment of a home for lepers (56A-J35); creation of an interdepartmental board of social hygiene (66A-J53); maternity and infancy protection (66A-J53); and medical services for discharged soldiers (66A-J53).
Records of the Select and Standing Committees to Establish a University of the United States, 54th-67th Congresses (1895-1921)
14.26. On March 19, 1896, the Senate established a standing Committee to Establish a University of the United States, succeeding a select committee on the same subject. Although the committee continued to exist until 1921, when it and many other inactive committees were eliminated, the surviving records include only committee papers, including hearings, 1895-1902 (2 in.), and petitions and memorials referred to the committee, 1897-1900 (1 in.). The committee papers include a committee minute book, December 1895-February 1902 (57A-F32); an unprinted hearing transcript, February 21, 1896 (57A-F32); correspondence of one of its chairmen, George L. Wellington of Maryland (56A-F37); and copies of bills and related reports and papers.
Records of the Committee on Labor and Public Welfare, 80th-90th Congresses (1947-1968)
14.27. The Committee on Labor and Public Welfare was established January 2, 1947, as part of the reduction and realignment of Senate committees under the Legislative Reorganization Act of 1946. The committee inherited nearly all of the legislative responsibilities of the Committee on Education and Labor. These include the following: measures relating to education, labor, and public welfare generally; mediation and arbitration of labor disputes; wages and hours of labor; convict labor and the entry of goods made by convicts into interstate commerce; regulation or prevention of importation of foreign laborers under contract; child labor; labor statistics; labor standards; school-lunch program; vocational rehabilitation; railroad employment, railroad retirement and unemployment, except for related revenue measures; United States Employees' Compensation Commission; Columbia Institution for the Deaf, Dumb, and Blind (now Gallaudet University); Howard University; Freedmen's Hospital; St. Elizabeths Hospital; public health and quarantine; and welfare of miners. In addition, when an attempt to establish a separate committee on veterans affairs failed, the Labor and Public Welfare Committee was given jurisdiction over veterans vocational rehabilitation and education, medical treatment and hospitals, civil relief, and readjustment to civilian life, which it held through the 91st Congress (1969-70). By 1968, the jurisdiction of the committee had grown dramatically as the Federal Government established programs to support the aging, the arts and humanities, biomedical research and development, equal employment opportunity, and student loans, and to regulate occupational safety and health and private pension plans.
14.28. Legislative case files, 1947-68 (40 ft.), of the Labor and Public Welfare Committee were not kept uniformly. For certain Congresses, such as the 81st-82d (1949-52) and 85th-86th (1957-60), the case files are generally complete, containing printed bills, amendments, committee prints, hearings transcripts, correspondence, and other material. For others, the case files are incomplete and may contain only printed material or copies of hearing transcripts that were printed. There are no full committee legislative files for the 88th Congress (1963-64) and very little material for the 90th (1967-68). In part, the records reflect the independence of the committee's subcommittees; four of them—education (1961-64), employment, manpower, and poverty (1965-68), migratory labor (1959-68), and veterans affairs (1957-68)—maintained legislative files for bills handled by their respective subcommittee. Similarly, a professional staff member for the health subcommittee maintained material on legislative proposals in the health field (1961-66), as did the committee's general counsel, whose files document his role in monitoring all legislation referred to the committee (1955-68). Records relating to bills referred to it are, therefore, often located in several series; on bills referred to subcommittees for which no records have been transferred to the National Archives, documentation may be limited to printed sources.
14.29. Other documents referred to the committee include Presidential messages and executive communications ("messages, communications, and reports"), 1947-62 (10 ft.), and petitions, memorials, and resolutions of State legislatures and other bodies, 1947-62 (3 ft.). Presidential messages transmit legislative proposals and Agency and Board annual reports to Congress. Executive communications are reports sent to Congress by heads or high officials of executive agencies and sometimes by nongovernmental officials who direct federally chartered organizations. Petitions and memorials from individuals, and resolutions from unions, professional associations, and Government bodies on subjects under the committee's jurisdiction are also referred. Of all issues before the committee prior to 1963, repeal of the Taft-Hartley Act generated the largest response. Beginning in the 88th Congress, the committee combined Presidential messages, executive communications, and petitions, memorials, and resolutions into a series of records referred from the floor of the Senate, 1963-68 (14 ft.).
14.30. Few records relating to nominations considered by the committee have been transferred. Transcripts of executive session hearings on nominations, 1957-66 (1 in.), concern only five nominations, made in 1957, 1961, and 1966.
Records of Subcommittees of the Committee on Labor and Public Welfare
14.31. At various times during the 1950's and 1960's, several subcommittees of the Labor and Public Welfare Committee began to keep records separate from those of the full committee. Those for which the National Archives has records include the subcommittees on welfare and pension funds; education; health; veterans affairs; migratory labor; and employment, manpower, and poverty.
Subcommittee on Welfare and Pension Funds
14.32. Following President Eisenhower's message to Congress concerning labor-management relations, January 11, 1954, the committee reported S. Res. 225, 83d Cong., to establish a subcommittee to study and investigate the establishment and operation of employee welfare and pension funds under collective bargaining agreements. The Subcommittee on Welfare and Pension Funds, chaired by Irving Ives of New York during the 83d Congress and Paul Douglas of Illinois during the 84th Congress, focused its attention first on welfare plans in Chicago, Philadelphia, and San Francisco. The subcommittee also studied the policies and practices of group insurance providers; regulation of welfare and pension funds by Government and private agencies; insurance, banking, and trust laws in some States; constitutions of international unions; and other related questions. Under Senator Douglas' chairmanship, the subcommittee investigated welfare and pension plans in the automobile, coal-mining, clothing, electrical, steel, and trucking industries. The records, 1954-56 (85 ft.), include an alphabetical subject file consisting of correspondence, memoranda, staff reports, and reference material relating to individuals, organizations, and other subjects of the investigation; records relating to public and executive hearings; correspondence, memorandums, statistical information, completed questionnaires, and investigative reports relating to insurance companies that participated in employee welfare and pension plans; and other records of the committee's investigation. An unpublished inventory and shelf list, prepared by the National Archives, further describes these records.
