Page images
PDF
EPUB

I offer this in evidence.

(The original letter from Charles Fahy to Howard W. Smith, dated February 12, 1940, was received in evidence and marked "Exhibit No. 1011," and appears above.)

The CHAIRMAN. Now on page 555 of the record, in connection with the testimony of Mr. Madden, permission was granted to Mr. Fahy, to be printed as an exhibit, a statement on certain cases criticized by Mr. William Green, president of the American Federation of Labor, in his testimony before the committee on January 25, 1940. This statement has been furnished me and should be printed as an exhibit with the proceedings.

(The document entitled "Statement Submitted by Chairman Madden, of the National Labor Relations Board, in Answer to Criticism of Certain Cases by William Green" was received in evidence and marked "Exhibit No. 1012" and is printed in the appendix of this volume.)

Mr. TOLAND. Mr. Wolf.

TESTIMONY OF BENEDICT WOLF, LABOR RELATIONS COUNSEL, NEW YORK CITY

(The witness was duly sworn and testified as follows:)

Mr. TOLAND. What is your name?

Mr. WOLF. Benedict Wolf.

Mr. TOLAND. Where do you reside?

Mr. WOLF. 254 West Eighty-second Street, New York City.

Mr. TOLAND. What is your present business or occupation?

Mr. WOLF. I am a Labor Relations counsel.

Mr. TOLAND. Are you a member of the bar of any State of the United States?

Mr. WOLF. Yes; a member of the bar of New York State.

Mr. TOLAND. Were you at any time an employee of the National Labor Relations Board?

Mr. WOLF. I was.

Mr. TOLAND. Will you please tell the committee when you first were appointed by the Board, the position you were appointed to, and the length of the tenure of your service with the Board, and the various positions that you have held?

Mr. WOLF. I worked for the Board from the time of its inception until November 15, 1937. I was secretary of the Board during that time, and for a period of time chief trial examiner.

Mr. TOLAND. Will you tell the committee briefly your recollec tion

Mr. HEALEY (interposing). Mr. Toland, he is now out of the Government service?

Mr. TOLAND. Since November 1937.

Mr. WOLF. That is correct.

Mr. HEALEY. What do you term yourself now?

Mr. WOLF. Labor Relations counsel.

Mr. HEALEY. Where is your office now?

Mr. WOLF. New York City.

Mr. TOLAND. Will you tell the committee, Mr. Wolf, your best recollection as to any conference that you may have had with Chair

man Madden, of the Board, or the members of the Board, late in 1938, as to a plan that you had to circularize, communicate with people, including regional directors, regarding your position on amendments to the National Labor Relations Act?

Mr. WOLF. As nearly as I can recall, some time in December 1938, I came down to Washington and had lunch with Chairman Madden and Mr. Smith and Mr. Witt. At that time I told them that it seemed to me some action should be taken in regard to amendments to the National Labor Relations Act. The proponents for amendments were particularly active at that time. Since I believed that no amendments should be made, and still am of that opinion, I felt that some support should be rallied so that those who are opposed to amendments could make their wishes known to Congress.

At that conference the members of the Board didn't view the situation with as much gravity as I did.

Mr. HALLECK. I wonder if you will tell us what they said.

Mr. WOLF. It is difficult to recall the conversation in December 1938, Congressman. I remember the result rather than the conversation.

Their feeling was that the Board's record was such that a presentation of that record to Congress would in and of itself prevent amendments, as had happened with the Senate committee, when Senator Burke made a move for investigation or amendment. I don't recall quite which. As I recall the result, I was told that they would have no objection to what I might care to do with regard to a move to oppose amendments, but that they would take no active part, and certainly not the lead, in any such opposition.

Mr. TOLAND. Did you at that time tell them that in connection with your plan you proposed to communicate with the employees of the Board, regional directors?

Mr. WOLF. I don't think so, Mr. Toland. I may have, but I am not sure that I was specific in my own thinking as to what measures I would take.

Mr. TOLAND. As a matter of fact, you did, did you not, during the month of December, and more particularly on the 21st day of December 1938, communicate directly with all the regional directors of the National Labor Relations Board?

Mr. WOLF. At or about that time, as I recall it, I wrote a letter to the regional directors.

Mr. TOLAND. I show you

The CHAIRMAN (interposing). My recollection was that there was one exception.

