of employers' and workers' interests. Employers were given the right to petition for representation elections and to have them held on their premises, to talk to their workers on any subject, to establish multiple-employer units (covering all employers engaged in the same or similar types of business) for collective-bargaining purposes.

Other aspects of the committee's major legislative activities in this field deserve notice. The committee has watched with special interest the operation of the State unemployment insurance law as to both policy and administration. Close and continuous relations with the chief administrators of the division of placement and unemployment insurance have resulted in a number of legislative improvements.

For 2 years the committee's chief assistant counsel has made field trips with the director and the chief of planning of the division. They visited over 20 State agencies and explored administrative procedures which might be usefully applied in New York. A general recodification of the State unemployment insurance law has been developed cooperatively.

The committee has insisted on the presentation of a thorough analysis of merit rating by the groups advocating the plan, and has held numerous formal and informal hearings on the question. It recommended and supported an appropriation for the employment of an actuary by the division to insure an adequate analysis of the scheme before any legislation was enacted. The conservation of the fund's present sound financial base to meet postwar contingencies has been a major concern.

The administration of the State workmen's compensation law has been the subject of criticism and investigation for some time. In 1942 the Governor appointed a commission under the Moreland Act to examine and report on the operation of the law. Even earlier the committee had initiated its own inquiries, which indicated that the present high cost of workmen's compensation in New York is a significant factor in cost-of-production differentials, causing some industries to hesitate about locating plants in the State. Further study of the problem is now under way.

SERVICES TO INDUSTRY

The second phase of the committee's legislative program relates to business, commerce, and industry. The committee found no State agency providing official services to these groups, comparable to the agencies concerned with labor and agriculture. It recommended the creation of a division of commerce in the executive department in 1941. In 1943, again on the committee's recommendation, the division was advanced to the rank of a department by a constitutional amendment approved by the people by a better than 5-to-2 vote.

In the two critical years of a rapidly changing war economy, the division has demonstrated its utility as an official service agency. Its "clinics," at which representatives of large war contract plants were brought into direct touch with the thousands of small plants throughout the State, is only one illustration of its initiative. It is at present engaged in intensive studies of the postwar reconversion problems which the State's industries will face. The committee recommended a special appropriation in 1943 to carry on this phase of the division's work.

POSTWAR LEGISLATION

The third aspect of the committee's legislative program is concerned with postwar reconstruction. Only a few months after Pearl Harbor, the committee recommended that a temporary postwar public works planning commission be created to coordinate activities at the State and local levels. As a result, New York's "shelf" of public works projects to meet the immediate impact of postwar reconstruction is probably further advanced in careful blueprinting, and more comprehensive in scope, than that of any other State.

Funds for labor and materials are being mobilized in State and local reserves at a rate which insures actual construction of a substantial part of the new commission's more than $750,000,000 program. The effects of this kind of planning on stabilizing employment after the war are recognized by the committee as both temporary and limited. But in the transition period the net result may prove to be the difference between apple selling and productive self-support for hundreds of thousands of the State's citizens.

The committee has recommended other legislation to meet postwar needs. In 1943 it explored the possibility of extending maximum unemployment insurance benefits ($18 a week for 20 weeks) to all veterans honorably discharged from the service, and it joined with the Governor in recommending the legislation enacted this year. Similarly, it supported the creation of a State veterans' service to coordinate the activities of all official State and local agencies and of civic groups concerned with veterans' aid.

The brief summary of the committee's legislative program suggests its approach to the improvement of industrial and labor conditions. The batting average on bills recommended by the committee has been 1,000. If it has been cautious in supporting the more extreme proposals of various groups-left and right—it has been persistent in seeking to strengthen existing laws. It has pioneered in many directions. It has analyzed every proposed change in policy. What was not written into law often proved as important as what wasin the experience of the past 6 years.

Research and education are tools of committee action; they form the second broad field of its activities.

The committee's staff has carried on a number of important studies in addition to those reflected in legislative recommendations. Among them, the most widely publicized is that on industrial migration. In 1939 and 1940 many complaints were heard about industries leaving New York State. In a State-wide survey, the committee found that more plants employing more people had moved into than out of New York in recent years. What had been a general and incorrect view was swept aside by the facts.

Among the committee's other inquiries are a study of instruction in industrial and labor relations in American colleges and universities; the effects of the war on the employment of women; the extent of probable postwar reemployment in New York; and surveys of the administration of a number of State laws.

The committee's educational activities are unique, and highly significant for the future stability of industrial and labor conditions. From the beginning, it has sought to induce voluntary cooperation. among all groups by stimulating wider knowledge of the basic factors

of our economic life. For several years the committee conducted forums throughout the State. Here representative industrial, labor, and civic leaders came together to participate in discussions led by State legislative and administrative officials. The committee's objective was to broaden the understanding of State laws affecting industrial and labor conditions.

"IN THE NAME OF THE PEOPLE"

Two of the committee's educational activities symbolize its fundamental faith in understanding as the only sound basis for stable industrial and labor conditions. One is the recently published American Story of Industrial and Labor Relations; the second, the creation of a new kind of school.

The book is designed particularly as a senior high-school and juniorcollege text. Its three-hundred-odd pages include a survey of American economic development and an analytical discussion of half a dozen major aspects of labor law and administration. The book has been widely and favorably reviewed and is being used extensively in classrooms and by adult education groups. In several senses, it is a ground-breaking venture. Issued as a legislative document, it is copyrighted in the name of the people of the State of New York. Sponsored by a legislative committee, it was read in manuscript by representatives of labor and industry, and thought too fair by each side to be acceptable to the other.

The fact that a legislative committee pioneered in a field which the textbook publishers had avoided until the committee acted, suggests the importance of this effort at education for citizenship.

