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I had meant to have it carefully drafted, but the labor people said, “Why don't we have a conference on this? Why don't we get a draft that we all agree to right away so that we can push it ahead?” We had a little conference. Although our lawyers had some careful preliminary drafts prepared, laying out the way things should be done, and a pattern of public hearings with an expert representative body making a tentative proposal as to the standards involved in a particular trade and contract, when we got together this bothered the labor men. I saw at once it was bothering them. The drafts were too particular, too specific, too detailed, too much procedure in it. It made them very nervous.

They rushed ahead and got themselves some lawyer to draw up a bill which was not unlike the bill that finally went through. It said nothing about procedure. It said, “The Secretary of Labor may fix the wages, hours of labor and other working conditions on all government contracts.” I remember Dan Tobin saying to me, “That's what you mean, isn't it? That's what you said to us the other day when we was down here.”

“Yes,” I said, “but, of course, I anticipated that we would spell it all out in the law, spelling out the method.”