Mr. TOLAND. I said he communicated with all, but I have the letter that was not sent.

I show you committee Exhibit 839, dated December 21, 1938, addressed to Nathaniel S. Clark at Milwaukee, on your stationery, and bearing the signature "Dick," and I show you Exhibit 838, being a communication from yourself to Mr. Witt, the Secretary of the Board, of the same date, and ask you if you didn't send this letter to Mr. Witt, and if this letter is not the same letter that was sent directly to all the regional directors except Mr. Clark.

Mr. WOLF. The answer to both of those question is "Yes."

Mr. MURDOCK. Except whom, Mr. Toland?

Mr. TOLAND. Mr. Clark. He was regional director at Milwaukee. And as you stated in your note to Mr. Witt, the reason that you sent it to him, instead of sending it direct to Mr. Clark, was as follows (reading):

I decided that it might not be advisable to contact him because of his A. F. L. friends, so I'm sending you the letter addressed to him for your edification. Isn't that a fact?

Mr. WOLF. That is what the letter says.

Mr. TOLAND. Now, thereafter, Mr. Wolf, did a member of my staff appear at your office in the city of New York and serve the subpena on you for all the correspondence that you may have had with regional directors and their replies to your letters?

Mr. WOLF. He did.

Mr. TOLAND. Did you have in your file the communications of December 21 or any communications in the month of December, from you to regional directors or employees of the Board?

Mr. WOLF. I did not.

Mr. TOLAND. Did you have in your file on the day the subpena was served any of the replies that you may have received from the regional directors or employees of the Board as a result of your communications?

Mr. WOLF. Not if they were sent prior to the 1st of February, or the middle of February 1939.

Mr. TOLAND. What happened, will you tell the committee what happened to the correspondence that you had with the regional directors during the month of December 1938 and January of 1939?

Mr. WOLF. Yes; during the month of February 1939, it became apparent to me that the regional directors were not in position to carry the load or become the active agents in organizing opposition to amendments to the National Labor Relations Act, and I decided at that time, in consultation with others not connected with the National Labor Relations Board in any way, to pursue a different course, and the file with the regional directors, which was in my opinion a personal file. I threw away at that time-I threw all the correspondence away since I had no more use for it.

Mr. TOLAND. It is a fact, is it not, Mr. Wolf, that after that time you did have correspondence with the regional directors regarding the formation of committees in the localities, and that their replies on Board stationery were in your file at the time the subpena was served you?

Mr. WOLF. That is correct.

Mr. TOLAND. Now, I show you a copy of a letter to A. Howard Myers, regional director of Boston, on the 8th day of March 1939, and ask you if you dictated or caused to be sent to Mr. Myers the original of that communication?

Mr. WOLF. I did.

Mr. TOLAND. I offer the document identified by the witness in evidence.

(The copy of a communication dated March 8, 1939, to Mr. A. Howard Myers was received in evidence, marked "Exhibit No. 1013," and follows.)

Mr. TOLAND. I am reading from Exhibit 1013 of the committee:

Mr. A. HowARD MYERS,

National Labor Relations Board,

Old South Building, Boston, Mass.

MARCH 8, 1939.

DEAR HOWARD: I need a little help from you with regard to a project being started by a group of people in New York in opposition to the drive to amend the National Labor Relations Act. We intend to set up committees in as many cities as possible throughout the country to conduct meetings, radio forums, and similar activities, as part of a campaign of education which will convince the country at large, and thus the Congress in Washington, that there is no need to amend the Act at the present time and that the amendments which have been proposed are undesirable. These committees will be made up of liberal leaders in various communities with, we hope, some representatives of the A. F. of L. and the C. I. O. unions.

I would like to get from you suggestions as to people in your region who could act as chairmen of such committees and undertake to form them as well as names of additional people who could serve on such committees.

At the same time I would like your comments on the following names with an indication of whether they are material either for chairmen of committees or members of committees. They are:

President Robert Leigh, Bennington, Vermont.

Mr. George Lundberg, Bennington College, Bennington, Vt.

Miss Alice W. Hunt, 2 Angell St., Providence, R. I.

Prof. H. F. Rudd, Department of Philosophy, University of New Hampshire, Durham, N. H.

Miss Margaret Weisman, 31A W. Vernon St., Boston.

Mrs. Maxine Sweezy, Tufts College, Boston.

