Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Background of the Employment Act III: An Economic Bill of Rights

  • Chapter
  • First Online:
Macroeconomic Policy and a Living Wage

  • 228 Accesses

Abstract

This chapter traces the effect Roosevelt’s Second Bill of Rights, with its promotion of a “right to a useful and remunerative job,” had on the push for the Employment Act. It also examines how Keynesian economics was incorporated into the idea of the right to a job by offering a way to determine the amount of government spending that was needed to reach full employment, the primary use that Roosevelt and his followers made of Keynes’ ideas. The CIO, in line with the right to a job, set forth a plan for a guaranteed annual wage as a way to foster full employment, but, the chapter will argue, Keynesians disputed that plan. This dispute showed a flaw in the combination of the political economy of a living wage with fiscal policy to form the hybrid system of redistributive economics.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution
eBook
USD 16.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 89.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book
USD 119.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Notes

  1. 1.

    Roosevelt, 1940.

  2. 2.

    For a discussion of the speech as indicating the legacy of the New Deal, see Stabile, 2016, pp. 229–238.

  3. 3.

    Roosevelt, 1940.

  4. 4.

    Stabile, 2016, pp. 1–92.

  5. 5.

    Hermann, 2018, p. 68.

  6. 6.

    Stein, 1994, pp. 38–39 and 52.

  7. 7.

    Hansen, 1964 [1951], pp. 510 and 520.

  8. 8.

    Rosen, 2005, pp. 3355–3385, 3405, and 3511.

  9. 9.

    Stein, 1994, p. 63.

  10. 10.

    The earlier ones were the National Planning Board, the National Resources Board and the National Resources Committee, Stein, 1994, p. 36. For a detailed history of the NRPB, see Rosen, 2005, pp. 3718–4217.

  11. 11.

    National Resources Planning Board, 1943, pp. 2–3.

  12. 12.

    National Resources Planning Board, 1943, p. 3.

  13. 13.

    National Resources Planning Board, 1943, p. 4.

  14. 14.

    National Resources Planning Board, 1943, p. 4.

  15. 15.

    National Resources Planning Board, 1943, p. 13.

  16. 16.

    National Resources Planning Board, 1943, pp. 17–18.

  17. 17.

    Bliven, Lerner and Soule, 1943, p. 523.

  18. 18.

    Bliven, Lerner and Soule, 1943, p. 525.

  19. 19.

    Rosen, 2005, pp. 189, 3751 and 4049.

  20. 20.

    Rosenman, 1952, pp. 425–426.

  21. 21.

    Roosevelt, 1944b, pp. 40–42.

  22. 22.

    Sunstein, 2004, p. 101.

  23. 23.

    Wasem, 2013, pp. 24–26; Hansen, 1947, p. 106.

  24. 24.

    For a discussion of the Second Bill of Rights and Roosevelt’s view of social justice, see Stabile, 2016, pp. 38–42.

  25. 25.

    Lindert and Williamson, 2016, pp. 213.

  26. 26.

    Stabile, 2016, pp. 34–35.

  27. 27.

    Roosevelt, 1944e.

  28. 28.

    Ryan, 1945, p. 297.

  29. 29.

    Ryan, 1945, p. 302.

  30. 30.

    CIO News, 1944h, p. 2.

  31. 31.

    CIO News, 1946a, pp. 6–7.

  32. 32.

    CIO News, 1946b, p. 4.

  33. 33.

    CIO News, 1948, p. 6.

  34. 34.

    CIO News, 1955b, pp. 6–7.

  35. 35.

    American Federationist, 1945, p. 19.

  36. 36.

    Roosevelt, 1944c, 1944d and 1944g.

  37. 37.

    Roosevelt, 1944f.

  38. 38.

    Roosevelt, 1944b, pp. 40–42.

  39. 39.

    Stabile, 2016, pp. 173–177.

  40. 40.