Subcommittee on Education
14.33. The records, 1961-64 (14 ft.), consist of legislative case files for bills proposed during the 87th and 88th Congresses; correspondence of the chairman, Wayne Morse of Oregon, and professional staff member, Charles Lee; and speeches of Senator Morse. The legislative case files include printed copies of bills, reports, subcommittee prints, and amendments; correspondence with the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare and with State government agencies; newspaper clippings and other reference material, but not transcripts of hearings. Many of the bills concern extension of the National Defense Education Act.
Subcommittee on Employment, Manpower, and Poverty
14.34. The records, 1965-68 (24 ft.), accumulated during the subcommittee chairmanship of Joseph S. Clark of Pennsylvania, include correspondence, memorandums, and printed matter relating to the subcommittee's study of poverty, pursuant to S. Res. 17, 90th Cong., which preceded consideration of amendments to the Economic Opportunity Act of 1964; legislative files on subjects such as correctional rehabilitation, juvenile delinquency, family planning, poverty, full employment, coal mine safety, fair labor standards, and manpower; speeches and press releases of Senator Clark; and reference material. The records document Senator Clark's special interest in poverty programs in Philadelphia.
Subcommittee on Health
14.35. The records, 1961-66 (35 ft.), consist of the subject files of professional staff member Robert W. Barclay. Arranged by Congress and thereunder alphabetically by subject, the records include correspondence, staff memorandums, reports, and a substantial amount of reference material on aging, treatment of animals, Hill-Burton hospitals, professional education for health professionals, and mental health and retardation. For the 89th Congress (1965-66), there are two subject files; one contains more correspondence and the other contains more reference material.
Subcommittee on Migratory Labor
14.36. The records, 1959-68 (50 ft.), include the records of both the special subcommittee, established during the 86th Congress, and the standing subcommittee, 87th-90th Congresses. Chaired by Harrison A. Williams, Jr., of New Jersey, the subcommittee focused its efforts on the plight of migrant farm workers. The records consist of legislative files, correspondence with officials of migrant labor organizations and Government agencies at the State and national level, press releases, subcommittee publications, architectural drawings of proposed migrant housing in California, newspaper clippings, administrative records, and a large reference collection of publications that includes newsletters from State farm bureaus and migrant labor organizations.
Subcommittee on Veterans' Affairs
14.37. The records, 1957-68 (22 ft.), consist of legislative case files; correspondence with other Senators, Government agencies, and the public; and reading files during the chairmanships of Strom Thurmond of South Carolina (1957-60), Ralph Yarborough of Texas (1959-66), and Edward M. Kennedy of Massachusetts (1967-68). The records contain numerous memorandums and reports written by subcommittee counsel Frederick R. Blackwell.
Records of the Staff of the Committee on Labor and Public Welfare
14.38. The records of the subcommittees described above contain many reports and memorandums produced by their professional staff members. In addition to these, there are records of the committee's general counsel, 1955-68 (27 ft.), and a reading file and other records of William G. Reidy, 1959-60 (3 in.), who was a professional staff member specializing in health matters.
14.39. The committee general counsel, John S. Forsythe, kept records of legislative activity on bills in all subject areas within the committee's jurisdiction. In addition to printed material such as bills, reports, committee prints, and amendments, he also retained notes of staff meetings, meetings with executive branch officials, staff memorandums, and official comments on proposed legislation. His files are arranged by Congress and thereunder alphabetically by major program area.
14.40. William G. Reidy's records include a portion of his outgoing letters for the 86th Congress, arranged alphabetically (A through M only) and a copy of a memorandum on a meeting between committee members, staff, and representatives of the Justice and Labor Departments about enforcement of the Landrum-Griffin Act.
14.41. Augmenting the records of the committee, subcommittees, and staff is a copy of a transcript of an oral history interview with former committee chief clerk Stewart E. McClure, 1955-69 and 1971-73, prepared by the Senate Historical Office. It is especially rich in its coverage of the chairmanship of Lister Hill of Alabama (1955-68).
Records of the Committee on Labor and Public Welfare, 91st-94th Congresses (1969-1976)
Records of the Committee on Labor and Human Resources, 95th-99th Congresses (1977-1986)
Records of both full committees include legislative files, subject files, executive communications, nomination files, and petitions. Records of their subcommittees also include legislative files, subject files, and records relating to oversight activities and hearings, among others. These subcommittees include Aging (11 ft.); Children, Family, Drugs, and Alcoholism (3 ft.); Children and Youth (7 ft.); Child and Human Development (4 ft.); Employment, Poverty, and Migratory Labor (4 ft.); Family and Human Services (3 ft.); the Handicapped (11 ft.); Health and Scientific Research (5 ft.); Investigation and General Oversight (6 ft.); and Labor (5 ft.).
Bibliographic note: Web version based on Guide to the Records of the United States Senate at the National Archives, 1789-1989: Bicentennial Edition (Doct. No. 100-42). By Robert W. Coren, Mary Rephlo, David Kepley, and Charles South. Washington, DC: National Archives and Records Administration, 1989.
This Web version is updated from time to time to include records processed since 1989.
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