Topic 4 : Interviews re the NLRB in the Wagner Act era (1935-1947), 1968-1975.

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Topic 4 : Interviews re the NLRB in the Wagner Act era (1935-1947), 1968-1975.

The years immediately following the passage of the Wagner Act in 1935 are discussed at length. The appointment of J. Warren Madden as chairman is focused upon and his prior career in private practice and as dean of the University of Pittsburgh Law School is mentioned. Relations between Madden, President Roosevelt and Secretary of Labor Perkins are discussed as are Madden's views about staff political contacts and the charge that he blacklisted companies on the basis of their unfair labor practices. Madden's political and administrative views are also compared with those of other NLRB members and staffers, especially John Carmody. Other political issues at this point were the attempts to secure Presidential Executive Orders to delineate the powers of the Board, and the effort to separate its quasi-judicial and political functions. The post-Wagner years saw major changes in the practices and policies established by the National Labor Board and the pre-Wagner NLRB. Methods of appointment of Board attorneys (particularly women and Jews) and appointments of regional staff are discussed, as is the establishment of the Division of Trial Examiners and the Division of Economic Research. Administrative and policy changes also highlighted include the formulation of procedures for hearings and for the enforcement of decisions, development of a litigation strategy and of a pattern of communication between regional and central staff. The criteria for the selection of test cases for Supreme Court review, the development of economic data to prepare these cases and the method by which these cases were prepared is discussed in detail. These cases included Virginia and Maryland Coach Company, Associated Press, Jones and Laughlin Steel Corporation, Fruehauf Trailer Company and Friedman and Harry Marks Clothing Company. Major issues in these cases included the definition of the Board's authority in the matters of interstate transportation, communication, manufacturing and commerce. Other themes regarding this period developed in the interviews include a discussion of the Board's strategy to demonstrate that unfair labor practices lead to labor disputes which disrupt the flow of interstate commerce and the use of NLRB decisions by the Supreme Court as a weapon against President Roosevelt's efforts to pack the Court. Relevant respondents include Meta Barghausen, George Bokat, George Bott, Wallace Cohen, William Consedine, Thomas Emerson, Charles Fahy, Ogden W. Fields, Estelle Frankfurter, Herbert Fuchs, Lloyd Garrison, Herbert Glaser, Ben Golden, Milton Handler, Paul Herzog, Leon Keyserling, Ida Klaus, Philip Levy, Howard Lichtenstein, J. Warren Madden, Marcel Mallet-Prevost, David Saposs, Louis Silverberg, Howard Smith, Edwin Smith, Stanley Surrey, Gerhard Van Arkel, Owsley Vose, Nathan Witt and Benedict Wolf.

30 transcripts.

Information

SNAC Resource ID: 7911055

Cornell University Library

Related Entities

There are 36 Entities related to this resource.

United States. National Labor Relations Board

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After the first National Labor Relations Board was functionally abolished by the Supreme Court decision invalidating the National Industrial Recovery Act, May 27, 1935, a new National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) was established as an independent agency by the National Labor Relations (Wagner) Act (NLRA) (49 Stat. 195), dated July 5, 1935. The Supreme Court in 1937 declared the Board constitutional and sustained Congress’s power to regulate employers whose operations affected interstate commerce...

Saposs, David J., 1886-1968

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6sg3krt (person)

David Joseph Saposs (February 22, 1886 – November 13, 1968) was an American economist, historian, and civil servant. He is best known for being the chief economist of the National Labor Relations Board from 1935 to 1940. ...

Perkins, Frances, 1880-1965

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6xm951b (person)

Frances Perkins (born Fannie Coralie Perkins; April 10, 1880 – May 14, 1965) was an American sociologist and workers-rights advocate who served as the U.S. Secretary of Labor from 1933 to 1945, the longest serving in that position, and the first woman appointed to the U.S. Cabinet. As a loyal supporter of her friend, Franklin D. Roosevelt (FDR), she helped pull the labor movement into the New Deal coalition. She and Interior Secretary Harold L. Ickes were the only original members of the Rooseve...

United States. Supreme Court

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w66b7t15 (corporateBody)

Supreme Court of the United States, final court of appeal and final expositor of the Constitution of the United States. Within the framework of litigation, the Supreme Court marks the boundaries of authority between state and nation, state and state, and government and citizen. Scope And Jurisdiction The Supreme Court was created by the Constitutional Convention of 1787 as the head of a federal court system, though it was not formally established until Congress passed the Judiciary Act in 17...

United States. National Labor Relations Board. Division of Economic Research.

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6m10zkz (corporateBody)

Vose, Owsley.

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Frankfurter, Estelle S.

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Fields, Ogden W.

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Smith, Edwin S. (Edwin Seymour), 1891-1976

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6pc7dvn (person)

Edwin S. Smith (1891-1976) served on the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) during the New Deal, as one of its original members, was a member and president of Friends of the Soviet Union, served as the personnel director of Filene's department store in Boston, and was Commissioner of Labor and Industries in Massachusetts. He also worked for the Oil Workers International Union of the CIO, and the Teachers' Division of the United Public Workers of America. When he appeared before the House Comm...

