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LABOR, SOCIAL JUSTICE AND WORLD AFFAIRS
The Papers of David A Morse (1907-1990), Director-General of the International Labour Organisation, 1948-1970, from the Seeley G Mudd Manuscript Library, Princeton University

Part 3: Special Subject Files, Writings and Speeches

The David A. Morse Papers document the life and times of David Abner Morse (1907-1990), American lawyer, soldier, and public official. While he distinguished himself in legal, military, and governmental circles, the most fruitful years of his life were spent at the helm of the International Labour Organisation (ILO), the oldest member of the United Nations family of specialised agencies. As Director-General of the International Labour Office in Geneva from 1948 to 1970, Morse guided the increasingly complex activities of this tripartite organisation, which unites in one body the representatives of workers, governments, and employers. No one has had a longer tenure as its head, and no one has presided over such far-reaching changes in its composition and orientation. Drawing on a variety of experiences in the field of domestic and international labor, including appointments as Assistant, Under, and Acting Secretary of Labor in the Truman administration, Morse gave practical meaning in a post-war context to the ILO's underlying philosophy, namely, that "universal and lasting peace can be established only if it is based upon social justice." The pursuit of this object won for the ILO the Nobel Peace Prize in 1969. The David Morse Papers contain correspondence, reports, memoranda, subject files, speeches, articles, and interviews that document this long, productive career.

Part 3 covers a number of different subseries as follows:
Special subject files on the Allied Military Government, 1940-1947
Special subject files on the Department of Labor, 1945-1954
the Papers of Mildred H Morse, 1900-1969
Special subject files on the United Nations Development Programme, 1961-1973
Addresses, Writings, Interviews and Speeches, 1930-1990

Part 3 starts with material on the Allied Military Government (1940-1947) and documents Morses military career during the Second World War in considerable detail. The material includes general army records as well as records specifically related to Morses tenure as head of the Labor Division of the Allied Military Government of Occupied Territory in Sicily and Italy and head of the Manpower Division of the United States Group Control Council for Germany. Material concerning Japan is also present in the form of the final report of the Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers Advisory Committee on Labor, entitled "Labor Policies and Programs in Japan." A revealing account of Morse's wartime experiences, particularly with regards to Sicily and Italy, can be found in a journal recording his activities in various places, including North Africa, Sicily and Italy, England, France, Germany, and Austria. A haunting memento of his military career, which brought him face to face with Hitler's liberated concentration camps, is a yellow Star of David bearing the French word, "Juif."

Morses general army records span the period from his request for an interview with the United States Army in March 1942 (subsequently he was accepted as a first lieutenant), to his receipt of the Legion of Merit in June 1946, nine months after his voluntary discharge. This material also includes selective service cards from 1940 and 1941 and the somewhat belated transmittal letter which accompanied his commission as lieutenant colonel in 1947. The general army records are mainly composed of "extracts," that is, orders and station assignments given to officers. Information issued to officers briefing them on certain codes of conduct, such as confidentiality, and detailing military activities, such as the Allied Military Government of Occupied Territory manual on "plan, proclamations and instructions" are present as well. The last folder in the general army records sequence also contains documents relating to Morses promotion to lieutenant colonel, his receipt of the Legion of Merit for his conspicuous services, and original copies of the May 8, 1945 editions of the New York Herald Tribune and The Stars and Stripes celebrating the surrender of Germany and the end of the war in Europe. Material relating to Morse's German involvements consists mainly of reports on labor such as "Tentative Labor Plan for Germany" and "Annex XVIII (Manpower) of Basic Preliminary Plan Allied Control and Occupation of Germany (Control Council Period)." Material relating to Morses work in Sicily and Italy is much more diverse and plentiful. It includes general orders and extracts, minutes, background documentation on Sicily and Italys labor situations, newspaper clippings, and reports concerning various labor-related issues. The drafts of Morses labor policy, which dealt with the abolition of the fascist labor system and the establishment free trade unions and labor offices, illustrate the evolution of civil reconstruction amid conditions which were at best unstable.

Part 3 of this microfilm project goes on to cover the files on the Department of Labor (1945-1954). This consists of material relating to Morses tenure as Assistant, Under, and Acting Secretary of Labor in the Truman administration between July 1946 and August 1948.

For the most part, the contents of this subseries can be divided into three broad categories: intra-departmental material, inter-departmental material, and extra-departmental material. The character of the documents tends to be impersonal, not that the human dimension is entirely absent. Morses dealings with Secretary Lewis Schwellenbach and the upper echelons of the department convey a clear sense of the style and substance of his administrative role. The topics covered in this subseries are varied, ranging from the contentious Taft-Hartley Act of 1947, to the family budget of urban workers to the equitable participation of minorities in the programs and services of the department.

