volved in new strikes. Since May 1937, the number of workers. involved in Board cases has ranged from 12 to 18 times the number of workers involved in "organization" strikes.

I sincerely hope that the committee will keep these charts available throughout the hearing, to confront those who may be inclined to repeat the misstatements that the Labor Act has increased rather than diminished the incidence of labor strife.

Finally, let us look at the record on sit-down strikes. The Supreme Court put the final stamp of illegality on sit-down strikes in its very recent decision in the Fansteel case, which embodied views I have expressed from the very beginning. But let it be noted that it was not the Fansteel case that stopped sit-downs. The sit-down

flared in the early months of 1937, preceding the Supreme Court decisions upholding the Labor Act, and as promptly declined in the months following these decisions in April 1937. This is demonstrated graphically by chart No. 6, showing the number of sit-down strikes and workers involved since January 1937. At the peak, in March 1937, there were 170 sit-down strikes involving 167,210 workers. The chart shows the very steep decline during the ensuing months, so that all through 1938, both the number of sitdown strikes and the number of workers involved hugged the zero base line.

In brief, once workers were afforded a peaceful, valid remedy for eliminating the grievances at the root of the sit-down strikes, the sit-downs virtually disappeared from the American scene.

I am personally gratified to see fulfilled a prediction which I ventured in the Senate at the height of the sit-down strike wave early

CHART No. 4

NUMBER OF STRIKES CONTRASTED WITH THE NUMBER OF CASES BROUGHT BEFORE THE NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD

1500

1000

500

APR MAY JUN

1938

CHART NO. 5

in 1937, just prior to the Supreme Court decisions upholding the

act:

The industrial warfare of today is the result of a long course of conduct in the history of American industrial enterprise. Two wrongs never make a right. But all-wise government consists in determining which evil is the underlying cause and which the effect. Deal only with the effect, attempt to force the

effect underground, and the underlying causes are fertilized and multiplied. Deal with the underlying causes and the evil effects disappear. The National Labor Relations Act is directed against the proved causes of Nation-wide industrial conflict. Let the Federal Government have the power and the determination to enforce that law on a national scale and the Nation-wide conflict will subside.

Two years ago this was a prediction. Today it is a fact.

Statistics of declining labor disputes are only a partial reflection of the better industrial order which is gradually emerging. This change cannot be traced through the comparatively few cases which are litigated in the courts. It is to be traced in the day-to-day life of industry which does not lend itself to spectacular newspaper headlines.

In the last 2 years alone, several thousand new labor agreements have been signed. Almost entirely through the informal method of achieving compliance, the law has provided a peaceful forum for about 20,200 cases involving more than 4,500,000 workers. Ninetyfour percent of the cases under the act have been adjusted without issuing a complaint or holding a formal hearing. More than 227,000 workers have been restored to their jobs after strikes or lock-outs and over 15,000 after discriminatory discharges.

It is especially gratifying to observe the effective operation of the machinery established to hold employee elections whenever a question concerning representation arises. Over 589,000 workers have participated in 1,863 elections conducted under the law, and over 2,000,000 workers have joined in petitions for elections or certifications of representatives. Here, as in other phases of the law, the go-ahead signal was given by the Supreme Court decisions in April 1937. In the 18 months preceding that date, only 76 elections were held; in the 18 months following the decisions, 1,448 elections were conducted. So widespread has been the resort to election machinery since the Supreme Court decisions, that in the last fiscal year, 1937-38, such cases involved a majority of the workers who invoked the machinery of the act. In other words, charges of violations of the law are decreasing, and the law is being invoked more and more for the purpose of determining which labor organization is the choice of the employees for purposes of collective bargaining.

The National Labor Relations Act has thus played a notable, constructive role in our national life. To millions of workers it has brought a better understanding of their employers' problems, and the material and spiritual value of participating in a free organization of their fellows for mutual aid and protection. To most employers who have given the principles of the act a fair trial, it has brought labor peace, and beyond that, a more human relationship with workers based on the mutual respect and understanding that grows out of free bargaining between free men. These employers-and they now represent the overwhelming majority-are among the chief beneficiaries of the Labor Act.

This historical account supplies the frame of reference that is indispensable to any judicially minded deliberations upon the future of the Labor Act. In evaluating the various proposals now before this committee, we must start with the demonstrated proposition that the basic objectives and philosophy of the act have been so thoroughly justified that no responsible person now openly denies their validity. For this reason, the ultimate test of whether any particular amendment is sound or unsound, is whether it advances the main purposes of the act and conforms to its essential philosophy.

I believe that some of the amendments now proposed are demonstrably unsound on the basis of sufficient knowledge and experience