Proclamation 3472—United State Department of Labor Fiftieth Anniversary Year

Whereas March 4r 1963, marks the fiftieth anniversary of the establishment of the United States Department of Labor, "to foster, promote, and develop the welfare of the wage earners of the United States, to improve their working conditions, and to advance their opportunities for profitable employment"; and

Whereas the success of our economy and the well-being of our Nation are dependent upon the skills, energies, talents, and security of the individual American wage earner; ,and

Whereas the Department has striven faithfully over the years to shape sound, policies for meeting the Nation's manpower needs and for developing and utilizing the potentials of all our labor force in productive and satisfying employment; and

Whereas the Department has judiciously used the instruments of law and custom to safeguard individual workers' rights, to protect and improve the Nation's labor standards, to provide free and equal opportunity for all Americans, and to fight the economic hazards of industrial life; and

Whereas the Department, as a guardian of the public interest, has proven its dedication to sound labor-management relations, has clearly recognized its responsibility to assist the business and industrial community to achieve economic growth and stability, and has, for a half a century, kept the Nation abreast of vital changes in our dynamic economy; and

Whereas the Department has accepted a crucial and responsible role in cultivating understanding among labor organizations throughout the world and in fostering free labor institutions in other nations:

Now, Therefore, I, John F. Kennedy, President of the United Sates of America, do hereby designate the year 1963 as United States Department of Labor Fiftieth Anniversary Year, and I hereby establish a committee to be known as the President's Committee for the Department of Labor Fiftieth Anniversary Year. The Committee shall be composed of the following:

1.            The President of the United States as Honorary Chairman;

2.            The Vice President of the United States and the Speaker of the House of Representatives as Honorary Vice Chairmen;

3.            The Secretary of Labor, all living former Secretaries of Labor, and the President of the AFL-CIO, as Co-Chairmen;

4.            Other representatives of labor, management, and government, and other distinguished persons in public life who shall be appointed, on my behalf, by the Secretary of Labor; and

5.            Members of the Senate and Members of the House of Representatives who shall be invited to serve, on my behalf, by the Secretary of Labor after consultation with the President of the Senate or the Speaker of the House of Representatives, as may be appropriate.

Persons appointed or invited to serve by the Secretary of Labor, acting on my behalf, may be designated as additional Honorary Vice Chairmen by the Secretary of Labor.

The Committee shall take the lead in planning and carrying out appropriate activities for the celebration of the Department of Labor Fiftieth Anniversary Year, and I request appropriate State-labor offices, labor, management, and other interested groups to join with the Committee to the end that such activities may serve as an occasion to commemorate the contributions of the Department of Labor of the United States to the welfare of our workers and their families and to our Nation.

In Witness Whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and caused the Seal of the United States of America to be affixed.

DONE at the City of Washington this second day of May in the year of our Lord nineteen hundred and sixty-two, and of the Independence of the United States of America the one hundred and eighty-sixth.

JOHN F. KENNEDY

By the President:

GEORGE W. BALL,

Acting Secretary of State