The bulk of the material in this subseries is intra-departmental, including budget reports, general orders establishing policies and procedures for various activities, draft legislation, statutes describing the purpose of departmental units, and plans for the departments 35th anniversary. This category also contains material relating to programs and services within the jurisdiction of the department such as the United States Employment Service, the Womens Bureau, the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service, and the Veterans Employment Service. The activities of the department itself are documented in large part through reports on the progress of various domestic and international programs and through memoranda between officials suggesting changes within or alternatives to such programs.

The inter-departmental material in this subseries consists of documents exchanged between the department and other governmental offices and officials, including reports on joint programs and issues of departmental concern. For example, the Department of Labor, the Department of Commerce, and the Department of Agriculture were all involved in the Food Conservation Program established by President Truman. The White House, the Department of Justice, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and the Atomic Energy Commission were also among the departments correspondents.

For its part, the extra-departmental material consists of correspondence and associated documents exchanged between Morse or his colleagues and external bodies such as the International Labour Organisation, the Merrill-Stevens Dry Dock and Repair Company, United States Steel, and the University of Californias Institute of Industrial Relations. A number of congratulatory letters and telegrams from Morses friends and relations on the occasion of his appointment as Assistant and Under Secretary of Labor inject an element of personal warmth.

We also include the Papers of Mildred H Morse (1900-1969). These consist chiefly of letters written to or from Mildred Morse, Morses wife of 53 years, between 1919 and 1969. The broad time span of this subseries, which includes correspondence between members of Mrs. Morses family prior to her birth as well as childhood notes, offers a rich and evolving portrait of Mrs. Morse and her world. Of particular interest in this regard is the folder relating to Mrs. Morses presentation at the Court of St. James in 1931. She was one of a privileged circle of debutantes to appear before the British King and Queen. Among the items contained in this folder are an exchange of letters between her mother and the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Nicholas Longworth, who put forward her name, and a number of effusive newspaper clippings.

The majority of this correspondence, which is the most intimate of any in the Morse Papers, dates from the time of Morses overseas service in the Second World War. The couple exchanged hundreds of letters during this period, often using affectionate names such as "angel duck" and "angel pie," and unique to Mrs. Morse, "Pedie" or "Peter". As Morse put it in a letter written in England in May 1944, "Ive seen lots of things these last months, but never anything or anyone that even starts to resemble the beauty and quality of my adorable sweet wife. And I'm not just saying this to hear myself talk, it comes from awful way down deep." The Morses diary-like correspondence took various forms, including postcards, densely written V-Mail, and letters, and, thanks to fairly consistent dating and, in many cases, sequential numbering, scholars can follow the couples lines of thought and, within the limits imposed by military secrecy, lines of action on both the home and foreign fronts.

This correspondence sheds light not only on the mentality of the Morses but on that of American citizens in wartime. In addition to mutual devotion, the emotions which manifest themselves include frustration "let's get the damned war over with" (October 1944) -revulsion at Nazi barbarism - "one can't afford to be too homesick when such monsters are loose in the world" (October 1944) - and sorrow over the death of Franklin Roosevelt - "yesterday was the saddest day that I have known since my father died" (April 1945).

We also include in full the entire subseries on the United Nations Development Programme (1961-1973). For the most part, this is material Morse acquired or generated as Chairman of the United Nations Development Programmes Advisory Panel on Programme Policy, a position he held from 1970 to 1972. The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) is devoted to providing multilateral pre-investment aid to the worlds low-income nations in an attempt to alleviate and, ultimately, eradicate global poverty. The scope of its work in Morse's time can be gauged by the number of experts serving under its auspices (8200 in 1968) and the cumulative value of its major completed and uncompleted projects ($2.8 billion by 1970). Under Morses leadership, the Advisory Panel on Programme Policy was responsible for recommending what the position of the United Nations Development Programme should be on various issues and what policies it should pursue in the fulfilment of its mission. A fair amount of the material in this subseries relates to the internal workings of the Panel and the United Nations Development Programme as a whole. This includes such items as interoffice memoranda concerning meetings and various matters in need of discussion and resolution, reports by Panel members, such as "The Role of UNDP in Education and Training," monthly management reports, and plans for headquarters restructuring.

