U.S. Reports: National Labor Relations Board v. Jones ..., Study notes of Business

Download U.S. Reports: National Labor Relations Board v. Jones ... and more Study notes Business in PDF only on Docsity! CASES ADJUDGED IN THE SUPREME COURT OF THE UNITED STATES AT OCTOBER TERM, 1936. NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD v. JONES & LAUGHLIN STEEL CORP.* CERTIORARI TO THE CIRCUIT COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE FIFTH CIRCUIT. No. 419. Argued February 10, 11, 1037.-Decided April 12, 1937. 1. The distinction between what is national and what is local in the activities of commerce is vital to the maintenance of our federal form of government. P. 29. 2. The validity of provisions which, considered by themselves, are constitutional, held not affected by general and ambiguous decla- rations in the same statute. P. 30. 3. An interpretation which conforms a statute to the Constitution must be preferred to another which would render it unconstitu- tional or of doubtful validity. P. 30. 4. Acts which directly burden or obstruct interstate or foreign com- merce, or its free flow, are within the reach of the congressional *No. 419, National Labor Relations Board v. Jones & Laughlin Steel Corp.; Nos. 420 and 421, National Labor Relations Board v. Fruehauf Trailer Co., post, p. 49; Nos. 422 and 423, National Labor Relations Board v. Friedman-Harry Marks Clothing Co., post, p. 58; No. 365, Associated Press v. National Labor Relations Board, post, p. 103; and No. 469, Washington, Virginia & Maryland Coach Co. v. National Labor Relations Board, post, p. 142, which are known as the "Labor Board Cases," were disposed of in five separate opinions. The.dissenting opinion, post, p. 76, applies to Nos. 419, 420 and 421, and 422 and 423. The dissenting opinion, post, p. 133, applies to No. 365. The opinion in No. 469 was unanimous. 146212°-37-1 1 OCTOBER TERM, 1936. Syllabus. 301 U. S. power; and this includes acts, having that effect., which grow out of labor disputes. P. 31. 5. Employees in industry have a fundamental right to organize and select represcntatives of their own choosing for collective bar- gaining; and discrimination or coercion upon the pirt of their employer to prevent the free exercise of this right is a proper subject for condemnation by competent legislative authority. P. 33. G. The congressional authority to protect interstate commerce from burdens and obstructions is not limited to transactions which can be deemed to be an essential part of a "flow" of such commerce. Pp. 34-36. 7. Although activities may be intrastate in character when sep- arately considered, if they have such a close and substantial rela- lien to interstate commerce that their control is essential, or appropriate, to protect that commerce from burdens and obstruc- tions, Congress has the power to exercise that control. P. 37. S. This power must be considered in the light of our dual system of government and may not be extended so as to embrace effects upon interstate commerce so indirect and remote that to embrace. them would, in view of cur complex society, effectually obliterate the distinction between what is national and what is local and create a completely centralized government. The question is nec- essarily one of degree. P. 37. 0. Whatever amounts to more or less constant practice, and threat- ens to obstruct or unduly to burden the freedomr of interstate com-, merce, is within the regulatory power of Congress under the com- merce clause; and it is primarily for Congress to consider and decide the fact of the danger and meet it. P. 37., 10. The close and intimate effect which brings the subject within the reach of federal power may be due to activities in relation to productive industry, although the industry when separately viewed is local, P. 38. 11. The relation to interstate commerce of the manufacturing en- terprise involved in this case was such that a stoppage of its opera- tions by industrial strife would have an immediate, direct and paralyzing effect upon interstate commerce. Therefore Congress had constitutional authority, for the protection of interstate com- merce, to safeguard the right of the employees in the manufac- turing plant to self-organization and free choice of their repre- sentatives for collective bargaining. P. 41. LABOR BOARD v. JONES & LAUGHLIN. 5 1 Argument for Petitioner. 16. The Natirnal Labor Relations Act establishes standards to which the Board must conform. There must be complaint, notice and hearing. The Board must receive evidence and make find- ings. These findings as to the facts are to be conclusive, but only if supported by evidence. The order of the Board is subject to review by the designated court; and only when sustained by the court may the order be enforced. Upon that review all ques- tions of the jurisdiction of the Board and the regularity of its proceedings, all questions of constitutional right or statutory au- thority, are open to examination by the court. These procedural provisions afford adequate opportunity to secure judicial pro- tection against arbitrary action, in accordance with the well- settled rules applicable to administrative agencies set up by Congress to aid in the enforcement of valid legislation. P. 47. 17. The provision of the National Labor Relations Act, § 10 (c), authorizing the Board to require the reinstatement of employees found to have been discharged because of their union activity or for the purpose of discouraging membership in the union, is valid. P. 47. 18. The provision of the Act, § 10 (c), that the Board, in requir- ing reinstatement, may direct the payment of wages for the time lost by the discharge, less amounts earned by the employee during that period, does not contravene the provisions of the Seventh Amendment with respect to jury trial in suits at common law. P. 48. 83 F. (2d) 998, reversed. CERTIORARI, 299 U. S. 534, to review a decree of the Circuit Court of Appeals declining to enforce an order of the National Labor Relations Board. Mr. J. Warren Madden and Solicitor General Reed, with whom Attorney General Cummings and Messrs. Charles E. Wyzanski, Jr., Charles A. Horsky, A. H. Feller, Charles Fahy, Robert B. Watts, Philip Levy, and Mal- colm F. Halliday were on the brief, for petitioner. Arguments. in this case are summarized from the briefs. Ex- tracts from the oral arguments in this and in other Labor Act cases immediately following will appear in an appendix in the bound volume. OCTOBER TERM, 1936. Argument for Petitioner. 