Secret White House Tapes

72–1

About this recording

72–1
September 10, 1971
Conversation No. 72-1

Date: September 10, 1971
Time: 10:13 am - unknown before 12:39 pm
Location: Cabinet Room

The President met with I[lorwith] W. Abel, Joseph A. Beirne, John H. (“Jack”) Lyons, George
Meany, Leonard Woodcock, Frank E. Fitzsimmons, [Joseph] Lane Kirkland, John B. Connally,
James D. Hodgson, George P. Shultz, Arthur F. Burns, Paul W. McCracken, and Willie J. Usery,
Jr.; Ronald L. Ziegler and photographers were present at the beginning of the meeting

[General conversation/Unintelligible]

Program

The economy
-Phase I, forthcoming Phase II
-Herbert Stein’s group
-Objectives
-Meetings
-Formal consultation
-Congress
-Workable solutions
-Form, extent, duration of Phase II
-The President’s role
-Development of follow-up program
-90-day freeze
-Consultations
-Schedule and time span
-Business group
-Agriculture group
-Congressional group
-Consumer groups
-Cost of Living Council
-Deadline
-Span
-General consultations
-Ideas
-Cooperation necessary
-Government sanctions
-Freeze
-Preferable program
2

NIXON PRESIDENTIAL MATERIALS STAFF

Tape Subject Log
(rev. 10/08)



-Necessity of consultation
-Effectiveness of present meeting
-Notes of meetings
-Labor views
-Business views
-Public view of freeze
-Labor leaders’ view
-Suddenness of freeze imposition
-Effect on prices
-Board or councils
-Rules and regulations
-Future policy
-Announcement of future action
-Wage price controls
-Permanent versus temporary imposition
-Free collective bargaining
-Free market system
-Flexibility of policy
-Voluntary compliance
-Minimum government compulsion
-Informal consultations
-Standards
-Government sanctions and controls
-Present situation
-Opposition of wage-price control
-Exceptions to action
-Government sanctions
-Effectiveness of voluntary action
-Examples
-Steel company
-Price raise and government action
-Construction
-Davis-Bacon Act
-Stockpiles
-Jawboning
-Labor and business leaders
-Wage-price controls
-Bargaining
-Economic patterns and areas
-Voluntary action
-Free market
-Freeze
3

NIXON PRESIDENTIAL MATERIALS STAFF

Tape Subject Log
(rev. 10/08)



-War Labor Board example
-Duration
-Policies
-Labor
-Management
-The President’s role
-Pledge
-Labor
-History of War Labor Board
-Voting
-Unanimity
-December 1941
-National Defense Mediation Board [NDMB]
-Pearl Harbor attack
-US reaction
-Franklin D. Roosevelt
-Frances Perkins
-Labor and management
-Will Davis
-Vice Chairman, NDMB
-Moderator of meeting with Elbert D.
Thomas of Utah
-Meeting in Federal Reserve building
-Burns
-Rules and regulations
-Letter to Roosevelt
-Subjects
-No strikes, lockouts during the
war
-Settlement of disputes by agency
-Roosevelt’s role in issuing
executive order
-Roosevelt’s response
-War Labor Board
-12 members
-Presence of government
officials
-Fringe benefits
-Effect on inflation
-Decisions with voluntary method
-Comparison with controls
-Views of industry and labor
4

NIXON PRESIDENTIAL MATERIALS STAFF

Tape Subject Log
(rev. 10/08)



-Present economic situation
-Phases I and II
-The President speech, September 9, 1971
-Limits of Phase I
-Follow-up
-Government control
-Sanctions
-Need for discussion
-Price control
-Internal Revenue Service [IRS]
-New York City
-Extent of price control
-Success of voluntary methods
-Labor’s cooperation with the President
-Control of business and labor
-Increase of productivity
-Interest rates
-Effect on inflation
-Equitable nature of possible action
-Deferred wage increases
-Legal contract
-Binding nature
-Public interest
-Money supply
-Inflation
-Amount of products versus money
-Voluntary controls versus government controls
-Strikes
-History
-Effect of wartime situation
-1941
-Cessation of strikes
-Korean war period
-Guidelines
-Handling of strike issues
-World War II
-Wage and price control
-IRS
-Employees
-The public’s view
-Cooperation of construction industry
-Trade
5

NIXON PRESIDENTIAL MATERIALS STAFF

Tape Subject Log
(rev. 10/08)



-Management’s view of the future
-West Coast strike
-Employees, operators
-Issues
-Independent contractors
-California
-Phase II
-Situation
-Machinery involved in freeze
-Inequities
-Duration of freeze
-Public acceptance
-Comparison with end of World War II
-Phase II
-Christmas 1971
-Construction industry stabilization program
-Lyons
-Stability of program
-Executive order
-Effect of wording
-Relief of inequities
-Production of inequities
-Labor management group
-Voluntary nature
-Labor Department building
-Wage Stabilization Board
-Court orders
-World War II programs
-War Labor Board
-Owensboro, Kentucky plant
-Wages paid employees
-Flexibility
-Establishment of Wage Stabilization Board
-James F. Byrnes
-1972
-Forthcoming wage settlements
-Automobile workers, steelworkers, railroads, coal industry workers,
longshoremen
-Airline employees and aerospace workers
-Oil workers
-Tripartite nature of action
-Voluntary cooperation
6

NIXON PRESIDENTIAL MATERIALS STAFF

Tape Subject Log
(rev. 10/08)



