The people's voice. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1939-1969, 1960-09-09

g Senate record in the field Of labor and vel
fare legislation:
ps Unemployment Compensation - Kennedy
introduced and led the fight for increased un-
employment compensation benefits in each
of the past four Congresses. The Kennedy
Mccarthy Unemployment Compensation
Standards Bill (86th Congress) would have
required most states to raise benefits, cover
age and duration of payments.
Social Security-Kennedy has been a con-
sistent supporter of efforts to improve Social
Security. e
A key vote came on July II, 1856, when
he supported amendment to provide dis
ability benefits at age So The amendment
barely passed on a 47-45 vote.
Minimum Wage-In 1857, Kennedy intro
duced and held hearings on legislation to
broaden coverage of the minimum wage law.
The Kennedy-Morse Bill (86th Congress)
would have increased the minimum wage to
$1.25 and extended coverage to eight million
additional workers. M tsf
Rail Pensions-Kennedyc o-sponsored and
actively supported legislation to increase
railroad retirement and unemployment bene-
fits in 1858 and 1859. a4
Distressed Areas-Kennedy helped lead
the fight for distressed area legislation which
passed the Senate in 1856 but failed TO be-
come law. Kennedy also supported the area
redevelopnlent bill which passed the Senate
in 1859 but died in the House. as..
Labor Control-Kennedy played the key
role in last years big Congressional battle
which ended in adoption of the Kennedy
Landrum- Griffin Labor Control Act.
AS Senate floor manager of his own Ken
nedy- Erwin Bill, he helped fight off dozen
amendments designed to make the bill
Stronger but failed to dissuade the Senate
from lacking on more than 20 other stiff
ening' amendments. The worst of these, a
misnamed .'bill-of-rights'' amendment spon-
sored by Sem John Mcclellan of Arkansas,
was strongly denounced by organized labor.
Kennedy opposed this amendment but lost
The House version of the Labor Control
Bill Landrum-Griff was even worse than
the amended Senate BILL AS chairman of the
Senate-House conference committee that
wrote the final Labor Control Bill, Kennedy
helped to eliminate some but not all of
Landrum-G riffin's worst features
On final passage, only few staunch
members Of Congress (two in the Senate
and So in the House) voted against the,
Kennedy-Landrum-Gr Griffin Bill. Kennedy
not among them, even though he
acknowledged that the bill Contains many
unfair, unsound and one-sided provisions"
Not all union members are agreed about
Kennedy's performance on the Labor Control
Act of 1859. Some, including AFL-CIO
President George Meany have praised Ken
nedy for working "tirelessly to get rid of
some of the more obvious injustices of the
Landrum-G Griffin BILL Others say that Ken
nedys succumheds to- the hysteria for labor
control at all costs
Kennedy himself has said he is not en-
tirely satisfied with the new law as it
stands, but calls ia strong, responsible
BILL" 49, 49,
mo Democrat he adds, "ever need be
ashamed Of his vote for it-and no Republi-
can campaign orator can ever again accuse
our party of being the tool of corrupt labor
Bosses @ s.E @yaf ~ y
On Jan. 8, 1947, shortly before Richard M.