In the same spirit of long-range educational planning, the committee recommended the establishment of a State-supported school in this field. The New York State School of Industrial and Labor Relations was established by the 1944 legislature; it is to be located at Cornell University. A board of temporary trustees, created by the legislature, is already at work planning the school's structure and activities. These new directions in education are evidence of an attitude toward industrial and labor relations all too rare in American life today. Misunderstandings which underlie disputes are a frequent pretext for demanding a new law to right an ancient grievance. Whichever side is dominant in the industrial order is prone to utilize its power to its own advantage. Thus, the pendulum swings back and forth between competing interests which do not understand-and make little effort to appreciate the conditions or objectives of their opponents. In this situation, little progress toward harmony can be made. The committee's long-range attack on ignorance and misunderstanding indicates a new approach in industrial and labor relations and a new legislative spirit.

LONG-RANGE PLANS

Four days before the attack on Pearl Harbor, the committee convened an off-the-record conference of leaders in agriculture, business, industry, labor, and civic life to consider the economic and social problems which the World War and its aftermath would create. Several similar conferences have been held since, with a view to de

veloping cooperative action between the public and the private bodies most concerned. The results cannot be measured in specific terms. The present close and friendly relations of community groups, not only with the committee but with many other agencies of government, will be increasingly significant in the handling of postwar problems. The committee also called into conference the heads of all the colleges and universities in the State, to consider the postwar training and retraining of veterans and the redirection of higher education.

This type of informal conference has been extended to many other groups, official and unofficial. Indeed, the committee has become the principal governmental agency in the State for examining and appraising the proposals for reconstruction and for charting a course of policy and action which can promote economic and social stability.

The committee's record is impressive. It rests in large part on several unique aspects of organization and procedure which the committee has perfected during its 6 years' experience. Most of its techniques date back to the principles of structure and practice it adopted in 1938 and has adhered to ever since. Their validity has been tested in their application to a changing pattern of activities over the years. From them we can derive some useful-and usable-guides for the improvement of the American legislative process.

THE COMMITTEE AT WORK

Since its creation by the 1938 legislature, the committee of eight (three senators and five assemblymen) has been bipartisan in fact, not merely in name. Irrespective of party changes on the legislative or executive side, the adherence to the principle of an even balance in committee membership has contributed substantially to its reputation for nonpartisanship in dealing with industrial and labor relations policy.

The committee's bipartisan composition has also proved a very sound base for legislative action. Every bill recommended by the committee has been introduced in one chamber by a committee member from one party, in the other by a member from across the aisle. No recommendation made by it has received a purely one-party sponsorship. The result has been an almost perfect score of unanimous legislative approval for the committee's program.

One aspect of its own procedure deserves particular notice: from the beginning it has operated on the principle of unanimity. On every question of policy within the committee or of legislative recommendation, there has been a consistent effort to arrive at a consensus of opinion before decisions are made. Formal votes rarely occur.

After a completely free discussion by all the members who care to participate and the discussions of policy are often vigorous and forthright-it is generally pretty clear where the areas of agreement or disagreement lie. Disagreement tends to disappear in the very process of discussion. A "sense of the meeting" emerges, very much like that of a Friends' meeting in spirit and technique. The rule of unanimity, even though it may sometimes delay recommendations, is one of the major strengths of the committee's procedure, and a prime reason why it has won unusual legislative respect and support for its program.

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The committee carries out its program through several distinct but closely related procedures. It employs its own full-time research staff to investigate current problems in the field. Under the direction of its counsel, the staff studies questions likely to emerge as items of legislative action at a current or an early session. The staff also develops longer range investigations of the operation of existing laws and policy.

Before each legislative session, the committee members receive from the staff a wide variety of study materials, both analyses of specific proposals and reports on broader questions of policy.

GIVE AND TAKE

Its research activities are only one source from which the committee receives information, and only one of the tools it uses to fashion its program. It also makes full use of its contacts with State administrative agencies. Its outstanding contribution to effective policy drafting and administration in New York State has, indeed, been the committee's intimate and cordial collaboration with these agencies. Throughout the year, its staff consults informally with the State labor department and its various units concerned with labor relations, especially the labor relations board and the board of mediation.

A frank give and take on all matters of mutual concern, both policy and operation, serves to keep the committee informed of current problems and prospective questions for legislative consideration. Through this kind of continuous off-the-record conference, the administrative agencies also are better acquainted with legislative opinion on their own policies and practices. In recent years this informal consultation has been extended to relevant Federal agencies, such as the regional war labor board. The results suggest the value of the technique in smoothing out the present frictions in one area of State-Federal relations.

But the committee's contribution to positive collaboration between the legislature and the executive goes beyond its effective informal relations with administrative agencies. About a month before the legislature meets each year, the committee holds a 4-day session at which the heads of the administrative agencies concerned with industry and labor discuss their programs and activities.

These meetings are not hearings in the usual sense; the conduct of discussion is entirely informal and the analysis on both sides of the table unreserved and straight-forward. One is reminded of the atmosphere of a first-rate graduate seminar in which the search for relevant fact, the thorough analysis, or the convincing argument is the common pursuit of all the participants. The committee, through its chairman or counsel or by direct questioning by all its members, seeks to develop (and appraise jointly) immediate legislative proposals of the various agencies. It goes fully into all aspects of the administrative problems which confront the agencies in their day-to-day operations and seeks to make its experience and facilities available to the administrators.

HANDLING COMMON PROBLEMS

The practical result of 6 years of this kind of collaboration has been to lift legislative-administrative relations in this field to a plane of cordiality and cooperation perhaps unique in this country today.