    Quotations in the previous paragraphs are from Roosevelt, 1944a.

  41. 41.

    American Federationist, 1944, p. 3.

  42. 42.

    American Federationist, 1944, p. 32.

  43. 43.

    Hansen, 1944, pp. 10–12.

  44. 44.

    Woll, 1944, pp. 4–5 and 31.

  45. 45.

    CIO News, 1944b, no page numbering.

  46. 46.

    CIO News, 1945, p. 1.

  47. 47.

    Hansen, 1964 [1951], p. 106.

  48. 48.

    Quotations in the previous paragraphs are from Roosevelt, 1945a.

  49. 49.

    My tentative attribution of The Nation’s Budget approach to Currie and Hicks is derived from Rosen, 2005, pp. 3751–3752 and 4261.

  50. 50.

    Quotations in the previous paragraphs are from Roosevelt, 1945b. Roosevelt’s health was failing at this time and this message may have been written by someone else, perhaps Currie.

  51. 51.

    Keynes, 1965 [1936], p. 106.

  52. 52.

    Clark, 1923, p. 58–59.

  53. 53.

    Kaplan, 1947, p. 9.

  54. 54.

    Mutari and Figart, 2004, p. 37.

  55. 55.

    CIO News, 1944a, p. 4.

  56. 56.

    CIO News, 1944c, p. 6.

  57. 57.

    CIO News, 1944d, p. 9.

  58. 58.

    CIO News, 1944e, p. 8.

  59. 59.

    CIO News, 1944f. p. 2.

  60. 60.

    CIO News, 1944g, p. 3.

  61. 61.

    CIO Department of Research, 1945, pp. 4–5.

  62. 62.

    CIO Department of Research, 1945, pp. 17–19.

  63. 63.

    Green, 1945, pp. 3–5.

  64. 64.

    Green, 1945, p. 32.

  65. 65.

    Advisory Board of the Office of War Mobilization and Reconversion, 1947.

  66. 66.

    Advisory Board of the Office of War Mobilization and Reconversion, 1947, p. XVIII.

  67. 67.

    CIO News, 1947a, p. 8; 1947b, p. 4; and 1947c, p. 6.

  68. 68.

    Hansen and Samuelson, 1947.

  69. 69.

    Hansen and Samuelson, 1947 p. 11.

  70. 70.

    Hansen and Samuelson, 1947 p. 5.

  71. 71.

    Hansen and Samuelson, 1947 p. 34.

  72. 72.

    Hansen and Samuelson, 1947 p. 13.

  73. 73.

    Hansen and Samuelson, 1947 p. 20.

  74. 74.

    Hansen and Samuelson, 1947 pp. 42 and 46–51.

  75. 75.

    Perry, 1945, p. 669.

  76. 76.

    Shelton, 1947, p. 30.

  77. 77.

    Mutari and Figart, 2004, pp. 36–37.

  78. 78.

    Love, 1953, p. 3; CIO News, 1954, p. 2; 1955a, p. 8; 1955b, pp. 6–7; 1955c, p. 3; Love, 1955, p. 3; Kelly, 1955, p. 3; AFL-CIO News, 1956a, p. 5; 1958a, p. 10; 1958b, p. 3; 1959a, p. 10; 1959b, p. 6; 1959c, p. 2; 1956b, p. 5.

  79. 79.

    Culver and Hyde, 2015, pp. 1101, 2015, 3882–3890, 5647, 5822–5824 (the source of the quotation), 6071–6072, and 8500.

  80. 80.

    Wallace, 1945, p. 1.

  81. 81.

    Wallace, 1945, p. 3.

  82. 82.

    Wallace, 1945, pp. 6–7.

  83. 83.

    Wallace, 1945, p. 24.

  84. 84.

    Wallace, 1945, pp. 34–35.

  85. 85.

    Wallace, 1945, pp. 58–59.

  86. 86.

