proposed legislation made it unlawful for an employer with more than fifty employees

or a labor union with more than fifty members to discriminate. The Ives bill also

called for a National Commission against Discrimination in Employment to

investigate and settle discrimination claims with the power to petition the Federal

Court system to enforce the commission's ruling.

 The Ives bill was referred to the Committee on Labor and Public Welfare. Taft,

as committee chairman, had gone on record against a compulsory FEPC and preferred

a program that educated employers on anti-discriminatory measures but did not force

compliance. Taft, however, believed that all legislation deserved a fair hearing and

created a subcommittee to study the bill. Republican Forrest Donnell of Missouri

chaired the group, which included Ives, Smith, Murray, and Louisiana Democrat

Allen Ellender. In June and July, the subcommittee held nine days of hearings and

heard testimony from 49 witnesses. On February 5, the Committee voted 7 to 5 to

report the bill to the Senate favorably. Taft and fellow conservative Joseph Ball of

Minnesota aligned themselves with the segregationists and voted against the bill,

along with Ellender and Alabama Senator Lister Hill. Florida's Claude Pepper, an

initial supporter of the measure, voted against it because it was limited to matters of

employment only. Pepper wanted an FEPC that addressed social concerns as well.54

 Conservative Republicans in the House agreed with their ideological

counterparts in the Senate and failed to see the need for a new FEPC. Although nearly

twenty FEPC bills were introduced in the House, none made if through the House

Labor Committee. The opposition of conservative Republicans was rooted in both

federalism and a genuine lack of concern. House Speaker Joseph Martin, in a moment

of political honesty, told a group of African-American Republican leaders that "The


54 Congress, Senate, 80th Cong., 2nd Sess., Senate Report 951. Pt. 2, 1-16.