Golden, Ben

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w61z8gtc (person)

Actor and organizer in the People's Theatre Movement in the United States during the 1930s. From the guide to the Ben Golden papers, 1934-1936, (University of Washington Libraries Special Collections) ...

Consedine, William R.

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6p02m6x (person)

Cohen, Wallace M.

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Lichtenstein, Howard.

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Klaus, Ida.

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Handler, Milton, 1903-1998

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w66d77xg (person)

BIOGHIST REQUIRED Lifelong New Yorker, and very much a "son of Columbia" (College, '24; Law School '26) the late Milton Handler (d. '98) taught at Columbia Law School for forty-five years. He was a prolific scholar and wrote a leading text on Trade Regulation. From the guide to the Milton Handler papers, 1923-1997, (Columbia University. Rare Book and Manuscript Library) Lawyer. From the description of Reminiscences of Milton Handler : oral history, 1973. (Columbi...

Roosevelt, Franklin D. (Franklin Delano), 1882-1945

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w61s7dgz (person)

Franklin Delano Roosevelt was born on January 30, 1882, in Hyde Park, New York. He was the son of James (lawyer, financier) and Sara (Delano) Roosevelt. He married Anna Eleanor Roosevelt on March 17, 1905, and had six children: Anna, James, Franklin, Elliott, Franklin Jr., John. He received his B.A. from Harvard in 1904 and later attended Columbia University Law School. Roosevelt was admitted to the Bar in 1907 and worked for the Carter, Ledyard, and Milburn firm in New York City from 1907 to 19...

Levy, Philip, -1970

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w61839g1 (person)

Philip Levy was a government official in several capacities, serving on the legal staff of the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) and as counsel to Senator Robert F. Wagner, and practiced private law in Washington, D.C., during a career that spanned 1934-1970. He was directly involved with the development of national labor policy in the United States in the 1930s and 1940s, and maintained a continued interest in labor policy throughout his long career. From the description of Phil...

Carmody, John M. (John Michael), 1881-1962

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6474kqf (person)

Engineer, industrial executive, and government official. From the description of Papers, 1900-1958. (Unknown). WorldCat record id: 155521899 Administrator. From the description of Reminiscences of John Michael Carmody : oral history, 1954. (Columbia University In the City of New York). WorldCat record id: 309730779 ...

Fuchs, Herbert, Ministerialrat

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Van Arkel, Gerhard P.

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w66q4krb (person)

Keyserling, Leon H.

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6z651bc (person)

Mallet-Prevost, Marcel.

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6k68wg7 (person)

Bott, George

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6gf55w8 (person)

Fahy, Charles, 1892-1979

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6571nm3 (person)

Charles Fahy (1892-1979) was born in Rome, Georgia. A graduate of local schools, he later attended the University of Notre Dame and the Georgetown University School of Law, receiving an L.L.B. in 1914. He was admitted to the bar in Washington, D.C., and practiced law there for ten years. Interrupting his practice during World War I, he served as a Navy pilot and was awarded the Naval Cross for distinguished and heroic service. In 1924, Fahy moved to Santa Fe, New Mexico for reasons of health, re...

Silverberg, Louis G., d. 1975.

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w69k8ptj (person)

Bokat, George, 1904-1973.

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6b89mvr (person)

Surrey, Stanley S.

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6dj9t29 (person)

Glaser, Herbert R.

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6md3bd6 (person)

Herzog, Paul M., 1906-1986

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6m61mbs (person)

Lawyer, educator, and government official. From the description of Papers, 1931-1962. (Harry S Truman Library). WorldCat record id: 70944292 ...

Emerson, Thomas I. (Thomas Irwin), 1907-1991

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6rj6cwn (person)

Lawyer. From the description of Reminiscences of Thomas Irwin Emerson : oral history, 1953. (Columbia University In the City of New York). WorldCat record id: 309734528 From the description of Reminiscences of Thomas Irwin Emerson : oral history, 1955. (Columbia University In the City of New York). WorldCat record id: 309737818 Thomas Irwin Emerson was born in Passaic, New Jersey, on July 12, 1907. He graduated from Yale College in 1928 and from Yale Law School in 1...

Barghausen, Meta P.

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6f521vz (person)

United States. National Labor Relations Board. Trial Examiners' Division.

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6520rf0 (corporateBody)

Garrison, Lloyd W.

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6hb3hns (person)

Madden, Joseph Warren, 1890-1972

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6k37p6r (person)

Lawyer, government official. From the description of Reminiscences of Joseph Warren Madden : oral history, 1957. (Columbia University In the City of New York). WorldCat record id: 309736659 ...

Witt, Nathan.

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6n05jww (person)

Wolf, Benedict

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6jm6188 (person)