Professor Paul Sweezy, Harvard University, Cambridge, Mass.
Professor Dorothy Douglas, Smith College, Northampton, Mass.
Professor R. R. R. Brooks, Williams College, Williamstown, Mass.
Miss Anita Marburg, Williams College, Williamstown, Mass.
Mrs. Maude Wood Park, the Eastland, Portland, Maine.
Mrs. Charles A. Beard, New Milford, Conn.

Mrs. Van Wyck Brooks, 87 Kings Highway, Westport, Conn.
Professor Irston Barnes, Yale University, New Haven, Conn.

Dr. Alice Hamilton, Hadlyme, Conn.

Jeannette Studley, Connecticut Consumers League, Hartford, Conn.

I know that you realize the need for immediate action and that you will give this request your prompt attention.

Best Regards.

Sincerely yours,

BW/p.

UOPWA.

16.

Now I show you a communication————

Mr. HEALEY (interposing). Mr. Toland, may I just ask one question at this point?

Did you recommend that the list of persons contained in this communication just read by counsel be contacted? Did you make that recommendation?

Mr. WOLF. I think the letter speaks for itself. My recollection of it is I asked for his opinion on those people.

Mr. HEALEY. His what?

Mr. WOLF. His opinion on those people. I think the letter is there and speaks for itself.

Mr. HEALEY. Inasmuch as names have been read here into the record, will you tell the committee why you referred particularly to those people?

Mr. WOLF. Yes; those names were supplied to me. I have no personal knowledge of any of them. Those names were supplied to me by other members of the committee with which I was working, as liberals in various sections of the country. Similar letters went to other regional directors as to liberals who might be interested in participating in a drive against amendments to the act.

Mr. HEALEY. Were they known by you personally to be people who were interested in the preservation of this act in its present form?

Mr. WOLF. If that had been known to me, Congressman, I wouldn't have asked them, but they were recommended by the committee as people who would be interested in seeing the act remain.

Mr. TOLAND. Mr. Wolf, I show you a communication dated March 11, from Mr. Myers, signed "Howard," and ask you if you did not receive that in response to your letter.

Mr. WOLF. Yes.

Mr. TOLAND. I offer in evidence the document as identified by the witness.

(The communication dated March 11, 1939, to Mr. Benedict Wolf, signed "Howard," was received in evidence, marked "Exhibit No. 1014," and follows.)

Mr. TOLAND. Exhibit 1014, dated March 11, 1939 (reading):

NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD

FIRST REGION

Old South Building, Boston, Massachusetts

Mr. BENEDICT WOLF,

MARCH 11, 1939.

1501 Broadway, New York City, N. Y.

DEAR DICK: I have your letter of March 8.

I have, of course, been participating in a number of such discussions around here. On Wednesday I discussed the issue, on the New England Town Hall of the Air, with Regional Director of the CIO, and a representative of the Associated Industries of Massachusetts. The A. F. of L. were invited but refused to participate. I also was in the New England Panel which followed the New York Town Hall discussion between Leiserson and Moore.

I do not believe that the local A. F. of L., around Massachusetts, will participate because they do not want to cross the Executive Council.

As to the names of people who would be good material for committee chairmen, I would suggest the following:

Paul Sweezey, Harvard University, Cambridge, Mass.

George Roewer, Atty., 20 Pemberton Square, Boston, Mass. (a prominent Boston labor attorney).

Frank Reel, Atty., 20 Pemberton Square, Boston, Mass. (likewise).

Sidney Grant, Atty., 89 State St., Boston, Mass. (likewise).
Samuel E. Angoff, Atty., 89 State St., Boston, Mass. (likewise).

Henry Wise, Atty., 11 Beacon St., Boston, Mass. (likewise).

Harold Strauch, Atty., 125 Pearl St., Hartford, Conn. (likewise).

Rev. Donald G. Lothrop, Pastor, The Community Church, 6 Byron St.,
Boston, Mass.

Daniel J. Boyle, Secy.-Treas., National Leather Workers Association (CIO), 6 Beacon St., Boston, Mass.

B. J. Dorsky, President, State Federation of Labor, Bangor, Maine.

John J. Mahoney (Dept. of Education Boston University), 26 Avon Road, Watertown, Mass.

Michael Widman, Regional Director CIO, 73 Tremont St., Boston, Mass.

« PreviousContinue »