United States Department of Commerce and Labor

“ The National Government should demand the highest quality of service from its employees; and in return it should be a good employer. If possible legislation should be passed, in connection with the Interstate Commerce Law, which will render effective the efforts of different States to do away with the competition of convict contract labor in the open labor market. So far as practicable under the conditions of Government work, provision should be made to render the enforcement of the eight-hour law easy and certain. ”

“ When workers are better informed of their rights, including their rights under the Federal labor laws, their productivity is enhanced. The availability of such a workforce from which the United States may draw facilitates the efficient and economical completion of its procurement contracts.
(b) The Secretary of Labor (Secretary) shall be responsible for the administration and enforcement of this order. The Secretary shall adopt such rules and regulations and issue such orders as are deemed necessary and appropriate to achieve the purposes of this order. ”

“ The Department of Labor should be rebuilt and strengthened and those units properly belonging within that department should be placed in it.
The health of our economy and its maintenance at high levels further require that the minimum wage fixed by law should be raised to at least 75 cents an hour.
If our free enterprise economy is to be strong and healthy, we must reinvigorate the forces of competition. We must assure small business the freedom and opportunity to grow and prosper. ”

“ He protects the business man with the Federal Trade Commission, the Federal Reserve Board, and the Interstate Commerce Commission.
HELPING THE WORKING MAN. In the Department of Labor a vast amount of Service is devoted to securing employment for laborers, supplying information concerning labor conditions, pursuing practical investigations for the safety and health of the working men. ”

“ In the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 Congress not only prohibits interstate commerce in goods produced by substandard labor, but it directly forbids, with penalties, the employment of labor in industrial production for interstate commerce on other than certain prescribed terms. ”

“ Extension of trade adjustment assistance to service sector and public agency workers; shifts in production. Sec. 1802. Separate basis for certification. Sec. 1803. Determinations by Secretary of Labor. Sec. 1804. Monitoring and reporting relating to service sector. Subpart B—Industry Notifications Following Certain Affirmative Determinations Sec. 1811. Notifications following certain affirmative determinations. Sec. 1812. Notification to Secretary of Commerce. Subpart C—Program Benefits Sec. 1821. Qualifying Requirements for Workers. ”

“ Under the revised provision of Title VII, “ [t] he term ‘person’ includes one or more individuals, governments, governmental agencies, [and] political subdivisions,” also certain other specified entities, and “ [t] he term ‘employer’ means a person engaged in an industry affecting commerce who has fifteen or more employees....” 42 U. S. C. §2000e (a) – (b) . For this purpose, amended Title VII defines “industry affecting commerce” to “includ [e] any governmental industry, business, or activity.” ”

“ Declaration of Policy.—Congress reiterates that, under the trade adjustment assistance program under chapter 2 of title II of the Trade Act of 1974, workers are eligible for transportation, childcare, and healthcare assistance, as well as other related assistance under programs administered by the Department of Labor. ”

“ Again, half a dozen enactments, other than the National Labor Relations Act are sufficient to illustrate that when it wants to bring aspects of commerce within the full sweep of its constitutional authority, it manifests its purpose by regulating not only 'commerce' but also matters which 'affect', 'interrupt', or 'promote' interstate commerce. ”

“ The farmer or planter who toils yearly in his fields is engaged in "domestic industry," and is as much entitled to have his labor "protected" as the manufacturer, the man of commerce, the navigator, or the mechanic, who are engaged also in "domestic industry" in their different pursuits. The joint labors of all these classes constitute the aggregate of the "domestic industry" of the nation, and they are equally entitled to the nation's "protection." ”

“ Never before have there been agencies in existence in this country which knew so much of the field of supply, of labor, and of industry as the War Industries Board, the War Trade Board, the Labor Department, the Food Administration, and the Fuel Administration have known since their labors became thoroughly systematized ”

“ Congress having by the present Act adopted the policy of excluding from interstate commerce all goods produced for the commerce which do not conform to the specified labor standards, it may choose the means reasonably adapted to the attainment of the permitted end even though they involve control of intrastate activities. ”

“ Full employment and full production may be achieved only by maintaining a level of consumer income far higher than that of the prewar period. A high level of consumer income will maintain the market for the output of our mills, farms, and factories, which we have demonstrated during the war years that we can produce. One of the basic steps which the Congress can take to establish a high level of consumer income is to amend the Fair Labor Standards Act to raise substandard wages to a decent minimum and to extend similar protection to additional workers who are not covered by the present act. ”

“ By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the
laws of the United States of America, including 40 U.S.C. 121, and in
order to promote economy and efficiency in procurement by contracting
with responsible sources who comply with labor laws, it is hereby ordered
as follows:
Section 1. Amendment to Executive Order 13673. ”

