Letter from Philip Murray to President Harry S. Truman

Filed by mr. Stome 7-18-52 Congress of Industrial Organizations CIO 718 Jackson Place, N. W. Washington 6, D.C. OFFICE OF THE PRESIDENT July 5, 1951 EXECUTIVE 5581 170 407-D S. 984 Honorable Harry S. Truman mise White House con Washington, D. C. C Dear Mr. President: On behalf of the Congress of Industrial Organizations, I strongly recommend that you veto the bill for importing Mexican labor (S.984) passed by Congress on June 30th. Your Commission on Migratory Labor presented a con- structive program for providing an adequate supply of agricultural labor under decent living and working conditions. Instead of advancing this program, the present bill would intensify evils deplored by the Commission. The bill legalizes government contracting of illegal entrants, thus in effect sanctioning violations of the immigration laws and encouraging further illegal entries. This shocking legalization is only slightly mitigated by the five-year residence clause. The Senate, in contrast, wisely provided in the bill it first passed for criminal penalties on persons who knowingly employed illegal entrants. The bill broadens the definition of agricultural labor to include many factory-type operations off the farm, such as canning and freezing. This definition is in conflict alike with existing legislation, with job realities, and with the argument of the bill's proponents that Mexicans must be made available because Americans will not perform "stoop labor." The bill, by holding out the possibility for a large supply of cheap labor in processing factories and on the farms, will encourage backward-looking employers to continue substandard wages and other conditions which are far below the American standard of living. Hundreds of thousands of Americans who could be attracted by decent employment conditions will be driven to seek jobs elsewhere, / GOVERNMENT