    Wallace, 1945, p. 67.

  87. 87.

    Hamby, 1973, p. 123.

  88. 88.

    Wallace, 1945, pp. 82–83.

  89. 89.

    New Republic, 1945, p. 398.

  90. 90.

    New Republic, 1945, p. 400. Hansen was writing articles for the New Republic at this time and may have contributed to this article.

  91. 91.

    Hansen, 1945, p. 353.

  92. 92.

    Sunstein, 2004, p. 2.

References

  • Advisory Board of the Office of War Mobilization. 1947. Guaranteed Wages. January 31. Washington. DC. US Government Printing Office. Digital version. https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=uc1.b4415501;view=1up;seq=16. Accessed September 27, 2016.

  • AFL-CIO News. 1956a. FDR’s Dream Basis for Jobs Act. AFL-CIO News 1 (February 25): 5.

    Google Scholar 

  • ———. 1956b. Meany Calls Employment Act Major Achievement. AFL-CIO News 1 (February 25): 5.

    Google Scholar 

  • ———. 1958a. Meany Protests Inadequacies of Fair Labor Standards Act. AFL-CIO News 3 (June 29): 10.

    Google Scholar 

  • ———. 1958b. Labor Opens Major Drive to Extend Wage-Hour Act. AFL-CIO News 3 (December 6): 1 and 3.

    Google Scholar 

  • ———. 1959a. Imperial Valley Food Workers Strike Packing Shed on Wheels. AFL-CIO News 4 (March 14): 10.

    Google Scholar 

  • ———. 1959b. Anniversary in Winchester. AFL-CIO News 4 (May 16): 6.

    Google Scholar 

  • ———. 1959c. Union Label Week Set for Sept. 7–13 by Meany. AFL-CIO News 4 (August 22): 2.

    Google Scholar 

  • American Federationist. 1944. A.F. of L. Postwar Program. American Federationist 51 (May): 3–5 and 32.

    Google Scholar 

  • ———. 1945. Msgr. Ryan Dies: Labor’s Friend. American Federationist 52 (October): 19.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bliven, Bruce, Max Lerner, and George Soule. 1943. Charter for America. New Republic 108 (April 19): 523–542.

    Google Scholar 

  • CIO Department of Research and Education. 1945. Guaranteed Wages the Year Round, 1–24. Washington, DC: CIO Department of Research and Education.

    Google Scholar 

  • CIO News. 1944a. Annual Wage. CIO News 7 (January 10): 4.

    Google Scholar 

  • ———. 1944b. Seen by Economists. CIO News 7 (January 24): no page numbering.

    Google Scholar 

  • ———. 1944c. Murray Asks Annual Wage in College Talk. CIO News 7 (January 31): 6.

    Google Scholar 

  • ———. 1944d. Annual Wage Won’t Break Steel Industry. CIO News 7 (March 27): 5.

    Google Scholar 

  • ———. 1944e. Annual Steel Wage Would Aid Entire Nation. CIO News (April 3): 8.

    Google Scholar 

  • ———. 1944f. Secure Freedom from Want by Annual Wage. CIO News 7 (April 24): 2.

    Google Scholar 

  • ———. 1944g. A Guaranteed Annual Wage. CIO News 7 (May 1): 3.

    Google Scholar 

  • ———. 1944h. Special Issue on Reconversion. CIO News 7 (August 21): 2, 3 and 5.

    Google Scholar 

  • ———. 1945. See 10 Million Out of Work by 1946. CIO News 8 (August 20): 1.

    Google Scholar 

  • ———. 1946a. Break Reaction’s Grip. CIO News 9 (August 8): 6–7.

    Google Scholar 

  • ———. 1946b. Labor Day Goals. CIO News 9 (September 2): 4.

    Google Scholar 

  • ———. 1947a. U.S. Report Backs Annual Wage. CIO News 10 (February 10): 8.