“ The Department of Labor has just confirmed that in the first 13 months of our administration, the economy has created an additional 2,090,000 jobs, more than 90 percent of them in the private sector, so we're well on our way. In just 13 months, the economy has generated nearly twice as many private sector jobs than the total for the entire previous 4 years. ”

“ While capital invested in manufactures is yielding adequate and fair profits under the new system, the wages of labor, whether employed in manufactures, agriculture, commerce, or navigation, have been augmented. The toiling millions whose daily labor furnishes the supply of food and raiment and all the necessaries and comforts of life are receiving higher wages and more steady and permanent employment than in any other country or at any previous period of our own history. ”

“ Already in this department in its first year over ten million dollars have been expended, and it has had in its employ nine thousand two hundred and ten persons continuously in service, and many hundreds temporarily in service. Since labor and commerce are at the basis of all our national prosperity, it is time to systematize and more fully to supervise in the interest of the public the widespread network of supply and demand. ”

“ I am asking the Secretaries of Agriculture, Commerce, and Labor to explore jointly methods for stimulating new industries, particularly in areas with surplus agricultural labor.
We must also aid small businessmen and particularly veterans who are competent to start their own businesses. The establishment and development of efficient small business ventures, I believe, will not take away from, but rather will add to, the total business of all enterprises.
Even with maximum encouragement of Production, we cannot hope to remove scarcities within a short time. ”

“ I've also directed the Department of Labor to work with the states to minimize any delay in helping these Americans once Congress has acted and extended these benefits.
I look forward to working with members of both parties in the new Congress on our economic challenges. We must help our fellow citizens who have lost their jobs. And we must create an environment in which businesses, especially small businesses, can grow and generate the new jobs our country needs. ”

“ Meanwhile, the Department of Labor is at once beginning work to devise further specific recommendations for your consideration.
In the careful working out of legislation, I know you will give thoughtful consideration--as will we in the executive branch--to the views of labor, and of management, and of the general public. In this process, it is only human that each of us should bring forward the arguments of self-interest. But if all conduct their arguments in the overpowering light of national interest--which is enlightened self-interest--we shall get the right answers. ”

“ In both the executive and the legislative branches we must make arrangements which will permit us to formulate the Government program in that light. Such an approach has become imperative if the American political and economic system is to succeed under the conditions of economic instability and uncertainty which we have to face. The Government needs to assure business, labor, and agriculture that Government policies will take due account of the requirements of a full employment economy. ”

“ We have made great strides toward the objectives of the National Industrial Recovery Act, for not only have several millions of our unemployed been restored to work, but industry is organizing itself with a greater understanding that reasonable profits can be earned while at the same time protection can be assured to guarantee to labor adequate pay and proper conditions of work. ”

“ Congress, to attain its objective in the suppression of nationwide competition in interstate commerce by goods produced under substandard labor conditions, has made no distinction as to the volume or amount of shipments in the commerce or of production for commerce by any particular shipper or producer. It recognized that, in present day industry, competition by a small part may affect the whole, and that the total effect of the competition of many small producers may be great. ”

“ From the time of my induction into office the duty of using every power and influence given by law to the executive department for the development of larger markets for our products, especially our farm products, has been kept constantly in mind, and no effort has been or will be spared to promote that end. We are under no disadvantage in any foreign market, except that we pay our workmen and workwomen better wages than are paid elsewhere--better abstractly, better relatively to the cost of the necessaries of life. ”

“ The Administration will, through future messages either directly from me or from heads of the departments and agencies, transmit to the Congress specific recommendations. These will involve our financial and fiscal affairs, our military and civil defenses; the administration of justice; our agricultural economy; our domestic and foreign commerce; the urgently needed increase in our postal rates; the development of our natural resources; our labor laws, including our labor-management relations legislation, and vital aspects of the health, education and welfare of our people. ”

“ The number of those wholly out of employment seeking for work was accurately determined by the census last April as about 2,500,000. The Department of Labor index of employment in the larger trades shows some decrease in employment since that time. The problem from a relief point of view is somewhat less than the published estimates of the number of unemployed would indicate. The intensive community and individual efforts in providing special employment outside the listed industries are not reflected in the statistical indexes and tend to reduce such published figures. ”

“ On the other hand, an employee whose work it is to prepare meals and serve them to maintenance-of-way employees of an interstate railroad in pursuance of a contract between his employer and the railroad company is not "engaged in commerce" within the meaning of §§ 6 and 7 of the Fair Labor Standards Act (McLeod v. Threlkeld, 319 U.S. 491 (1943) ) ”