A direct return to slavery. Speech of Hon. Adam C. Powell, Jr., of New York in the House of Representatives, Wednesday, April 16, 1947

Washington: GPO, 1947. Pamphlet. 4p., 8.5x11 inches, neatly folded, otherwise very good, in original addressed envelope. Congressional Record, 80th congress, first session. Speech by the African American legislator, early in his Congressional career, excoriating the Taft-Hartley Act. "Mr. Chairman, this bill has been called a bill of rights for labor. That is correct but only partially true. This is a bill of rights and lefts under the belt for labor, not only under the belt but in the back, in good old foreign fascist style. This bill without changing one word could just as easily have been introduced in the Reichstag in the days of Nazism at its worst. (truncated) I do not mean by that, Mr. Chairman, that you are Adolf Hitler. There is absolutely no difference between this and the labor union policy of Hitlerism in Germany, word for word. The tragic thing about it is that We, the Representatives of the people, meaning the gentlemen on both sides of the aisle, did not write this bill. Not only did we not write it but we did not even see it, and right now not one-half of the Members, both Republican and Democrat, of this Congress have read the bill. This bill Was written on the fifth floor of the Old House Office Building, written by over a score of corporation lawyers, paid not by the Government of the United States, not by even small business, but paid by big business, monopoly business. (Inventory #: 288977)