USA > New York > A short history of New York State > Part 47
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Under Dewey's direction the state government did all within its power to assist New York firms in obtaining government contracts for military production. In his campaign speeches he had held the Democrats respon- sible for a labor surplus in New York City. Soon after entering office, he appointed a committee to study employment and business conditions in the city. As a result of the committee's findings and recommendations, more government contracts were awarded to manufacturing concerns in the city by the War Production Board, and within a year the labor surplus had disappeared. At the same time, the state Division of Commerce, which had been established in 1940, opened a Washington office to assist those New York firms which wished to secure work from the federal gov- ernment. The Division of Commerce also provided legal and technical advice to companies with problems created by the war, aided industrial areas in their over-all adjustment to changes produced by the war, sought to anticipate and relieve labor shortages, and maintained a number of research projects for the development and expansion of New York busi- ness enterprise. In 1944 these tasks were assumed by the Department of Commerce, which was authorized by a constitutional amendment and legislative enactment. The work of the division and department undoubt- edly contributed to the fact that, while the state's industrial plant did not expand as rapidly as that of the rest of the country during the war, New York's contribution to war production exceeded that of any other state.
Organized labor also had an outstanding record during the war. When the United States entered the war, New York's workers relinquished many rights formerly guaranteed by the state, and, as the war progressed, indi- vidual plants and industries were allowed through a system of dispensa- tions to ignore specific provisions of the labor laws. But full employment, high wages, and extra pay for overtime more than compensated for the temporary relaxation of the state's high labor standards. New York's work- ers, who were perhaps more aware of their rights than those of any other state, showed a commendable reluctance to use the strike weapon
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during the war. Of the eleven leading industrial states in the nation, New York was the only one in which time lost from strikes declined each year from 1941 to 1945. The evidence is clear, moreover, that New York's unions on the whole preferred to work out their differences with em- ployers through established government channels than to rely on work stoppages. From 1940 to 1945 the United States Conciliation Service dis- posed of 6,305 New York industrial disputes without work stoppages, while from 1942 to 1945 the State Board of Mediation handled 1,958 cases and prevented strikes in most of them. Unlike workers in many other parts of the country, most of those in New York had a well enough established tradition of trade unionism and government protection so that they did not feel impelled to view the war as an opportunity to place their own welfare above that of the nation. The Dewey government provided them with machinery for settling industrial disputes and with assurances that the rights which they had won or been granted would be preserved. A labor force distinguished by its political and economic maturity and an enlightened government combined to spare New York from strikes that seriously affected the war effort in other parts of the nation.
To achieve maximum farm production during the war, an Emergency Food Commission was established and made responsible to the War Council. The principal problems facing the farmer and the commission were a shortage of labor, inadequate machinery, and a scarcity of feed for the state's dairy cattle. None of these problems could be fully solved, but it is likely that without the numerous expedients adopted by the commission the state's entire agrarian economy would have collapsed. To relieve the labor shortage, the commission arranged for the transporta- tion and housing of migrant labor, worked closely with Selective Service officials on the deferment policy for farm workers, set up a program by which high-school students did farm work during vacations, and prevailed on the Army to permit both prisoners of war and soldiers stationed in the state to be released for farm work during the harvest season.
Because relatively no new farm machinery was manufactured during the war, the commission immediately realized the necessity for conserv- ing the available supply. Under a program inaugurated in 1941, mobile repair units were formed throughout the state, and by the end of the war the mechanics in these units had repaired more than seventeen thousand farm machines. The commission also assumed responsibility for allocating among the state's farmers the small number of new ma- chines that were made available for purchase. The perennial shortage of feed for poultry and cattle was perhaps the most difficult problem with which the commission had to deal. In 1943, a severe wheat shortage, low ceiling prices on corn which induced midwestern corngrowers to feed their crop to hogs rather than ship it to the Northeast, and the failure of
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the New York oat crop all combined to produce the worst feed shortage in the state's history. Total ruin was avoided by day-to-day improvising until the shortage was relieved by imports from Canada and the federal government's increase in the ceiling price of corn. In addition to its many other responsibilities, the commission administered the programs for victory gardens, food conservation, and the transportation of farm crops to market.
While devoting their major efforts to increasing industrial and agricul- tural production, New York officials also sought to use the state govern- ment to help individuals adjust their lives to the changed conditions produced by the war. With the aid of the federal government, the state es- tablished child care centers at which working mothers could leave their children during the day. A commission was created to combat juvenile delinquency, which had increased rapidly because of the large number of families disrupted by the war. The Emergency Maternity and Infant Care Program provided for the state distribution of federal funds for ma- ternity care for the wives and medical care for the babies of servicemen in the "four lowest pay grades in the armed services." Finally, because of the large number of draftees rejected for physical reasons, the state instituted a comprehensive physical fitness program for both adults and school children.
