grounds that they are illegal under the law and the Constitution unless approved by the Senate as treaties. Furthermore public hearings should be held so that all interested parties can present their views on so vital a matter as allowing a foreign interest to penetrate our country and take employment away from American citizens and threaten the American way of life, salaries, and standards of living. Both the Chicago and Bermuda aviation conferences were conducted in a starchamber fashion without representation by those most vitally affected—namely, American air-line labor. To get right down to the kernel of the nut our Congress is the highest deliberating and legislative body in our Nation, and the air-line pilots are of the opinion that their duties and prerogatives should not be trespassed upon nor usurped by any form of political side-door arrangement that couldn't possibly be considered to be pilots and copilots. We earnestly entreat that your committee find that the Bermuda agreements should be considered as treaties and subject to ratification by the Senate. We respectfully ask that this message be incorporated in the record of your committee's proceedings. It is signed by David L. Behncke, president, Air Line Pilots Association. All right, Mr. Damron. STATEMENT OF WILLIAM DAMRON, INTERNATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF MACHINISTS Mr. DAMRON. Mr. Chairman, what I have is just a supplemental statement to my remarks made on April 2 before your committee. I am appearing this morning in behalf of Mr. Harvey W. Brown, the international president of the International Association of Machinists, and I would like to read this supplemental statement into the record. In concluding my remarks while testifying before your committee on April 2, you will recall that I stated in effect that although the McCarran bill, S. 1814, clarified the powers of the State Department as given in the Air Commerce Act of 1938, and restored to the Senate the right to consider questions of policy in international aviation, I did not otherwise endorse the bill, and stated that I should like to have an opportunity for further study of the McCarran bill, and also the privilege to communicate to the committee more fully in respect thereto. Since your April 2 hearing, we have studied the bill, and particularly with reference to the act of 1938, and we have found that the act of 1938, if properly and honestly interpreted, fully takes care of the questions that S. 1814 was designed to safeguard. Therefore, based on the opinions of all unbiased legal authorities that we can find who have made a careful analysis of the act of 1938, including the written opinion of Mr. Welch Pogue of October 18, 1939, which opinion we understand is already incorporated in your records, we find, beyond any question of doubt, that the executive agreements entered into by the State Department as a result of both the Chicago and the Bermuda conferences are totally in conflict with the intent of Congress in the passage of the act of 1938, and are illegal in every respect; not only are they illegal, but they are seriously against the public interest. Their ultimate effects will, without a doubt, prove to be disastrous to American industry, labor, and national security, and unless abrogated at the first possible moment will eventually reflect discredit upon the intelligence, diligence, and patriotism of every public official and private citizen who even acquiesces in allowing these agreements to stand. Therefore, we earnestly recommend and urge that every possible step be taken to correct as completely as possible the damage already done by these executive agreements, and also steps to prevent any future such ill-advised and illegal actions with reference to America's national policy on aviation. Senator BREWSTER. What is your name? Mr. DAMRON. William Damron. Senator BREWSTER. And you represent the machinists union? Senator BREWSTER. How many members? Mr. DAMRON. We have approximately 700,000 members. Senator OVERTON. Very well; that concludes the hearing for this morning, and we will meet Monday, at 10:30 to hear Senator McCarran, and then take up these different bills. (Whereupon, at 12:20 p. m., the committee adjourned to 10:30a.m., Monday, April 8, 1946.) (The following letter from Mr. H. W. Brown, international president of the International Association of Machinists, was received by the committee and ordered to be placed in the record at this point:) INTERNATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF MACHINISTS, Washington, D. C., April 9, 1946. Senator J. W. BAILEY, Chairman, United States Senate Commerce Committee, Washington, D. C. DEAR SENATOR BAILEY: In my testimony before the Senate Commerce Committee on April 2, I referred to the low wages being paid by the foreign-flag lines now being allowed by the State Department to compete with our own carriers in our territory without Senate approval. I did not then have comparative figures, but I asked for the opportunity to present them when we got them as a part of the record. Since then I have obtained a copy of an agreement, dated March 17, 1945, between the British Overseas Airways Corp. and six unions giving the rates of pay for skilled male workers, unskilled male workers, female workers, and two types of traffic clerks. For comparative purposes we tabulated the rates of wages paid by the Transcontinental & Western Air, Inc., according to an agreement entered into with us on January 1, 1946. The British rates and our rates are as follows: Rates of wages (per hour and per week) paid by the Overseas Airways Corp., according to agreement dated Mar. 17 1945 2 2 2 Agreement is between the British Overseas Airways Corp. and the Amalgamated Engineering Union, Amalgamated Society of Woodworkers, Electrical Trades Union, National Union of General and Municipal Workers, National Union