    Google Scholar 

  • ———. 1947b. Cites Annual Wage Value. CIO News 10 (March 3): 4.

    Google Scholar 

  • ———. 1947c. Guaranteed Pay Report. CIO News 10 (April 19): 6.

    Google Scholar 

  • ———. 1948. CIO Wants “FDR Platform”. CIO News 11 (August 12): 6.

    Google Scholar 

  • ———. 1954. Reuther Predicts Gains for Labor in 1954. CIO News 17 (January 2): 2.

    Google Scholar 

  • ———. 1955a. Reuther Predicts Victory on Annual Wage. CIO News 18 (January 24): 8.

    Google Scholar 

  • ———. 1955b. Call for an Economic Bill of Rights. CIO News 18 (April 4): 6–7.

    Google Scholar 

  • ———. 1955c. Jobs, Not Pay for Idleness, Is Goal of Workers in Seeking Guaranteed Annual Wage. CIO News 18 (May 16): 3.

    Google Scholar 

  • Clark, John Maurice. 1923. Some Social Aspects: An Application of Overhead Cost to Social Accounting, with Special Reference to the Business Cycle. The American Economic Review 13 (March): 50–59.

    Google Scholar 

  • Culver, John C., and John Hyde. 2015. American Dreamer: A Life of Henry A. Wallace. New York: W.W. Norton & Co. Amazon Kindle Edition.

    Google Scholar 

  • Green, William. 1945. Your Postwar Income. American Federationist 52 (April): 3–5 and 32.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hamby, Alonzo L. 1973. Beyond the New Deal: Harry S. Truman and American Liberalism. New York: Columbia University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hansen, Alvin H. 1944. Full Employment After the War. American Federationist 51 (July): 10–12.

    Google Scholar 

  • ———. 1945. The Wallace Goal. New Republic 113 (September 17): 353–355.

    Google Scholar 

  • ———. 1947. Economic Policy and Full Employment. New York: McGraw-Hill Book Co.

    Google Scholar 

  • ———. 1964 [1951]. Business Cycles and National Income. New York: W.W. Norton & Co.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hansen, Alvin H., and Paul Samuelson. 1947. Economic Analysis of Guaranteed Wages. Bureau of Labor Statistics Bulletin No. 907. Washington, DC. US Department of Labor. Digitized by FRASER. http://fraser.stlouisfed.org/. Accessed September 26, 2016.

  • Hermann, Arturo. 2018. The Decline of the ‘Original Institutional Economics’ in the Post-World War II Period and the Perspectives of Today. Economic Thought 7 (1): 63–86.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kaplan, A.D.H. 1947. The Guarantee of Annual Wages. Washington, DC: The Brookings Institution.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kelly, Eugene A. 1955. UAW, General Motors Agree on Guaranteed Wage. CIO News 18 (June 20): 3.

    Google Scholar 

  • Keynes, John Maynard. 1965 [1936]. The General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money. New York: Harcourt, Brace & World, Inc.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lindert, Peter H., and Jeffrey G. Williamson. 2016. Unequal Gains: American Growth and Inequality Since 1700. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. Amazon Kindle Edition.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Love, Gervase N. 1953. What’s Good for US Is Good for CIO. CIO News 16 (November 23): 3.

    Google Scholar 

  • ———. 1955. UAW Writes History in Ford Pact. CIO News 18 (June 13): 3.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mutari, Ellen, and Deborah Figart. 2004. Wages and Hours: Historical and Contemporary Linkages. In Living Wage Movements: Global Perspectives, ed. Deborah Figart, 27–42. London and New York: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • National Resources Planning Board. 1943. National Resources Development Report for 1943. Part I. Post-War Plan and Program. January. House Document No. 128. https://ia601406.us.archive.org/11/items/nationalresource1934unitrich/nationalresource1934unitrich.pdf. Accessed October 17, 2016.

  • New Republic. 1945. The National Budget. New Republic 113 (September 24): 398–400.

