These magazine articles reported on the roller-coaster ride that was experienced by all the legislators on Capitol Hill who opposed or supported the Black-Connery Wages and Hours Bill. This piece of legislation was "a keystone in the New Deal's social and economic philosophy of 'balanced abundance'". The Bill was co-authored by Senator Hugo Black of Alabama and Representative William P. Connery of Massachusetts and it was intended to provide for a 40-cents-per/hour minimum wage, a maximum workweek of 40-hours, and a minimum working age of 16 (with a few notable exceptions).
The bill was debated and rejected by members of the President's own party; it was rewritten, watered-down and passed by Congress as the Fair Labor Standards Act. It went into effect on October 24, 1938; it was "a keystone in the New Deal's social and economic philosophy of 'balanced abundance'". It was co-authored by Senator Hugo Black of Alabama and Representative William P. Connery of Massachusetts and it was intended to provided for a 40-cents-per/hour minimum wage, a maximum workweek of 40-hours, and a minimum working age of 16 (with a few notable exceptions). The first hourly minimum wage was set at twenty-five cents.
In 1941 the law was challenged in the Supreme Court (United States v. Darby Lumber Co.); FDR's new court defended the legislation as expected and rejected the plaintiff's reasoning. By this time Hugo Black sat on the court and heard the case; regardless of his close association with the legislation, he saw no reason to abstain.
This legislation sparked numerous debates between both Left and the Right as to whether or not minimum wage laws kill jobs. In 2009 the U.S. Department of Labor discovered that "states with a higher minimum wage than the federal minimum wage had unemployment rates that were higher than states that did not have a higher minimum wage" (Click here to see an interesting chart).
FDR knew full-well that that the Constitution did not grant any power to the Federal Government to force employers to pay fees set by congressmen far removed from that business. This legislation would be deemed unconstitutional by anyone who knew that document and understood that it was created to keep the long arm of government from interfering in the lives of the people. It was for this reason that President Roosevelt decided to cook up a scheme that would allow him to fire the strict constitutionalists from the Supreme Court; read about that here...
CLICK HERE to read additional primary source articles about the Great Depression...
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Read about the Great Depression and the U.S. auto industry...
Recommended from Amazon:
The Politically Incorrect Guide to the Great Depression and the New Deal