Soon after the United States entered the war, New York State began to prepare for a subsequent orderly transition to peace. By 1945, when Japan surrendered, various divisions of the state government had drawn up plans for assisting the veteran to return to civilian life, reconverting the state's industrial facilities, providing adequate housing for a peace- time population, and developing a series of public works to reduce the unemployment that was expected to develop in the postwar years. To finance these plans there was a large surplus in the state treasury. During the war there was relatively little on which the government could spend its money. At the same time the war boom resulted in a marked increase in the revenue the state received from taxes on business and personal in- comes. Despite considerable pressure, Dewey rejected all proposals either to cut taxes or to earmark future expenditures from the surplus during the war. Instead, he recommended the establishment of a special fund for postwar reconstruction, which would consist of any present and future cash balances in the state's general fund. Under a law adopted by the legislature in 1944, a Postwar Reconstruction Fund was created. When the fund was established, it totaled $140,000,000. By 1946, when the state first began to make substantial withdrawals from the fund, it contained approximately $450,000,000. As opportunity arose, additional sums were placed in the fund, and in 1949 its name was changed to the Capital Con- struction Fund.
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Although most Americans thought that the war would be followed by a severe recession, actually the transition to a peacetime economy occurred with relatively little hardship. In the five months following V-J Day, employment in New York declined only 7.7 per cent, or approximately half the decline for the nation as a whole. Within a short time both the state and the nation had achieved full employment. The relative ease with which New York shifted from war to peace was due in part to the fact that few new plants had been built in the state during the war. Instead, existing facilities had been converted to military production, and at the end of the war it was a comparatively simple matter to reconvert them. Reconversion was also facilitated by the state government. A State Reconversion Agency assisted industrial firms in obtaining machinery and supplies for civilian production; a State Plan for Small Business Expan- sion was inaugurated to help fill the void that had been created by the failure of almost 100,000 of the state's small concerns during the war; and the Department of Commerce launched a publicity campaign to attract new business to New York. These programs indicated that Dewey was not only far more interested than his Democratic predecessors had been in the welfare of business, but also that the return of prosperity had shifted the government's emphasis from public relief to the expansion of private enterprise.
New York's veterans' program equaled or surpassed that of any other state. In 1945, following the recommendations of a Temporary Veterans Commission established during the war, the state created a Veterans Service Agency as a co-ordinating unit for a state-wide network of local advisory committees for veterans and a Division of Veterans Affairs to serve as a central planning agency. While counselors, appointed and trained by the division, furnished the veteran with advice and informa- tion concerning his rights, privileges, and benefits under state and federal statutes, the local committees attempted to help him solve his immediate economic problems. The state also operated a rest camp for veterans at Mount McGregor, helped the federal government administer an on-the- job training program for veterans, and paid out veterans' bonuses rang- ing in individual amounts from $50 to $250.
Of all the problems facing New York's 1,700,000 veterans, none was more vexing than those arising from the housing shortage. First the de- pression and then the war had produced what in effect was a fifteen-year moratorium on residential building. New York had a long-run postwar housing program, but the veterans' needs were immediate. Because the state authorities were reluctant to divert funds and labor from permanent to temporary housing projects, every effort was made to use existing facilities. Dewey urged communities to convert vacant buildings into apartments for veterans, offered to provide hard-pressed localities with
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trailers, and requested the federal government to turn over surplus mili- tary housing to the state. On December 5, 1945, the Federal Surplus Prop- erty Administration made available several Army and Navy installations throughout the nation to state and local governments. The following March the first veterans' families moved into housing projects located on former military bases at Fox Hills on Staten Island and at Manhattan Beach, Brooklyn. Meanwhile, the state made funds available for tem- porary housing, gave veterans an eligibility preference in state-aided pub- lic housing projects, and provided emergency housing for veterans at colleges and universities. By 1947 the state had housed some thirty thou- sand veterans and their dependents in 214 projects.
In contrast to the numerous emergency programs for veterans were many long-term projects for the expansion of the state's physical assets. Such projects included the Thruway, parks, parkways, schools, prisons, hospitals, public office buildings, and the elimination of grade crossings. In addition, the state's slum-clearance and public housing program that had been initiated by Lehman was greatly expanded by the Dewey administration.
New York's war effort was directly or indirectly responsible for nu- merous innovations in administration and policy that remained perma- nent features of the state government after the war. Of these, none was more important than the Ives-Quinn Law forbidding discrimination in employment. Although this measure was in some respects a product of the same forces that led to the creation of the Federal Fair Employment Practices Commission, it should also be viewed as the culmination of earlier attempts by the government of New York to eliminate discrimina- tory hiring policies. In March 1941 Lehman had appointed a Committee on Discrimination in Employment to foster the use of members of the state's minority groups in defense work. Lacking the right to coerce, the committee had to rely on publicity and moral suasion to achieve its ob- jectives. In 1942 it established a field force-the first in the nation- to visit employers and to urge them to hire workers without reference to their race, color, religion, or national background. At the same time the committee investigated the extent and nature of discrimination in la- bor unions, employment agencies, training schools for warworkers, and housing.
As the war progressed, minority groups, numerous liberal organiza- tions, and several prominent Democrats demanded that the state force employers to end job discrimination. Soon after assuming office, Dewey reorganized the Committee on Discrimination in Employment and di- rected it to "undertake intensive and continuous work in the elimination of economic and social discrimination in the development of ever greater unity in the war effort." In 1944 the committee proposed the creation of a
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permanent commission "for the declaration and enforcement of the right of employment regardless of race, creed, color, national origin or an- cestry, and for investigation of the various problems of discrimination." When Dewey objected to a bill embodying these proposals on the ground that the question required further study, the legislature rejected it for a measure establishing a Temporary State Commission against Discrimina- tion. In 1945 the commission, with Irving M. Ives, the Assembly's major- ity leader, serving as its chairman, submitted recommendations that met with the approval of both the governor and legislature. When Dewey on March 12, 1945, signed the Ives-Quinn Anti-Discrimination bill, New York became the first state in the nation to place on the statute books a law forbidding discrimination in employment.
Among the most notable features of the Ives-Quinn Law was its lack of equivocation, for it proclaimed that "the opportunity to obtain em- ployment without discrimination because of race, creed, color or national origin is hereby recognized as and declared to be a civil right." Provision was made for a five-man commission which would seek to end discrim- inatory hiring practices through consultations with employers. If in a specific instance this method failed, the commission had the authority to issue cease and desist orders which were enforceable in the courts. The penalty for a violation of a commission order was a fine of not more than five hundred dollars or imprisonment up to one year, or both. Soon after it was established, the commission set up conciliation councils in the state's largest cities to hear complaints, proceeded to eliminate discriminatory clauses in job-application forms and want ads, investigated firms suspected of discriminatory practices, and held a series of confer- ences on discrimination in education. From the outset the commission em- phasized that it wished to reform rather than punish, and during the first year of its existence it considered almost five hundred complaints with- out once going to the courts. Because the commission was remarkably successful in avoiding both publicity and judicial proceedings, it is diffi- cult to measure its accomplishments by any absolute standards. Most qualified observers, however, agree that it compelled many firms to abandon discrimination, and that in doing so it did not stir up any of the bitterness that had been predicted by its opponents. If the Dewey administration had done nothing else, the people of New York would still be immeasurably in its debt for its pioneering work in the field of anti- discrimination.
The creation of a state university ranks with the antidiscrimination law as one of the major accomplishments of Dewey's administration. Many of those who first favored an antidiscrimination law also helped to arouse interest in proposals for a state university. Members of minority groups, protesting that they were discriminated against in existing in-
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stitutions of higher education, urged the establishment of a state uni- versity that would be open to all on an equal basis, and the Democrats took up this demand. Many New Yorkers also thought that a state uni- versity would provide the most equitable and efficient solution to the problems posed by the large number of veterans wishing to attend col- lege. Dewey, while admitting the validity of the points raised by the pro- ponents of a state university; refused to support plans for what he called a "jerry-built institution," and at his request the legislature in 1946 author- ized the establishment of a temporary commission "to examine into the need for and to make recommendations relative to the creation of a state university."
The commission, which was appointed in the summer of 1946 with Owen D. Young, industrialist and former member of the Board of Re- gents, as its chairman, faced a formidable task, for it had to contend with conflicting opinions and prejudices. In addition to the clear-cut division between those who favored a state university and those who did not, there was widespread disagreement over the purposes of the proposed institution. The cleavage was along sectional lines. Those from the rural regions of the state favored a university for upstate residents to balance the free colleges of New York City, while spokesmen for the metropoli- tan area, where the minority groups were most numerous, wanted a university that above all would be open to those who had been dis- criminated against by private institutions. Nor was there any agreement on the university's form or organization. Some thought that the state should take over and operate existing colleges; others urged a single large university comparable to those in the midwestern states; and still others advocated the establishment of a series of colleges and professional schools throughout the state.