    Google Scholar 

  • Perry, John. 1945. The Guaranteed Annual Wage. New Republic 113 (November 19): 668–671.

    Google Scholar 

  • Roosevelt, Franklin D. 1940. Address at Teamsters Union Convention, Washington, DC. September 11. Online 1940 by Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley. The American Presidency Project. http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/?pid=16005. Accessed November 14, 2013.

  • ———. 1944a. Annual Budget Message. January 10. Online by Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley. The American Presidency Project. http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/?pid=16507. Accessed September 3, 2016.

  • ———. 1944b. State of the Union Message to Congress. January 11. Online by Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley. The American Presidency Project. http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/?pid=16018. Accessed November 14, 2013.

  • ———. 1944c. State of the Union Radio Address to the Nation. January 11. Online by Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley. The American Presidency Project. http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/?pid=599. Accessed September 3, 2016.

  • ———. 1944d. Address to an International Labor Conference. May 17. Online by Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley. The American Presidency Project. http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/?pid=16509. Accessed September 3, 2016.

  • ———. 1944e. Letter to John A. Ryan. May 30. Box 31. Folder 29. Franklin D. Roosevelt Folder. John A. Ryan Papers. Subseries 1.1, Correspondents by Name. The American Catholic History Research Center and University Archives. The Catholic University of America. Washington, DC.

    Google Scholar 

  • ———. 1944f. Address to the Democratic National Convention in Chicago. July 20. Online by Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley. The American Presidency Project. http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/?pid=16537. Accessed September 3, 2016.

  • ———. 1944g. Address at Soldier’ Field, Chicago, Illinois. October 28. Online by Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley. The American Presidency Project. http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/?pid=16460. Accessed September 7, 2016.

  • ———. 1945a. Annual Budget Message. January 3. Online by Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley. The American Presidency Project. http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/?pid=16584.

  • ———. 1945b. State of the Union Address. January 6. Online by Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley. The American Presidency Project. http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/?pid=16595.

  • Rosen, Elliot A. 2005. Roosevelt, the Great Depression, and the Economics of Recovery. Charlottesville and London: University of Virginia Press. Amazon Kindle Edition.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rosenman, Samuel I. 1952. Working with Roosevelt. New York: Harper and Brothers, Publishers.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ryan, John Augustine. 1945. Roosevelt and Social Justice. The Review of Politics 7 (July): 297–305.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Shelton, Willard. 1947. Wage Security. New Republic 116 (June 2): 29–30.

    Google Scholar 

  • Stabile, Donald R. 2016. The Political Economy of a Living Wage: Progressives, the New Deal and Social Justice. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Stein, Herbert. 1994. Presidential Economics: The Making of Economic Policy from Roosevelt to Clinton. Washington, DC: American Enterprise Institute.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sunstein, Cass R. 2004. The Second Bill of Rights: FDR’s Unfinished Revolution and Why We Need It. New York: Basic Books. Amazon Kindle Edition.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wallace, Henry A. 1945. Sixty Million Jobs. New York: Simon and Schuster.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wasem, Ruth Ellen. 2013. Tackling Unemployment: The Legislative Dynamics of the Employment of 1946. Kalamazoo, MI: W.E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Woll, Matthew. 1944. Preparing for Unemployment? American Federationist 51 (August): 4–5 and 31.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Economics, St. Mary’s College of Maryland, St. Mary’s City, MD, USA

    Donald R. Stabile

Authors
  1. Donald R. Stabile
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2018 The Author(s)

About this chapter

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this chapter

Stabile, D.R. (2018). Background of the Employment Act III: An Economic Bill of Rights. In: Macroeconomic Policy and a Living Wage. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-01998-3_4

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-01998-3_4

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-030-01997-6

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-030-01998-3

  • eBook Packages: Economics and FinanceEconomics and Finance (R0)

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation