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would have moved into the Walsh-Healey Act. It would not have been necessary. This was a substitute for a general act and was one of the few things we could do that would assist in lifting the level of wages and working conditions in the country.

The Walsh-Healey Act was tested in the courts, but it was upheld in the lowest courts. There was never any trouble about it.

At any rate, the Wage-Hour Act and the Walsh-Healey Act should not be tied together. They were very different things. Although they are now administered by the same part of the Labor Department, they were not originally. They are now sort of growing together, but they rest on two separate bases. The Walsh-Healey Act is much easier to enforce, as a matter of fact, than the Wage-Hour Act is, because it hasn't got this awful locality theory all worked into it, which is what makes the Wage-Hour Act so difficult.

At any rate, the Walsh-Healey Act went through easily and was the first piece of labor legislation that we got. We began to enforce it right away. The problems that arose on enforcement were interesting. Of course, I recognized the hazard of arbitrary and unfair enforcement of such a law. It had been my idea from the beginning





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