301 U. S. The National Labor Relations Act is an exercise of the power of Congress to protect interstate commerce from injuries caused by industrial strife. Before this statute was enacted experience had shown that industrial strife was a recurrent burden upon the interstate commerce of the nation. Not only in its to- tality had such strife produced obstructions to commerce, but also in many individual instances such strife even- tuated in conspiracies to restrain commerce or imposed such substantial burdens upon it that penalties or in- junctions were applied under the Sherman Act. These facts are clearly shown by a survey of the results of individual disputes, the statistics with regard to the total number of such disputes, and repeated federal activities in connection with industrial strife. Congress, in dealing with this 'evil of industrial strife, might have approached the problem in either of two ways. It might have enacted a statute designed to re- move the burden on interstate commerce after it had evinced itself in a particular case, as the Sherman Act did; or, it might have enacted a statute to deal with the causes of the burden in anticipation of their prob- able effect, as the Packers and Stockyards Act did. Con- gressional power to enact this second type of statute (hereinafter called the preventive power) extends at least as far as the power to enact a statute to control the bur- den after its appearance (hereinafter called the control power). Stafford v. Wallace, 258 U. S. 495, 525. The National Labor Relations Act, which is an exer- cise of this preventive power, does not attempt to elimi- nate causes of strife in all enterprises. The statute and the mandate addressd to the administrative Board are specifically directed to the elimination of the proscribed practices only when they are found to be "affecting commerce." § 10 (a). This phrase "affecting commerce" LABOR BOARD v. JONES & LAUGHLIN. Argument for Petitioner. is defined in § 2 (7) of the statute as "in commerce, or bur- dening or obstructing commerce or the free flo4 of com- merce, or having led or tending to lead to a labor dis- pute burdening or obstructing commerce or the free flow of commerce." These words are plainly patterned upon language used in decisions of this Court in cases arising -under other statutes enacted by Congress under the com- merce power. This jurisdictional limitation is mani- festly a direction to thb Board to exercise the national power within the limits permitted by the Constitution. In other words, Congress has taken as the ambit of this particular preventive statute the boundaries to which it would be restricted were it exercising to the full its con- trol power under appropriate legislation. Of course, in eliminating these proscribed practices in situations which are likely to come within the control power of Congress, the application of the Act will upon occasion result in the prohibition of activities which, even if allowed to spend their force, would not result in industrial strife, which did in fact come within the federal control power. But, provided that when the practice was indulged in there was a reasonable likelihood that any industrial strife which resulted would be within the control power, the Board may apply the preventive measure. To hold otherwise would deprive Congress of any preventive power, since no one can predict with ab- solute accuracy, in advance of the complete development of the effects of a cause, exactly what those effects will be. Compare Stafford v. Wallace, 258 U. S. 495; Chi- cago Board of Trade v. Olsen, 262 U. S. 1. This lack of predictability is particularly true of industrial strife. Moreover, in eliminating the cause of'an evil within the power of Congress, the Act may on occasion eiminate'the cause of purely local evils. Indeed, this is almost in- evitable, since a single event has multiple consequences. OCTOBER TERM, 1936. •Argument for Petitioner. 301 U. S. receives a substantial part of its materials from, or ships a substantial part of its products in, interstate commerce, and is dependent upon such commerce for the successful conduct of its business. We believe that the instant case falls within each of these three situations in which the control power of Con- gress may be exercised. The reasonable likelihood of a controversy with the intent to affect commerce might be demonstrated in either of two ways: First, evidence might be presented to the Board that in a particular situation the intent already exists; or second, evidence might be presented to the Board that the situation was comparable to, and of the same general type as, others out of which in the past there had evolved controversies with intent to affect commerce, or that in the particular situation confronting the Board, such definite intention might reasonably be expected to develop. In the case at bar it is not claimed that there is evidence of the first sort; but there is abundant evidence that the situation is fraught with the risk that after strife developed it would involve the pur- pose to curtail the movement of goods in commerce. As previously stated, the Court has not yet determined the exact scope of the phrase "necessary effect of substan- tially burdening commerce." It undeniably includes situ- ations in which the participants cannot be charged with a conscious specific desire to interrupt commerce. United States v. Patten, 226 U. S. 525. The statements of this Court make it clear that the application of this principle may depend upon the magnitude of the effect on com- merce. The possible use of such a standard is entirely consistent with Carter v. Carter Coal Co., 298 U. S. 238. Three possible definitions of the scope of the "necessary effect" principle may be advanced: (1) a necessary effect on commerce results from industrial strife occurring in LABOR BOARD v. JONES & LAUGHLIN. 11 Argument for Petitioner. an enterprise which lies within a well-defined stream or flow of commerce, or (2) a necessary effect on commerce results from industrial strife which restrains a substantial part of all the commerce in a particular commodity, or (3) a necessary effect on commerce results froni industrial strife which restrains the movement of a substantial vol- ume of goods which would otherwise move in interstate commerce. The instant case falls within all three of these aspects of the principle, but this brief addresses particular attention to the first and second. Neither Schechter Corp. v. United States, 295 U. S. 495, nor Carter v. Carter Coal Co., 298 U. S. 238, is here applicable. In the Schechter case it was urged that wages and hours in local industry bore a relation to interstate commerce by reason of an intricate chain of economic causes and effects. An effect on commerce which oc- curred in such a manner the Court characterized as indi- rect. The Act involved in the Carter case had as its pur- pose the "stabilizing" of the bituminous coal industry through regulation .of prices and wages. The effect of wage cutting on interstate commerce was held to be indi- rect on the basis of the Schechter case. The collective bargaining provisions of that Act were, as is clear from the face of the statute and from the opinion of the Court, ancillary to the wage fixing provisions and fur- nished the means through which regulations with respect to wages having the force of law were to be arrived at. On the other hand, the National Labor Relations Act is designed solely to eliminate the burden on interstate commerce caused by industrial strife. Such strife consti- tutes an interruption to wommerce operating directly without "an efficient intervening agency or condition." Thus it deals with matters closely connected with com- merce, does not go beyond what is necessary for the pro- tection of commerce, and does not attempt "a broad regu- lation of industry within the State." OCTOBER TERM, 1936. Argument for Respondent. 