of the free enterprise system.52 During the second session of the 79th Congress,

Southern Democrats filibustered and prevented passage of another FEPC bill.53

 In the 80th Congress New York Republican Irving Ives emerged as the Senate's

most vocal proponent of the FEPC. A banker and insurance man by trade, Ives had

first gained election to the New York State Assembly in 1930 and had served as

Speaker in 1936 and Majority leader from 1937 through his election to the United

States Senate in 1946. During his time in the Assembly, Ives took a special interest in,

and chaired a special investigation committee on, labor relations. Most importantly,

he served in the Dewey Administration as the Chairman of the New York State

Temporary Commission against Discrimination in 1944 and 1945 and, as a result,

authored the Ives-Quinn Bill. Ives-Quinn established the first state FEPC law in the

nation, barring discrimination according to race, religion, age, or national ancestry in

all aspects of employment, including hiring, promotion, and termination. It also

established an enforcement and fact-finding commission to ensure compliance. In

1946, Ives was elected as part of the national Republican landslide and became an

important member of the liberal caucus forming on the right side of the aisle. Rightly

or wrongly, he was regarded as Thomas Dewey's man in the Senate.

 On March 27, Ives submitted a bill calling for a national FEPC based on the

New York law. The measure had seven co-sponsors: three Republicans: Leveret

Saltonstall of Massachusetts, Alexander Smith of New Jersey, Wayne Morse of

Oregon; and four Democrats: Dennis Chavez of New Mexico, Sheridan Downey of

California, James Murray of Montana, and Francis Myers of Pennsylvania. The


52 House Report 187, 79"t Cong., 2nd Sess. 20 February 1945. See Minority Report issued by Clare
Hoffman, R-MI, p. 10.

53 William C. Berman, The Politics of Civil Rights in the Truman Administration (Columbus, OH: Ohio
State University Press, 1970). For a brief summary of the early FEPC, see 24-35.