President Roosevelt’s Advisory Committee on Fair Employment Practice is to be given the job of cracking down on discrimination against Jews, Negroes or any other minorities in all activities under the Federal Government, it was reliably learned here today.
On July 1, the beginning of the new Government fiscal year, the agency will be shifted from the War Production Board to the Executive Office, where it will function directly under the President. A tentative budget has already been submitted which provides for expanding the staff of the committee from its present twenty-five to two hundred employees and for the establishment of thirteen regional offices in various parts of the country. It will be given broader powers, including the right to investigate alleged unfair treatment of Jews, aliens, Negroes and others in both the military and civilian agencies of the Government as well as discrimination by private firms engaged on war production contracts. At present is has no jurisdiction over the armed forces.
In the past few months, the committee has cited several firms in the New York and Chicago areas for discrimination in hiring employees for work on Government contracts, after holding public hearings in those cities. Under the proposed set-up its permanent staffs in key cities would be constantly checking on complaints. Lawrence W. Cramer, former Governor of the Virgin Islands, is expected to remain as executive secretary of the body.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