301 U.S. Mr. Earl F. Reed, with whom Messrs. Charles Rosen and W. D. Evans were on the brief, for respondent. The respondent contends that the National Labor Re- lations Act is, in reality, a regulation of labor relations, and not of interstate commerce, and that, as a conse- quence, it is not within the power of Congress to enact. Even if it should be considered a true regulation of inter- state commerce, it still has no application to the respond- ent's relations with its production employees, because they are not subject to regulation by the Federal Gov- ernment. In addition, 'the provisions of the Act which the petitioner seeks to apply in the present cases are invalid, because they violate § 2 of Art. III of the Constitution, as well as the Fifth and Seventh Amend- ments. The respondent is a corporation engaged in the manu- facture of iron and steel products. In this connection, it owns and operates a large steel plant at Aliquippa, Penn- sylvania, in which are employed approximately ten thou- sand men. The present case is, in reality, a controversy between ten individuals who were formerly employed by the respondent in production work at this plant, and the respondent. These individuals, with three others, filed a complaint with the petitioner, the National Labor Re- lations Board, charging that they had been discharged or demoted by the respondent because of union affilia- tions. The respondent objected to the jurisdiction of the petitioner, but its motion to dismiss was overruled and the petitioner, after hearing, determined that the complainants had been wrongfully discharged and ordered their immediate restoration, with compensation for lost pay. The petitioner has endeavored to justify its assumption of jurisdiction over the respondent's employment rela- tions, by making a finding that the respondent has en- LABOR BOARD v. JONES & LAUGHLIN. 15 Argument for Respondent. ployees at the respondent's plant has a vital bearing upon the movement of interstate commerce. We submit that the ultimate fact remains that Congress has enacted a labor law, and not a regulation of commerce, and it does not help to sustain the pretext that there may be an indirect connection between the two. Carter v. Car- ter Coal Co., 298 U. S. 238. The National Labor Relations Act can have no ap- plication to the respondent's relations with its produc- tion employees. Although the respondent purchases raw materials, which have a point of origin in other States, and ships a large portion of its finished products across state lines, its production activities, including its employment relations, are not thereby subjected to the jurisdiction of Congress. Howard v. Illinois Central R. Co., 207 U. S. 463. There is no logical or legal connection between the respondent's limited participation in interstate commerce and the union affiliations of its production employees. Adair v. United States, 208 U. S. 161; Hammer v. Dagenhart, 247 U. S. 251; Railroad Retirement Board v. Alton R. Co., 295 U. S. 330. The principle which impeaches the validity of the Na- tional Labor Relations Act, viz., that federal po)wer over interstate commerce must be confined to bona fide regula- tion of the movements of commerce, likewise prevents the application of the statute in the present case. An unbroken line of decisions under the commerce clause has established that manufacturing and production activities are not in or a part of interstate commerce, even though they may be preceded or followed by the movement of materials between States. Kidd v. Pearson, 128 U. S. 1; Arkadelphia Milling Co. v. St. Louis Southwestern Ry. Co., 249 U. S. 134; Oliver Iron Co. v. Lord, 262 U. S. 172" Utah Light & Power Co. v. Pfost, 286 U. S. 165; Chas- 16 OCTOBER TERM, 1936. Argument for Respondent. 301 U.S. saniol v. Greenwood, 291 U. S. 584; Industrial Associa- tion v. United States, 268 U. S. 64. Although most of the decisions have dealt with the police or taxing powers of the States, they are based upon the fundamental principle that manufacturing activities are subject to the exclusive jursdiction of the separate States. Bacon v. Illinois, 227 U. S. 504; Susquehanna Coal Co. v. South Amboy, 228 U. S. 665; Packer Corp. v. Utah, 285 U. S. 105; Nashville, C. & St. L. Ry. v. Wallace, 288 U. S. 249; Edelman v. Boeing Air Transport, 289 U. S. 249; Minnesota v. Bla- sius, 290 U. S. 1; Federal Compress Co. v. McLean, 291 U. S. 17; Cornell v. Coyne, 192 U. S. 418; Crescent Cot- ton Oil Co. v. Mississippi, 251 U. S. 129; Heisler v. Thomas Colliery Co., 260 U. S. 245; Oliver Iron Co. V. Lord, 262 U. S. 172; Champlin Refining Co. v. Corpora- tion Commission, 286 U1 S. 210; United Mine Workers v. Coronado Coal Co., 259 U. S. 344; United Leather Workers v. Herkert & Meisel Trunk Co., 265 U. S. 457; Delaware, L. & W. R. Co. v. Yurkonis, 238 U. S. 439. The distinction between the local manufacturing ac- tivities of a business and its subsequent or precedent par- ficipation in interstate commerce has been maintained in the field of labor relations. Hammer v. Dagenhart, 247 U. S. 251; Industrial Accident Com'n v. Davis, 259 U. S. 182. Even though an employee may be employed in directly assisting the movement of products in inter- state commerce, his relationship to his employer is a status existing wholly within the State, whose incidents, such as wages, hours of labor and the like, are purely domestic in character. Carter v. Carter Coal Co., 298 U. S. 238. Congressional regulation of the labor relations of in- terstate carriers furnishes no precedent for the present Act. Because interstate carriers are instrumentalities of the movement of commerce, and because they are public LABOR BOARD v. JONES & LAUGHLIN. 