of Sheet Metal Workers and Braziers, Transport and General Workers Union. The rates given in the tabulation were increased by 1d per hour (1.66 cents) June 25, 1944, for adult unskilled and skilled male workers. With this revision the rates in the tabulation seem to have been continued in the Mar. 17, 1945, agreement. Rates of wages (per hour and per week) paid by Transcontinental & Western Air, Inc., according to agreement with International Association of Machinists, dated Jan. 1 1946. The British rates are given in English currency and in American currency translated from one to the other according to the current rate of exchange, roughly $4 to the pound ($4.01-$4.03). Our wages, you will notice, run from $34 to $70.40 a week; the British, for male workers except clerks, from $16.45 to $20, while female workers get as little as $10.97. British grade IIIa traffic clerks get $16 to $18 a week. Not enough information is available to us to interpret adequately the rates given for grade IIIb traffic clerks. The differences throughout are, however, clear and indicate our anxiety in this whole matter of allowing, by executive agreements, foreign-flag line to participate in our traffic on equal terms with our own lines without full Senate consideration of the possible consequences. Respectfully yours, H. W. BROWN, International President. (Mr. J. M. Hood, president of the American Short Line Railroad Association, submitted the following letter for inclusion in the record:) THE AMERICAN SHORT LINE RAILROAD ASSOCIATION, Hon. JOSIAH BAILEY, Chairman, Committee on Commerce, United States Senate, Washington, D. C. MY DEAR MR. CHAIRMAN: Your committee has before it for consideration S. 1814, introduced by Senator MCCARRAN, to amend the Civil Aeronautics Act of 1938 by adding at the end thereof the following new language: "No agreement with any foreign government restricting the right of the United States or its nationals to engage in air-transport operations, or generally granting to any foreign government or its nationals or to any air line representing any foreign government any right or rights to operate in air transportation or air commerce other than as a foreign air carrier in accordance with the provisions of the Civil Aeronautics Act of 1938, or respecting the formation of or the participation of the United States in any international organization for regulation or control of international aviation or any phases thereof, shall be made or entered into by or on behalf of the Government of the United States except by treaty." It is our desire that this association be recorded as being in favor of the enactment of this bill. Our support of the bill is based upon principle rather than upon the facts of a particular situation or a peculiarly direct interest therein. The action taken by the Bermuda Civil Aviation Conference demonstrates, it seems to us, the necessity for legislation of this type. Otherwise, the executive branch of the Government can, by executive agreement, take action which, in effect, changes laws enacted by the Congress, sometimes going to the extent of repealing them. It is our view that the executive branch of the Government should not be permitted to thus override the legislative branch. In other words, what the legislative gives it should not permit the executive to take away. It would seem that our views can as well be recorded by this communication as by oral presentation, with economy of time so far as you and your committee are concerned. We would thank you to have this communication made a part of the record with respect to this bill. Very truly yours, J. M. HOOD, President. CIVIL AVIATION AGREEMENTS MONDAY, APRIL 8, 1946 UNITED STATES SENATE, The committee met, pursuant to recess, at 10:30 a. m., in the committee room, Capitol, Senator John H. Overton (acting chairman), presiding. Present: Senators Overton (acting chairman), Radcliffe, McCarran, McClellan, Gossett, Brewster, Wiley, Robertson, Cordon, and Brooks. Senator OVERTON. The committee will be in order. Senator McCarran, will you proceed with your statement? STATEMENT OF HON. PAT MCCARRAN, UNITED STATES SENATOR FROM THE STATE OF NEVADA Senator MCCARRAN. Mr. Chairman, in concluding this hearing on my bill, S. 1814, I shall try to tie up a number of loose ends. I shall discuss certain testimony which has been received during these hearings. I shall discuss the Bermuda agreement, from several angles. And I shall discuss the bill itself. I shall also have a few words to say, before I am through, on the question of what is a treaty and the distinction between a treaty and an executive agreement. I wish to make it clear that I do not propose to discuss all the testimony which has been heard, nor all the phases of the Bermuda agreement. I do not even propose to say all that might be said about the bill or about the question of treaty versus executive agreement. Senators who have not been present at the hearings will, I am sure, wish to read the record for themselves; and the record includes not only the full text of the Bermuda agreement, and the full text of the majority and minority reports of the Civil Aeronautics Board in connection with approval of the IATA Conference procedure, but also lengthy discussions of the difference between a treaty and an executive agreement. Also worthy of study by members of the committee are the statements on behalf of the International Association of Machinists, the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers, and the Brotherhood of Railroad Trainmen, and the statements of several other nongovernmental witnesses. I wish to call the attention of all members of the committee particularly to the very fine statement made on behalf of the American Federation of Labor by Mr. Lewis G. Hines, national legislative representative of the Federation, who appeared before the committee on Tuesday, April 2. |