Present as well are preparatory documents for each of the Panels "Sessions" consisting of various reports on "Advisory Panel Questions" to be discussed at these meetings. Topics include "The Role of the UNDP in Promoting Investment Follow-Up", "The Role of the UNDP in the Development and Adaptation of Science and Technology in Developing Countries", and "The Time-Lag Between the Identification of UNDP Projects and Their Implementation Under Project and Country Programming".

Other material in this subseries includes information gathered from various seminars that Morse attended and correspondence with a number of United Nations organisations, among them the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation, the Food and Agriculture Organisation, and the United Nations Institute for Training and Research.
A variety of non-governmental organisations outside the United Nations system are also represented, including the AFL- CIO, the Institut Francais du Petrole, and the Society for International Development.

Finally, in Part 3, we also make available all of Morses Addresses, Writings and Interviews (1930-1990). They are mostly neatly bound on a chronological basis, offering a remarkably comprehensive record of Morses perspective on a wide array of subjects, as well as the views of the entities on whose behalf he wrote and spoke, over the course of 60 years. Indeed, if the transcripts of the oral history interviews in which he participated are taken into account, this series can be said to encompass within itself an entire lifetime. Most of the thousands of words recorded here were intended for public consumption, but there are also items of a personal nature, the most notable of which is a volume of intimate reflections which spans the decade between 1956 and 1966 and which touches on such matters as global peace, education, poverty, and international personalities.

The category of addresses consists of Morses utterances between 1936 and 1990, the majority of which were made in his capacity as Director-General of the ILO. They range from his message to the Scottish Trades Union Congress in 1949 to his speech at a luncheon in honour of the Vice President of Brazil in 1956 to his talk for the Voice of America in 1962 to his lecture on the occasion of the ILOs receipt of the Nobel Peace Prize in 1969. Morses visibility after his departure from the ILO is borne out by a substantial number of public utterances, the last of which, appropriately, took the form of a contribution to a panel on the organisation he had once directed. Presented shortly before his death, his thoughts on the ILO are a revealing encapsulation of the story to which so large a proportion of the Morse Papers is dedicated.

The category of writings, which spans the years between 1930 and 1989, consists primarily of articles and the introductions and conclusions to Morses Reports as Director-General of ILO. Morse's articles range from "Industrial Peace -- At What Price?" in 1946 to "The World Situation and the ILO" in 1956 to "World Tragedy: More Workers than Jobs" in 1962 to "Labor in the Public Sector: An International Perspective" in 1978. His words appeared in a variety of publications, both in the United States and overseas, including the "International Social Science Bulletin", "The Indian Worker", the "Ecumenical Review", and the "Political Science Quarterly". A partial bibliography is available. In common with other public figures, Morse's writings, like his addresses, were, in many cases, drafted for him, but, as his surviving marginalia attest, he made them his own. Very much his own are the transcripts of two oral history projects to which he was a contributor after his departure from the ILO. One was conducted by Columbia University and the other by the Harry S. Truman Library, and, together, they constitute an autobiography of sorts, notable for its breadth and periodic depth and for its discursive spontaneity. The interviews commissioned by Columbia University were conducted in two stages. The first documents Morses background, his childhood, student days, and first governmental appointments. The second carries Morse from his work as Chief Counsel for the Petroleum Labor Policy Board of the Department of Interior to his work as Director-General of the ILO, concluding with a discussion of his activities upon his return to the United States. Morse's association with the National Labor Relations Board and the Department of Labor is passed over lightly, in virtue of the extensive treatment it receives in the interviews commissioned by the Harry S. Truman Library, the focus of which, of course, is the Truman administration. Both sets of interviews commissioned by Columbia University are indexed.

The legacy of David Abner Morse, who died on December 1, 1990 at the age of 83, was global. As Director-General of the ILO, a specialised agency of the United Nations, for an unprecedented 22 years, he dedicated himself to improving the lot of workers throughout the world. A man of high ideals and exceptional acumen, he upheld the universality of workers' socio-economic rights amid the conflicting claims of communist and non-communist systems and have and have-not nations. In 1969 he accepted the Nobel Peace Prize on behalf of the ILO, a recognition of the organisations contribution to international harmony and prosperity under his leadership.

For Javier Perez de Cuellar, Secretary-General of the United Nations from 1982 to 1991, "Flair for leadership and diplomacy, dynamism, charm, dignity - these were among his many radiant qualities. But above them all was the compassion and the care for the vulnerable of the earth, and the love of social justice which inspired all his endeavours."

For George Shultz, Secretary of Labor in the Nixon administration and Secretary of State in the Reagan administration, Morse possessed an innate, instinctive understanding of the need for standards of behaviour. "He saw the human side of enterprise. . . . He stood, it seemed to me, always for a blend of power and principle, not simply interest and power, but principle and power."