17 1 Argument for Respondent. utilities, Congress has subjected them to an exhaustive scheme of regulation, of which the labor legislation is merely an incident. As a result, the decision in Texas & N. 0. R. Co. v. Railway Clerks, 281 U. S. 548, is not con- trolling. Decisions such as Stafford v. Wallace, 258 U. S. 495, and Chicago Board of Trade v. Olsen, 262 U. S. 1, which sustain federal regulation of stockyards and grain ex- changes, have no application to the present case. Grain exchanges and stockyards are instrumentalities of inter- state commerce in much the same sense as the actual carriers of interstate commerce. They are focal points through which the stream of commerce in grains and cattle sweeps on its way from producer to the ultimate consumer. The activities which were regulated in both cases were activities in the stream of commerce and exerted a direct effect upon its flow. Neither case sanc- tions the extension of the doctrine to production activi- ties which may indirectly affect the stream of commerce. Carter v. Carter Coal Co., 298 U. S. 238. Cf. Swift & Co. v. United States, 196 U. S. 376; Hill v. Wallace, 259 U. S. 44; Tagg Bros. & Moorhead v. United States, 280 U. S. 420. Tyson & Bro. v. Banton, 273 U. S. 418. The petitioner relies upon decisions which have upheld the application of the Anti-Trust Laws to industrial con- spiracies, such as Coronado Coal Co. v. United Mine Workers, 268 U. S. 295. These were cases involving con- spiracies to restrain interstate commerce by means of local combinations. The element of an intentional inter- ference with the movement of interstate commerce was essential in these cases, not only because an intent to restrain commerce was a part of the proscribed offense, but also because the existence of such an intent made the effect on interstate commerce necessarily direct. This is shown by a comparison of the first Coronado case, 259 146212*-37-2 OCTOBER TERM, 1936. Argument for Respondent. 301 U.S. volving more than twenty dollars. If, as the petitioner contends, the action of the Board should be considered in the nature of a suit in equity, with authority in the Board to award a mandatory injunction restoring em- ployment, with incidental damages for back pay, then the Act violates the provision of Art. III of the Consti- tution, for it deprives the constitutional courts of their authority to try constitutional and jurisdictional issues. The present case presents a controversy between em- ployees and the respondent, in which the petitioner has directed the restoration to employment of the complain- ing employees, with back pay. This being the case, it is a controversy between private citizens, enforcing private rights. The failure to provide means for a trial de novo of jurisdictional issues in such a case is fatal. Crowell v. Benson, 285 U. S. 22. The proceedings of the Board are not comparable to those of the Federal Trade Commission. The petitibner's order constitutes an unlawful inter- ference with the right of the respondent to manage its own business. The law has always been hesitant to interfere in ques- tions of employer-employee relationships. From the standpoint of the employee, the law has recognized that he should not be forced into a relationship which may be distasteful, and from the employer's viewpoint, the courts have held that the right to judge the capabilities of em- ployees is absolutely essential to the efficient manage- ment of the employer's business. The question of retain- ing or discharging an employee involves delicate consid- erations of discretion which the law is loath to attempt to weigh. The facts of the present case show the dangers of bureaucratic interference, in that each discharge in- volved some admitted fault on the part of the complain- ing employee, but the petitioner determined that it was LABOR BOARD v. JONES & LAUGHLIN. 21 Argument for Respondent. better qualified to decide and that the respondent's ac- tion had been too drastic. This is clearly an interference with the normal right of the respondent to manage its own business, because it is a dictatorial usurpation of the respondent's discretion to determine the capabilities of its employees. Another dangerous implication of the law and of the petitioner's decision is that it confers a kind of civil service status upon union employees, which will inevitably en- courage laziness, insolence, and inefficiency. This is con- firmed by a notice which the petitioner, in its decision, has ordered the respondent to post in its plants, to the effect that it will not discharge members of the union. It would be the equivalent of informing the employees that if they become affiliated with the union, they will be thenceforth immune from discharge. We submit that the underlying philosophy of the Na- tional Labor Relations Act is a constant threat to the respondent's normal right to manage its own business. Not only does the Act provide, in effect, that an unquali- fied bureau will sit as a higher court over the respondent's employment office, but it also ordains that the respondent must deal with whatever union may be selected by a majority of its employees and refuse to negotiate with other employees or their representatives. The power which it delegates to, a majority of the employees to bind the minority is arbitrary and unfair and will necessarily lead to the suffocation of minorities and to the closed shop, forcing the employer to herd his employees into an or- ganization which is not of their own choice. This will in turn seriously disturb the discipline and morale of the respondent's employees, with obvious injury to them and to the respondent. Cf. Carter v. Carter Coal Co., 298 U. S. 238. 22 OCTOBER TERM, 1936. Opinion of the Court. 301 U. S. MR. CHIEF JUSTICE HUGHES delivered the opinion of the Court. In a proceeding under the National Labor Relations Act of 1935,1 the National Labor Relations Board found that the respondent, Jones & Laughlin Steel Corporation, had violated the Act by engaging in unfair labor practices affecting commerce. The proceeding was instituted by the Beaver Valley Lodge No. 200, affiliated with the Amalgamated Association of Iron, Steel and Tin Workers of America, a labor organization. The unfair labor prac- tices charged were that the corporation was discriminat- ing against members of the union with regard, to hire and tenure of employment, and was coercing and intimidat- ing its employees in order to interfere with their self- organization. The discriminatory and coercive action alleged was the discharge of certain employees. The National Labor Relations Board, sustaining the charge, ordered the corporation to cease and desist from such discrimination and coercion, to offer reinstatement to ten of the employees named, to make good their losses in pay, and to post for thirty days notices that the cor- poration would not discharge or discriminate against members, or those desiring to become members, of the labor union. As the corporation failed to comply, the Board petitioned the Circuit Court of Appeals to enforce the order. The court denied the petition, holding that the order lay beyond the range of federal power. 83 F. (2d) 998. We granted certiorari. The scheme of the National Labor Relations Act- which is too long to be quoted in full-may be briefly stated. The first section sets forth findings with respect to the injury to commerce resulting from the denial by employers of the right of employees to organize and from the refusal of employers to accept the procedure of col- 'Act of July 5, 1935, 49 Stat. 449, 29 U. S. C. 151. LABOR BOARD v. JONES & LAUGHLIN. 