-Cost of living protection
-Cap
-Automobile prices
-Hodgson, Shultz
-Edward N. Cole’s speech in Philadelphia
-General Motors
-1945-65
-Productivity, labor costs
-Automobile price increases
-Wage price increases
-Contracts
-Ground rules post-November 14, 1971
-Personal savings
-Handling by the public
-Contracts
-Initial versus successive years
-Price guides
-”Meet the Press”
-Phase I
-Contracts
-Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service [FMCS]
-Government sponsorship
-Phases I and II
-Enforcement machinery
-Price review board
-McCracken’s comments
-Productivity
-Prices, wages
-Organizational structure or form
-Tripartite board
-Status of automobile industry
-Wages versus productivity
-Post-November 1971 phase
-Steelworkers
-Cleanup operation
-Grievances
-Steel
-Recent negotiations
-Court
-Freeze
-1946
-Philip Murray
7

NIXON PRESIDENTIAL MATERIALS STAFF

Tape Subject Log
(rev. 10/08)



-Strikes
-Editorial in Life magazine
-[Forename unknown] Berle
-Steel industry
-Wage and price increases
-Inequities
-1968 agreement
-Productivity improvements
-Arbitration
-Will Sinton [?]
-Steelworker benefits
-Effect of Phase I and II action
-Productivity goals
-Railroad development
-Archaic work rules
-Wage-price freeze
-Duration
-Phase II
-Examples in Washington, DC
-Printing industry
-Washington Post labor action
-Voluntary and tripartite approach
-World War I
-Preordained formula
-Congress
-Executive order
-Guidelines
-Bureaucracy
-Non-organized industries
-World War II examples
-Wages, salaries, executive compensation
-Prices
-The President’s August 15, 1971 speech
-Policing by consumers
-Executive order
-Interests of different groups
-Universities
-[Forename unknown] Davies [?]
-George Taylor Martin [?]
-James P. Mitchell’s tenure as Labor Secretary
-[Walter W.?] Heller
-Effect of guidelines set
8

NIXON PRESIDENTIAL MATERIALS STAFF

Tape Subject Log
(rev. 10/08)



-Bureau of Labor Statistics
-Contracts
-Cost of living
-Executive order
-Difference between formula and objective
-Present objectives
-Moderation of inflation
-Control of wages, salaries, compensation
-World War I
-World War II effects
-Korea effects
-Effects of set formulas
-Cost of living increases
-Airlines, machinists
-Missile Sites Labor Commission
-The administration’s instructions to public members
-Construction of stabilization machinery
-Executive order
-Deferred increases
-Commission’s role
-Contractors
-Renegotiations
-Kansas City settlement
-Connecticut
-Meany
-Trade unions
-Clause in the President’s executive order
-Deferred wages
-Commission’s authority
-Situation
-Abel
-Woodcock
-Consumers
-Renegotiation clauses
-Freeze
-Cost of living increases
-Management
-Establishment of price and rate structure
-Wage increases
-Price levels
-Industry
-Effect of contracts
9

NIXON PRESIDENTIAL MATERIALS STAFF

Tape Subject Log
(rev. 10/08)



-Non-organized workers
-Low paid industries
-Grievances
-Company unions
-The South
-Freeze
-Results
-Wage settlement
-World War I
-Phase II
-Length of time
-1971
-Projected working of program
-Public acceptance
-High prices
-Inflation
-Relation to reality
-Productivity
-Salaries
-Unions and stable prices
-Free market, collective bargaining
-Shultz
-Howard W. Johnson
-Automobile industry
-James M. Roche
-Meany
-Issues with automobile industry
-Automobile as utility
-Regulation
-Controls
-World War I
-Wage stabilization
-Korea
-Freezing of wages and prices
-Voluntary moves
-Free enterprise
-Deferred wage issue
-Industry
-Price increases
-Anticipated wage increases
-Need of cooperation
-Equitable and voluntary system
10

NIXON PRESIDENTIAL MATERIALS STAFF

Tape Subject Log
(rev. 10/08)



-Wages and salaries
-Interest rates
-Capital Controls Act
-Treasury Bills
-Three-year notes
-Decrease
-Controls
-Need to decrease interest
-Prices, rents, interest
-Interest rates
-Burns
-Controls
-Banking analogy
-Government controls
-Extent
-Permanent system
-Voluntary controls
-US wage and price control system
-US public’s view
-Wage and price controls
-World War II era Office of Price Administration [OPA]
-Rising cost of living since 1969
-Effects
-Majority consensus for wage and price controls
-Economy’s future
-Public demand
-Effect of election on public
-Congress’s view
-Actions on majority view
-Control’s effects
-Accomplishment of result
-Convincing public of results from action taken
-Voluntary cooperation
-Labor
-Business
-Pacesetters
-Major businesses and labor
-Time table
-Submission of views of group
-October 1
-November 13, 1971 expiration date
-Phase II
11

NIXON PRESIDENTIAL MATERIALS STAFF

Tape Subject Log
(rev. 10/08)



-Guideline
-Mechanism for handling control
-Government board
-Ordinances
-Consultation
-Labor, business, Congress
-Implementation of Phase II
-Announcement
-Need for time lag for preparation

[General conversation/Unintelligible]

The President left at 12:12 pm; Abel, et al. left at an unknown time before 12:39 pm
Secret White House Tapes |

72–1

This recording is currently not available on millercenter.org. To listen to it, please email Mike Greco at mdg4u@virginia.edu

More Richard M. Nixon Recordings

View all Richard M. Nixon tapes
570–1
audio icon
73–1
audio icon
571–10
audio icon
571–11
audio icon
570–2
audio icon
571–2
audio icon
73–2
audio icon
73–3
audio icon
570–3
audio icon
571–3
audio icon