Morse, the son of immigrants Morris Moscovitz and Sara Werblin, was born in New York on May 31, 1907. He grew up in Somerville, New Jersey and attended Rutgers University, graduating in 1929. Deciding on a legal career, he studied law at Harvard University and was admitted to the New Jersey Bar in 1933. In 1937 he married Mildred E. Hockstader, daughter of Leonard Hockstader and Aline Straus and granddaughter of Oscar S. Straus, Secretary of Commerce and Labor in the cabinet of President Theodore Roosevelt. The union, which spanned 53 years, could not have been happier.

Morses interest in and commitment to the public welfare in general and labor concerns in particular were evidenced by his involvement in the New Deal of the Roosevelt administration. Between 1933 and 1939 he held a number of governmental posts, including Chief Counsel for the Petroleum Labor Policy Board of the Department of Interior, Special Assistant to the Attorney General of the United States, and Regional Attorney for the Second Region of the National Labor Relations Board. The objectivity he would be called on to exhibit as head of the ILO was apparent in his appointment in 1941 as Impartial Chairman of the milk industry of metropolitan New York. On leaving the public service, Morse became a named partner in the law firm of Coult, Satz, Tomlinson, and Morse. He also found time to lecture on labor relations, labor law, and administrative law at various educational institutions.

Shortly after the United States entered the Second World War, Morse joined the Army. From 1943 to 1944 he served as head of the Labor Division of the Allied Military Government in Sicily and Italy, where he formulated and implemented labor policies and programs for the American and British liberators. He filled a similar role from 1944 to 1945 as head of the Manpower Division of the United States Group Control Council for Germany. One of his tasks was to work with representatives of Britain, France, the Soviet Union, and the United States to harmonise their approach to labor matters in occupied Germany, an involvement which undoubtedly helped to prepare him for his work at the ILO. At the wars end, he held the rank of lieutenant-colonel and, in 1946, was awarded the Legion of Merit.

On his return to the United States, Morse re-entered civilian life as General Counsel of the National Labor Relations Board, a post he held from 1945 to 1946 when President Harry Truman named him Assistant Secretary of Labor. In this capacity, he focused his attention on the creation of the Department's Program of International Affairs. Named Under Secretary of Labor in 1947, he briefly filled the position of Acting Secretary on the death of Lewis Schwellenbach in 1948.

It was in this year, too, that Morse embarked on the most significant phase of his career, that of Director-General of the ILO. He was no stranger to this organisation, having represented the government of the United States as a member of its Governing Body and as a delegate to its annual International Labor Conference. His election to the post of Director-General, which entailed a move to Geneva, brought with it many challenges. It is a measure of his success in facing them that the ILO changed the regulations which would have limited his tenure to a single ten-year term, renewable for three years, to allow for his re- election, which occurred in 1957, 1962, and 1967. (In 1961, he resigned but was persuaded to reconsider.)

Morse brought to his new position a broad and vigorous vision of the potentiality of his office and the ILO as a whole. He exercised a leadership which was at once impartial and engaged and which incorporated three fundamental principles: the need for socio-economic reform, the importance of the rule of law, and integrity. Integrity was a quality he demanded of everyone who worked with him, and he was equally protective of the integrity of the ILO, deftly resisting political pressure, whether it stemmed from the rivalries of the superpowers or the process of decolonisation. As an American, he was particularly vulnerable to the animus of McCarthyism, but he weathered this storm with firmness and dignity.

According to Gullmar Bergenstrom, Vice Chairman of the Governing Body from 1969 to 1979, "Morse was both Director and General. As Director [he was] a most skilful administrator. He appointed the right people to the various top posts in the Office, which was, of course, a policy decision of highest importance. As General he aggressively defended the ILO's sphere of competence against various young mushrooming and sometimes self-propelling agencies with ambitions to encroach on the ILO field." There was a manifest need for each of these functions. The organisation Morse inherited was a product of the Treaty of Versailles, and, amid the burgeoning international bodies of the time, its relevance was under threat. He immediately set out to revitalise the ILO along three lines.

First, Morse believed that the ILO could not be a static entity but, rather, would have to adapt to new circumstances if it was to be an effective force for good in the world. He therefore expanded its sights and its reach beyond its traditional role as a setter of international labor standards. Under his leadership, sweeping organisational changes took place. The membership of the ILO grew from 52 to 121 nations, giving it a universal character. Its staff increased fivefold, from some 600 to some 3000 men and women of diverse nationality. Its annual budget rose from about $4,000,000 to about $60,000,000. Morse laid the foundation for a new headquarters and established an extensive network of field offices. The educational activities of the ILO were given a new impetus with the establishment of the International Institute for Labour Studies in Geneva and the International Centre for Advanced Technical and Vocational Training in Turin.