25 Opinion of the Court. The Board thereupon issued its complaint against the respondent alleging that its action in discharging the employees in question constituted unfair labor practices affecting commerce within the meaning of § 8, subdivi- sions (1) and (3), and § 2, subdivisions (6) and (7) of the Act. Respondent, appearing specially for the purpose of objecting to the jurisdiction of the Board, filed its answer. Respondent admitted the discharges, but alleged that they were made because of inefficiency or violation of rules or for other good reasons and were not ascribable to union membership or activities. As an affirmative defense respondent challenged the constitutional validity of the statute and its applicability in the instant case. Notice of hearing was given and respondent appeared by counsel. The Board first took up the issue of jurisdiction and evidence was presented by both the Board and the respondent. Respondent then moved to dismiss the com- plaint for lack of jurisdiction; and, on denial of that mo- tion, respondent in accordance with its special appearance withdrew from further participation in the hearing. The Board received evidence upon the merits and at its close made its findings and order. Contesting the ruling of the Board, the respondent argues (1) that the Act is in reality a regulation of labor relations and not of interstate commerce; (2) that the Act can have no application to the respondent's relations with its production employees because they are not sub- ject to regulation by the federal government; and (3) that the provisions of the Act violate § 2 of Article III and the Fifth and Seventh Amendments of the Constitu- tion of the United States. The facts as to the nature and scope of the business of the Jones & Laughlin Steel Corporation have been found by the Labor Board and, so far as they are essential to the determination of this controversy, they are not in dis- pute. The Labor Board has found: The corporation is OCTOBER TERM, 1936. Opinion of the Court. 301 U. S. organized under the laws of Pennsylvania and has its principal office at Pittsburgh. It is engaged in the busi- ness of manufacturing iron and steel in plants situated in Pittsburgh and nearby Aliquippa, Pennsylvania. It man- ufactures and distributes a widely diversified line of steel and pig iron, being the fourth largest producer of steel in the United States. With its subsidiaries-nineteen in number-it is a completely integrated enterprise, owning and operating ore, coal and limestone properties, lake and river transportation facilities and terminal railroads lo- cated at its manufacturing plants. It owns or controls mines in Michigan and Minnesota. It operates four ore steamships on the Great Lakes, used in the transporta- tion of ore to its factories. It owns coal mines in Penn- sylvania. It operates towboats and steam barges used in carrying coal to its factories. It owns limestone proper- ties in various places in Pennsylvania and West Virginia. It owns the Monongahela connecting railroad which con- nects the plants of the Pittsburgh works and forms an in- terconnection with the Pennsylvania, New York Central and Baltimore and Ohio Railroad systems. It owns the Aliquippa and Southern Railroad Company which con- nects the Aliquippa works with the Pittsburgh and Lake Erie, part of the New York Central system. Much of its product is shipped to its warehouses in Chicago, Detroit, Cincinnati and Memphis,-to the last two places by means of its own barges and transportation equipment. In Long Island City, New York, and in New Orleans it operates structural steel fabricating shops in connection with the warehousing of semi-finished materials sent from its works. Through one of its wholly-owned subsidiaries it owns, leases and operates stores, warehouses and yards for the distribution of equipment and supplies for drilling and operating oil and gas wells and for pipe lines, re- fineries and pumping stations. It has sales offices in LABOR BOARD v. JONES & LAUGHLIN. 27 Opinion of the Court. twenty cities in the United States and a wholly-owned subsidiary which is devoted exclusively to distributing its product in Canada. Approximately 75 per cent. of its product is shipped out of Pennsylvania. Summarizing these operations, the Labor Board con- cluded that the works in Pittsburgh and Aliquippa "might be likened to the heart of a self-contained, highly inte- grated body. They draw in the raw materials from Michigan, Minnesota, West Virginia, Pennsylvania in part through arteries and by means controlled by the re- spondent; they transform the materials and then pump them out to all parts of the nation through the vast mech- anism which the respondent has elaborated." To carry on the activities of the entire steel industry, 33,000 men mine ore, 44,000 men mine coal, 4,000 men quarry limestone, 16,000 men manufacture coke, 343,000 men manufacture steel, and 83,000 men transport its product. Respondent has about 10,000 employees in its Aliquippa plant, which is located in a community of about 30,000 persons. Respondent points to evidence that the Aliquippa plant, in which the discharged men were employed, con- tains complete facilities for the production of finished and semi-finished iron and steel products from raw materials; that its works consist primarily of a by-product coke plant for the production of coke; blast furnaces for the production of pig iron; open hearth furnaces and Besse- mer converters for the production of steel; blooming mills for the reduction of steel ingots into smaller shapes; and a number of finishing mills such as structural mills, rod mills, wire mills and the like. In addition there are other buildings, structures and equipment, storage yards, docks and an intra-plant storage system. Respondent's opera- tions at these works are carried on in two distinct stages, the first being the conversion of raw materials into pig 30 OCTOBER TERM, 1936. Opinion of the Court. 301 U. S. by reason of the limitation upon the federal power which inheres in the constitutional grant, as well as because of the explicit reservation of the Tenth Amendment. Schechter Corp. v. United States, 295 U. S. 495, 549, 550, 554. The authority of the federal government may not be pushed to such an extreme as to destroy the distinc- tion, which the commerce clause itself establishes, between commerce "among the several States" and the. internal concerns of a State. That distinction between what is national and what is local in the activities of commerce is vital to the maintenance of our federal system. Id. But we are not at liberty to deny effect to specific pro- visions, which Congress has constitutional power to enact, by superimposing upon them inferences from general leg- islative declarations of an ambiguous character, even if found in the same statute. The cardinal principle of statutory construction is to save and not to destroy. We have repeatedly held that as between two possible inter- pretations of a statute, by one of which it would be un- constitutional and by the other valid, our plain duty is to adopt that which will save the act. Even to avoid a serious doubt the rule is the same. Federal Trade Comm'n v. American Tobacco Co., 264 U. S. 298, 307; Panama R. Co. v. Johnson, 264 U. S. 375, 390; Missouri Pacific R. Co. v. Boone, 270 U. S. 466, 472; Blodgett v. Holden, 275 U. S. 142, 148; Richmond Screw Anchor Co. v. United States, 275 U. S. 331, 346. We think it clear that the National Labor Relations Act may be construed so as to operate within the sphere of constitutional authority. The jurisdiction conferred upon the Board, and invoked in this instance, is found in § 10 (a), which provides: "SEc. 10 (a). The Board is empowered, as hereinafter provided, to prevent any person from engaging in any unfair labor practice (listed in section 8) affecting commerce." LABOR BOARD v. JONES & LAUGHLIN. 