Following two years of hearings and research, the commission issued a report recommending the creation of a university which would have as its nucleus the existing institutions operated by the state. The idea of a single huge university was rejected, but provision was made for the future expansion of the present state system of higher education. The state was to furnish financial support for community colleges and to give assistance to certain professional schools which might need additional funds to maintain their standards of instruction and research. The com- mission also proposed that racial and religious considerations be for- bidden by statute as criteria for admission to any nondenominational col- lege or university in New York.
The commission's recommendations were adopted by the legislature of 1948 in five bills. Four of these provided for the creation of a state uni- versity, while the fifth measure outlawed "discrimination in the admis- sion of applicants" to educational institutions in New York. Critics of the
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new program, most of whom favored one large university, complained that the state had created a paper organization and that the commission had been more interested in saving the taxpayers' money than in meeting the needs of the people. Such charges, however, do not take into account the unusual features of the system. In the first place, it differed from most other state universities in its emphasis on decentralization. For example, if a community wished to establish a two-year college and had adequate funds for such an undertaking, the state would pay for one-half of the college's capital costs and one-third of its operating expenses. Although the two-year community college would be a part of the state system, it would be administered by its own board of trustees. In the second place, the new program made it possible for the government to enter the field of medical education, an area in which the shortage of doctors and re- peated complaints of discrimination made immediate expansion impera- tive. Finally, the system was distinguished by its flexibility, for it em- braced a variety of educational institutions and it could be readily adapted to any foreseeable demands of the future.
Dewey demonstrated his interest in education in many ways other than by his support of the State University. During his administration veterans' scholarships were created; the value of the regular state scholar- ships was increased; and medical scholarships were established for the first time in the state's history. At the same time New York's public schools were expanded and improved with the state's assistance. Al- though state aid to education was generally lower during the war than in the Depression years, this trend was sharply reversed in the postwar period. Thus, state aid to education, which had totaled $111,814,000 in 1943-1944, had risen to $242,616,000 in 1950-1951. On the other hand, during most of the Dewey administration the ratio of state aid to total expenditures for elementary and secondary education was lower than had been the case when Lehman was governor. This, however, does not obviate the fact that under Dewey the government carried out substan- tial reforms in the state's public schools. Among the most important of these were the establishment of new facilities for the education of handi- capped children, a library program to which the state contributed $1,000,000 annually, and a state-aided teachers training program in the New York City colleges.
The labor and welfare legislation enacted during the Dewey adminis- tration was in large part restricted to the reorganization and expansion of programs that had been inaugurated by his Democratic predecessors. The benefits paid under both the workmen's compensation and unem- ployment insurance laws were repeatedly increased. The workmen's compensation law was amended to provide for the payment "of benefits for disabilities resulting from non-occupational injury and sickness."
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Women were guaranteed equal pay for equal work. The coverage of the workmen's compensation, unemployment insurance, and minimum-wage laws was extended to include many new job categories. Comparable changes were made in New York's health and welfare programs. The state's share of the cost of home relief and its monthly grants for the care of dependent children were increased; the wartime commission to check juvenile delinquency was continued into the postwar years; special schools were built for retarded children; and large sums of money were expended to aid the victims of cerebral palsy, cancer, and tuberculosis.
Dewey's welfare and labor policies provide a key to his entire adminis- tration. Although his reforms never went as far as the Democrats wanted, they usually went much further than most Republicans in other states and in Washington were willing to go. In at least two respects he was not a typical Republican. He did not hold to the general Republican view that the executive should at best be no more than equal in power to the legislature, and he believed that his party should capitalize on, rather than resist, Democratic agitation for reform. On repeated occa- sions (but notably in the case of the controversies over the antidiscrimi- nation law and a state university ), he permitted the Democrats to arouse the public's interest in a particular proposal; but just when the opposi- tion thought that it had hold of an appealing issue, he endorsed the proposal, tailored it to fit his party's needs, and secured its adoption by the legislature as a Republican measure. This was a technique that had been perfected long ago by Britain's Tories, but it was perennially new to New York's Democrats, and they never learned to cope with it while Dewey was governor.
Throughout its recent history New York's government has been admin- istered by a succession of executives who surpassed in ability those of any other state in the nation. Theodore Roosevelt, Hughes, Smith, Frank- lin Roosevelt, Lehman, and Dewey were more than outstanding gover- nors, for each in his own way possessed a genius for leadership and each became a national as well as a state figure. Five of them were presi- dential candidates, two were vice-presidential candidates, two became presidents of the United States, one became chief justice of the United States, and one became a United States senator. In a very real sense they were the makers of modern New York, and they were, without exception, progressive, imaginative statesmen. All were strong leaders, and all derived their strength from the people they served.
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