Second, Morse believed that the ILO had a global commitment to build peace, and that orderly socio-economic change within countries was a prerequisite for peace between countries. Whether the issue was a labor dispute in the ILO itself, the credibility of the labor movement in the Soviet Union, or apartheid in South Africa, Morse maintained that the best way to achieve change was to affect it through existing socio-economic institutions within the rule of law. He insisted, too, that the ILOs contribution to peace building be truly tripartite, involving workers, governments, and employers in a common quest for a more just world. Morse's commitment to this principle was nowhere more evident than in his position on the 1969 Nobel Peace Prize, a personal tribute as much as an organisational one. Francis Wolf, Legal Advisor of the ILO from 1963 to 1987, was instructed to contact the Nobel Committee of the Norwegian Parliament to request that the award be given solely to the ILO lest individual accomplishments overshadow tripartite ones. Accordingly, on December 10, 1969, Morse accepted the Nobel Peace Prize "On behalf of all our constituents, governments as well as employers and workers of our 121 member States, on behalf of all my staff, and in tribute to all those who in the past have faithfully served our Organisation."

Third, Morse believed that symbolism, however potent, was no substitute for action. He won a reputation as a "practical idealist" as he initiated new forms of technical assistance to enable countries to meet the standards and abide by the principles espoused by the ILO. Underdevelopment and the poverty which betokened it, became a major preoccupation for him, though in focusing on the myriad needs of the developing world, he did not neglect the problems confronting industrialised societies. Among the issues Morse addressed through new programs and emphases were labor-management relations, workers education, management development, supervisory training, manpower planning and employment creation, rural development, and promotion of small-scale industries. The World Employment Programme, launched in 1969, was one of Morses principal legacies. It sought to raise the employment level and, thus, the quality of life of millions of marginalised men and women through such measures as stemming the migration of populations from rural to urban areas. When Morse relinquished his post as Director-General in 1970, the ILO, once a frail survivor of the discredited League of Nations, could take satisfaction in a new vitality and a new prominence.

Morse did not rest on his laurels upon his return to the United States. He took up the practice of international law in New York and Washington, D. C., assuming a leading role in his firm, which grew considerably in the years which followed. His concern for the welfare of the global community did not abate. He served as an advisor to the United Nations Development Programme, chairing its Advisory Panel on Programme Policy, and was active in such organisations as the World Rehabilitation Fund, the United Nations Association of the United States of America, and the Council on Foreign Relations. His contribution to these and other bodies was highly valued. As David Rockefeller, Honorary Chairman of the Council on Foreign Relations, noted in 1994, "He was a man of extraordinary quality and distinction who devoted the major part of his life to public service. . . . David was an active member of the Council on Foreign Relations for some 30 years, and to many here and around the world, he was a staunch and trusted friend."

Morses life was crowned with many achievements, and the list of honours he acquired is long. In addition to holding a number of honorary doctorates, he was decorated by countries in Europe, Africa, Asia, and Latin America. France made him a Grand Officer of the French Legion of Honor, the highest decoration a foreign national can receive. He also received the Meritorious Public Service Award of the Sidney Hillman Foundation and the Human Rights Award of the International League for the Rights of Man.

What Morse did in life was very much a reflection of whom he was, and it is perhaps in the realm of intangibles that he left his most enduring mark. According to Francis Blanchard, Director- General of the ILO from 1974 to 1989, "David Morse was such a remarkably successful leader because he was such a remarkable human being. His warm personality and great personal charm had an almost magic effect on all with whom he came into contact. . . . Those of us who worked with him in the International Labour Office remember with admiration, respect and affection how deeply he influenced our work and our lives."

The Morse Papers shed ample light on his activities, the concerns which animated them, and the relationships in which they were centered. There is material on both the public and private aspects of his life and career. Researchers can expect to encounter both the large and the small in Morses life - from his views on internationalism to his views on small-town New Jersey - and in the process, construct a rounded picture of an influential public figure in the last half of the twentieth century.

Throughout his life, Morse met and corresponded with many individuals of national and international significance concerning labor issues. This collection contains correspondence or records of discussion with Dean Acheson, Leonid Brezhnev, Dwight D Eisenhower, Dag Hammarskjold, Averell Harriman, Paul G Hoffman, C Wifred Jenks, David Lilienthal, George Marshall, Leopold Senghor and U Thant.



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