31 Opinion of the Court. The critical words of this provision, prescribing the limits of the Board's authority in dealing with the labor practices, are "affecting commerce." The Act specifically defines the "commerce" to which it refers (§ 2 (6)): "The term 'commerce' means trade, traffic, commerce, transportation, or communication among the several States, or between the District of Columbia or any Terri- tory of the United States and any State or other Territory, or between any foreign country and any State, Territory, or the District of Columbia, or within the District of Columbia or any Territory, or between points in the same State but through any other State or any Territory or the District of Columbia or any foreign country." There can be no question that the commerce thus con- templated by the Act (aside from that within a Territory or the District of Columbia) is interstate and foreign commerce in the constitutional sense. The Act also defines the term "affecting commerce" (§ 2 (7)): "The term 'affecting commerce' means in commerce, or burdening or obstructing commerce or the free flow of commerce, or having led or tending to lead to a labor dis- pute burdening or obstructing commerce or the free flow of commerce." This definition is one of exclusion as well as inclusion. The grant of authority to the Board does not purport to extend to the relationship between all industrial em- ployees and employers. Its terms do not impose collec- tive bargaining upon all industry regardless of effects upon interstate or foreign commerce. It purports to reach only what may be deemed to burden or obstruct that commerce and, thus qualified, it must be construed as contemplating the exercise of control within constitu- tional bounds. It is a familiar principle that acts which directly burden or obstruct interstate or foreign com- merce, or its free flow, are within the reach of the con- gressional power. Acts having that effect are not OCTOBER TERM, 1936. Opinion of the Court. 301 U. S. rendered immune because they grow out of labor disputes. See Texas & N. 0. R . Co. v. Railway Clerks, 281 U. S. 548, 570; Schechter Corp. v. United States, supra, pp. 544, 545; Virginian Railway v. System Federation, No. 40, 300 U. S. 515. It is the effect upon commerce, not the source of the injury, which is the criterion. Second Employers' Liability Cases, 223 U. S. 1, 51. Whether or not partic- ular action does affect commerce in such a close and intimate fashion as t9 be subject to federal control, and hence to lie within the authority conferred upon the Board, is left by the statute to be determined as in- dividual cases arise. We are thus to inquire whether in the instant case the constitutional boundary has been passed. Second. The unfair labor practices in question.-The unfair labor practices found by the Board are those defined in § 8, subdivisions (1) and (3). These provide: Sec. 8. It shall be an unfair labor practice for an em- ployer- "(1) To interfere with, restrain, or coerce employees in the exercise of the rights guaranteed in section 7." "(3) By discrimination in regard to hire or tenure of employment or any term or condition of employment to encourage or discourage membership in any labor organization: . . ' What is quoted above is followed by this proviso-not here in- volved--"Provided, That nothing in this Act, or in the National Industrial Recovery Act (U. S. C., Supp. VII, title 15, secs. 701-712), as amended from time to time, or in any code or agreement approved or prescribed thereunder, or in any other statute of the United States, shall preclude an employer from making an agreement with a labor organization (not established, .'naintained, or assisted by any action defined in this Act as an unfair labor practice) to require as a con- dition of employment membership therein, if such labor organization is the representative of the employees as provided in section 9 (a), in the appropriate collective bargaining unit covered by such agreement when made." LABOR BOARD v. JONES & LAUGHLIN. 35 Opinion of the Court. iron ore, coal and limestone along well-defined paths to the steel mills, thence through them, and thence in the form of steel products into the consuming centers of the country-a definite and well-understood course of busi- ness." It is urged that these activities constitute a "stream" or "flow" of commerce, of which the Aliquippa manufacturing plant is the focal point, and that indus- trial strife at that point would cripple the entire move- ment. Reference is made to our decision sustaining the Packers and Stockyards Act.5 Stafford v. Wallace, 258 U. S. 495. The Court found that the stockyards were but a "throat" through Which the current of commerce flowed and the transactions which there occurred could not be separated from that movement. Hence the sales at the stockyards were not regarded as merely local trans- actions, for while they created "a local change of title" they did not "stop the flow," but merely changed the private interests in the subject of the current. Distin- guishing the cases which upheld the power of the State to impose a non-discriminatory tax upon property which the owner intended to transport to another State, but which was not in actual transit and was held within the State subject to the disposition of the owner, the Court remarked: "The question, it should be observed, is not with respect to the extent of the power of Congress to regulate interstate commerce, but whether a particular exercise of state power in view of its nature and operation must be deemed to be in conflict with this paramount authority." Id., p. 526. See Minnesota v. Blasius, 290 U. S. 1, 8. Applying the doctrine of Stafford v. Wallace, supra, the Court sustained the Grain Futures Act of 1922 6 with respect to transactions on the Chicago Board of Trade, although these transactions were "not in and of themselves interstate commerce." Congress had found '42 Stat. 159. '42 Stat. 998. 36 OCTOBER TERM, 1936. Opinion of the Court. 