Special Collections and University Archives: Labor and Consumer Rights

Papers reflecting William T. Cahill's career in the United States House of Representatives. Included are Congressional and constituent correspondence, bills, committee prints, voting records, press releases, photographs, and general subject files. Legislative files contain documentation of legislation, proposed by members of Congress other than Cahill, brought before the House of Representatives during Cahill's terms in office. General legislative topics include labor and more specific topics include the proposed repeal of the Taft-Hartley Act (1965-1966), minimum wage legislation, migratory farm labor, equal pay legislation, the Overtime Penalty Pay Act, fair labor standards, and unemployment compensation. Department and agency files document Cahill's interactions with various federal departments and agencies, mostly on behalf of his constituents, including the Labor Department and National Labor Relations Board. General files document both Cahill's actions and interests, mostly on the behalf of his constituents, regarding various topics and legislative agendas. Topics include labor unions, labor organizations, the National Association of Retired Civil Employees, and Railway Labor Dispute Settlement (H.J. 559).

Congressional office files consisting chiefly of documentation accumulated as a member of the Committee on Appropriations. Includes correspondence, notebooks, project folders, and appropriations files regarding Labor-Health and Human Services.

Correspondence, administrative files, legislative research files, sponsored and cosponsored bills, projects files, political and campaign files, financial documents, photographs, press releases, constituent newsletters, and other papers relating to Fenwick's terms in Congress. Labor is among the topics documented in the papers. Specific topics include workers’ compensation, social security, pensions, ERISA, common situs picketing, and federal unionization. Also included are files on consumer affairs and consumer protection.

Correspondence, notes, texts of speeches, and other papers relating to Frelinghuysen's political career; political newspaper clippings (1928-1929); and personal and political scrapbooks (1889-1945). Topics include labor, post-war labor problems, labor and the railroads, labor relations, labor unions, labor and the U.S. Supreme Court, labor in war, labor and the war, the Adamson bill (Adamson Act), American Federation of Labor, A.J. Beveridge on labor, labor board, labor and capital, International Labor Conference, labor and the League of Nations, “open shop,” labor and the police, labor in politics, railroad labor boards, railroad strike (1922), strikers, bills to penalize strikes, history of strikes, Treaty of 1919 and labor, and President Woodrow Wilson on the topics of the Coal Labor Act, “open shop,” and strikes.

Harrison A. Williams, Jr. (1919-2001) was a member of the Committee on Labor and Human Resources throughout his Senate career (1959-1982). He was at the forefront of legislative reforms in the areas of occupational safety, pension protection, equal employment opportunity, minimum wage, and much more. Major labor-related topics found throughout the collection include unions, labor relations, labor law reform, collective bargaining rights, strikes, common situs picketing, right to work, employment discrimination, fair labor standards, minimum wage, pension benefits, occupational safety and health, workers’ compensation, migratory labor, and consumer protections. The collection also documents the concerns of individuals from across the nation in the areas of pension benefits, employment discrimination, union organizing, and other labor-oriented matters.

The Crossroads digital exhibition showcases Senator Harrison A. Williams Jr.'s efforts toward advancing legislation that reflected liberal ideology of the Great Society values espoused by presidents Kennedy and Johnson. Themes highlighted in the exhibition are his work for migratory labor, social justice, education, labor, community action, health, the elderly, business regulation, metropolitan affairs, and the arts. The digital exhibition features images of photographs and documents, along with audiovisual materials documenting the legislation Williams worked on. This digital exhibition is a version of the physical exhibition Crossroads: Harrison Williams and Great Society Liberalism, 1959-1981, which was on display at Special Collections and University Archives in Spring 2009. Many of the objects in the physical exhibition are included in the digital version, and some additional items that did not appear in the physical exhibition are included in the digital exhibition.