Signed by President Franklin D. Roosevelt on June 25, 1938, the Fair Labor Standards Act (sometimes known as the Wages and Hours Act) established national minimum wage and maximum hours standards in manufacturing and prohibited employing child labor in interstate commerce. Although the conservative coalition in Congress succeeded in significantly limiting the bill’s initial coverage, it marked a significant beginning for further reform.
The campaign for the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) arose from the need to replace the wages, hours, and child labor provisions of the National Recovery Administration (NRA) that were invalidated when the Supreme Court ruled the NRA unconstitutional in 1935 in the case of Schechter Poultry Corporation v. United States. Regulating wages and hours and ending child labor had long been on the agenda of many liberals, and were reforms that Roosevelt and Secretary of Labor Frances Perkins sought. The president also thought such legislation would help produce economic recovery, for higher wages would help create a market for both manufactured goods and agricultural products.
Several groups opposed the wages, hours, and child labor reforms. Conservatives and business disliked such an extension of government power over business. Many southerners feared that by creating a national minimum wage, the South would lose an attractive enticement for industry to locate there—low-wage labor. These southern congressmen wanted a wage differential that would create different minimum wage levels for each region of the nation, with the lowest minimum in the South. Conservative southerners also feared the impact on the region’s social and racial patterns. Some labor leaders in the American Federation of Labor opposed the legislation, for they worried that the new minimum wage would eventually become the maximum wage and preferred to win better wages and other demands through collective bargaining rather than government regulations.
In May 1937, liberal Alabama senator Hugo Black introduced a federal wages and hours bill into the Senate. The Senate approved it within two months, but the bill faced much stiffer opposition and made much slower progress in the House of Representatives. Opponents who wanted to weaken the act by exempting industries and workers covered proposed dozens of limiting amendments. Not until May 1938 did a version pass the House; it then took another month for the House and Senate to agree upon the final bill.
In its final form, the Fair Labor Standards Act exempted agricultural workers, retail and service employees, domestic workers, fishermen, and others from the regulations. Many of these activities employed Alrican Americans at wages much lower than the proposed minimum wage. The final version also limited application of the child labor provisions, exempting children under 16 in such areas as agriculture and various retail and service employment where child labor was concentrated. Consequently, the FLSA child labor provisions applied to only about 50,000 of the 850,000 child workers under 16 in 1938.
The FLSA set minimum wages at 250 per hour and maximum hours at 44 per week, with a provision that the minimum wage would rise to 400 per hour by 1945 and maximum hours would fall to 40 hours per week by 1940. The bill also provided for payment of wages at time and a half for overtime, and it established the Wage and Hour Division of the Department of Labor to supervise and enforce the FLSA. In the case of United States v. Darby Lumber Co. (1941), the Supreme Court upheld the FLSA as constitutional under the commerce clause of the Constitution.
Further reading: Irving Bernstein, The Turbulent Years: A History of the American Worker, 1933-1941 (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1970).
—Courtney D. Mattingly
Farley, James A. (1888-1976) Democratic Party leader
With Louis McHenry Howe and Edward J. Flynn, James A. Farley completed the triumvirate of Franklin D. Roosevelt’s closest political strategists. Like Flynn, Farley also served as chairman of the Democratic National Committee (DNC) during Roosevelt’s presidency.
A second generation Irish American, Farley was born on May 30, 1888, in Grassy Point, New York, and even as a boy he expressed an interest in party politics. By his early 20s, he was actively involved in electioneering for the Democratic Party. In 1911, Farley successfully ran for the office of town clerk in the predominantly Republican township of Stony Point, and by 1918, he was elected Democratic county chairman for Rockland County, New York. As chairman, he developed contacts with county party leaders, as well as with Tammany Hall, the prominent political machine of New York, and learned the effective use of patronage and the value of local organization.
In 1928, Farley was elected state secretary of New York’s Democratic Party and managed Franklin Roosevelt’s successful gubernatorial campaign, and then as state chairman managed Roosevelt’s reelection campaign in 1930. Farley first achieved national recognition as the director of Roosevelt’s bid for the presidency in the election OF 1932. He not only toured the country on behalf of FDR, but also assisted in securing Roosevelt’s nomination by helping to persuade John Nance Garner to release his delegates at the Chicago convention (Garner then received the vice presidential nomination). In 1932, Farley was appointed DNC chairman; after Roosevelt’s inauguration, he was named postmaster general of the United States, holding both posts simultaneously.
Known by thousands simply as “Jim,” Farley was an affable and engaging man. His personal style of campaigning, from his extensive use of correspondence to whirlwind tours of the country, helped him to develop a keen sensitivity to current sentiment among party leaders. As chairman of the DNC and as U. S. postmaster general, Farley used his influence over patronage during the 1930s to reward party members who supported the president and penalize those who did not. During the election OF 1936, his use of public opinion polls allowed him to concentrate on doubtful sections of the country and to accurately predict Roosevelt’s landslide victory over Alfred M. Landon, who carried only Maine and Vermont.
During Roosevelt’s second term, a rift developed between Farley and the president as FDR attempted to extend the power of the executive branch and pursued policies that conflicted with Farley’s more conservative views. In 1938, Roosevelt attempted to punish his conservative opponents within the Democratic Party by using his influence to bring about their defeat in the congressional primaries. This “purge” strategy disturbed Farley, who felt it inappropriate for the president to interfere in local matters such as primary elections. In 1940, after Roosevelt’s decision to run for an unprecedented third term, Farley resigned his cabinet post and his position as DNC chairman. At the Democratic convention in Chicago, he publicly protested FDR’s decision by allowing his own name to be placed before the convention. Farley was nominated by Virginia senator Carter Glass, but won only 721/2 votes. However, despite his differences with the president, Farley reluctantly endorsed Roosevelt’s candidacy in the election of 1940.
After leaving the DNC, Farley turned to private industry, taking a post as chairman of the Coca Cola Export Corporation. He remained in politics as New York state party chairman, and in the election of 1944 again opposed FDR’s nomination but supported the president during the campaign. Retiring from politics after the 1944 election, he largely confined his efforts to business. On June 9, 1976, Jim Farley died one week before he was to be named chairman emeritus of the party at the Democratic national convention.
See also politics in the Roosevelt era.
Further reading: James A. Farley, Ji-m Farley's Story: The Roosevelt Years (New York: Whittlesey House, 1948).
—Shannon L. Parsley
World History