301 U. S. that they had become "a constantly recurring burden and obstruction to that commerce." Chicago Board of Trade v. Olsen, 262 U. S. 1, 32; compare Hill v. Wallace, 259 U. S. 44, 69. See, also, Tagg Bros. & Moorhead v. United States, 280 U. S. 420. Respondent contends that the instant case presents material distinctions. Respondent says that the Ali- quippa plant is extensive in size and represents a large investment in buildings, machinery and equipment. The. raw materials which are brought to the plant are delayed for long periods and, after being subjected to manufac- turing processes, "are changed substantially as to char- acter, utility and value." The finished products which emerge "are to a large extent manufactured without ref- erence to pre-existing orders and contracts and are en- tirely different from the raw materials which enter at the other end." Hence respondent argues that "If importa- tion and exportation in interstate commerce do not singly transfer purely local activities into the field of congres- sional regulation, it should follow that their combination would not alter the local situation." Arkadelphia Mill- ing Co. v. St. Louis Southwestern Ry. Co., 249 U. S. 134, 151; Oliver Iron Co. v. Lord, supra. We do not find it necessary to determine whether these features of defendant's business dispose of the asserted analogy to the "stream of commerce" cases. The in- stances in which that metaphor has been used are but particular, and not exclusive, illustrations of the protec- tive power which the Government invokes in support of the present Act. The congressional authority to protect interstate commerce from burdens and obstructions is not limited to transactions which can be deemed to be an essential part of a "flow" of interstate or foreign com- merce. Burdens and obstructions may be due to injuri- ous action springing from other sources. The fundamen- tal principle is that the power to regulate commerce is LABOR BOARD v. JONES & LAUGHLIN. 37 Opinion of the Court. the power to enact "all appropriate legislation" for "its protection and advancement" (The Daniel Ball, 10 Wall. 557, 564); to adopt measures "to promote its growth and insure its safety" (Mobile County v. Kimball, 102 U. S. 691, 696, 697); "to foster, protect, control and restrain." Second Employers' Liability Cases, supra, p. 47. See Texas & N. 0. R. Co. v. Railway Clerks, supra. That power is plenary and may be exerted to protect interstate commerce "no matter what the source of the dangers which threaten it." Second Employers' Liability Cases, p. 51; Schechter Corp. v. United States, supra. Although activities may be intrastate in character when separately considered, if they have such a close and substantial rela- tion to interstate commerce that their control is essential or appropriate to protect that commerce from burdens and obstructions, Congress cannot be denied the power to exercise that control. Schechter Corp. v. United States, supra. Undoubtedly the scope of this power must be considered in the light of our dual system of government and may not be extended so as to embrace effects upon interstate commerce so indirect and remote that to em- brace them, in view of our complex society, would effec- tually obliterate the distinction between what is national and what is local and create a completely centralized government. Id. The question is necessarily one of de- gree. As the Court said in Chicago Board of Trade v. Olsen, supra, p. 37, repeating what had been said in Staf- ford v. Wallace, supra: "Whatever amounts to more or less constant practice, and threatens to obstruct or unduly to burden the freedom of interstate commerce is within the regulatory. power of Congress under the commerce clause and it is primarily for Congress to consider and decide the fact of the danger and meet it." That intrastate activities, by reason of close and inti- mate relation to' interstate commerce, may fall within federal control is demonstrated in the case of carriers who 40 OCTOBER TERM, 1936. Opinion of the Court. 301 U. S. and that it had not been shown that the activities there involved-a local strike-brought them within the provi- sions of the Anti-Trust Act, notwithstanding the broad terms of that statute. A similar conclusion was reached in United Leather Workers v. Herkert & Meisel Trunk Co., supra, Industrial Association v. United States, supra, and Levering & Garrigues Co. v. Morrin, 289 U. S. 103, 107. But in the first Coronado case the Court also said that "if Congress deems certain recurring practices, though not really part of interstate commerce, likely to obstruct, restrain or burden it, it has the power to sub- ject them to national supervision and restraint." 259 U. S. p. 408. And in the second Coronado case the Court ruled that while the mere reduction in the supply of an article to be shipped in interstate commerce by the illegal or tortious prevention of its manufacture or production is ordinarily an indirect and remote obstruction to that com- merce, nevertheless when the "intent of those unlawfully preventing the manufacture or production is shown to be to restrain or control the supply entering and moving in interstate commerce, or the price of it in interstate mar- kets, their action is a direct violation of .the Anti-Trust Act." 268 U. S. p. 310. And the existence of that intent may.be a necessary inference from proof of the direct and substantial effect produced by the employees' conduct. Industrial Association v. United States, 268 U. S. p. 81. What was absent from the evidence in the first Coronado case appeared in the second and the Act was accordingly applied to the mining employees. It is thus apparent that the fact that the employees here concerned were engaged in production is not de- terminative. The question remains as to the effect upon interstate commerce of the labor practice involved. In the Schechter case, supra, we found that the effect there was so remote as to be beyond the federal power. To find "immediacy or directness" there was to find it "almost LABOR BOARD v, JONES & LAUGHLIN. 41 Opinion of the Court. everywhere," a result inconsistent with the 'maintenance of our federal system. In the Carter case, supra, the Court was of the opinion that the provisions of the statute relating to production were invalid upon several grounds,-that there was improper delegation of legisla- tive power, and that the requirements not only went be- yond any sustainable measure of protection of interstate commerce but were also inconsistent with due process. These cases are not controlling here. Fourth. Effects of the unfair labor practice in respond- ent's enterprise.-Giving full weight to respondent's con- tention with respect to a break in the complete continuity of the "stream of commerce" by reason of respondent's manufacturing operations, the fact remains that the stop- page of those operations by industrial strife would have a most serious effect upon interstate commerce. In view of respondent's far-flung activities, it is idle to say that the effect would be indirect or remote. It is obvious that it would be immediate and might be catastrophic. We are asked to shut our eyes to the plainest facts of our na- tional life and to deal with the question of direct and in- direct effects in an intellectual vacuum. Because there may be but indirect and remote effects upon interstate commerce in connection with a host of local enterprises throughout the country, it does not follow that other in- dustrial activities do not have such a close and intimate relation to interstate commerce as to make the presence of industrial strife a matter of the most urgent national con- cern. When industries organize themselves on a national scale, making their relation to interstate commerce the dominant factor in their activities, how can it be main- tained that their industrial labor relations constitute a forbidden field into which Congress may not enter when it is necessary to protect interstate commerce from the paralyzing consequences of industrial war? We have often said that interstate commerce itself is a practical OCTOBER TERM, 1936. Opinion of the Court. 301 U. S. conception. It is equally true that interferences with that commerce must be appraised by a judgment that does not ignore actual experience. Experience has abundantly demonstrated that the recognition of the right of employees to self-organization and to have representatives of their own choosing for the purpose of collective bargaining is often an essential con- dition of industrial peace. Refusal to confer and negotiate has been one of the most prolific causes of strife. This is such an outstanding fact in the history of labor disturbances that it is a proper subject of judicial notice and requires no citation of instances. The opinion in the case of Virginian Railway Co. v. System Federa- tion, No. 40, supra, points out that, in the case of carriers, experience has shown that before the amendment, of 1934, of the Railway Labor Act "when there was no dis- pute as to the organizations authorized to represent the employees and when there was a willingness of the em- ployer to meet such representative for a discussion of their grievances, amicable adjustment of differences had generally followed and strikes had been avoided." That, on the other hand, "a prolific source of dispute had been the maintenance by the railroad of company unions and the denial by railway management of the authority of representatives chosen by their employees." The opinion in that case also points to the large measure of success of the labor policy embodied in the Railway Labor Act. But with respect to the appropriateness of the recognition of self-organization and representation in the promotion of peace, the question is not essentially different in the case of employees in industries of such a character that interstate commerce is put in jeopardy from the case of employees of transportation companies. And of what avail is it to protect the facility of transportation, if inter- state commerce is throttled with respect to the com- modities to be transported! LABOR BOARD v. JONES & LAUGHLIN. 45 Opinion of the Court. tion against the Company's entering into any contract concerning rules, rates of pay and working conditions ex- cept with a chosen representative was "designed only to prevent collective bargaining with anyone purporting to represent employees" other than the representative they had selected. It was taken "to prohibit the negotiation of labor contracts generally applicable to employees" in the described unit with any other representative than the one so chosen, "but not as precluding such individual con- tracts" as the Company might "elect to make directly with individual employees." We think this construction also applies to § 9 (a) of the National Labor Relations Act. The Act does not compel agreements between employ- ers and employees. It does not compel any agreement whatever. It does not prevent the employer "from re- fusing to make a collective contract and hiring individu- als on whatever terms" the employer "may by unilateral action determine." 12 The Act expressly provides in § 9 (a) that any individual employee or a group of employees shall have the right at any time to present grievances to their employer. The theory of the Act is that free opportunity for negotiation with accredited representa- tives of employees is likely to promote industrial peace and may bring about the adjustments and agreements which the Act in itself does not attempt to compel. As we said in Texas & N. 0. R. Co. v. Railway Clerks, supra, and repeated in Virginian Railway Co. v. System Feder- ation, No. 40, supra, the cases of Adair v. United States, 208 U. S. 161, and Coppage v. Kansas, 236 U. S. 1, are inapplicable to legislation of this character. The Act does not interfere with the normal exercise of the right of the employer to select its employees or to discharge them. The employer may not, under cover of that right, intimidate or coerce its employees with respect to their "See Note 11. OCTOBER TERM, 1936. Opinion of the Court. 301 U. S. self-organization and representation, and, on the other hand, the Board is not entitled to make its authority a pretext for interference with the right of discharge when that right is exercised for other reasons than such intimi- dation and coercion. The true purpose is the subject of investigation with full opportunity to show the facts. It would seem that when employers freely recognize the right of their employees to their own organizations and their unrestricted right of representation there will be much less occasion for controversy in respect to the free and appropriate exercise of the right of selection and dis- charge. The Act has been criticised as one-sided in its applica- tion; that it subjects the employer to supervision and restraint and leaves untouched the abuses for which em- ployees may be responsible; that it fails to provide a more comprehensive plan,-with better assurances of fairness to both sides and with increased chances of suc- cess in bringing about, if not compelling, equitable solu- tions of industrial disputes affecting interstate commerce. But we are dealing with the power of Congress, not with a particular policy or with the extent to which policy should go. We have frequently said that the legislative author- ity, exerted within its proper field, need not embrace all the evils within its reach. The Constitution does not forbid "cautious advance, step by step," in dealing with the evils which are exhibited in activities within the range of legislative power. Carroll v. Greenwich Insur- ance Co., 199 U. S. 401, 411; Keokee Coke Co. v. Taylor, 234 U. S. 224, 227; Miller v. Wilson, 236 U. S. 373, 384; Sproles v. Binford, 286 U. S. 374, 396. The question in such cases is whether the legislature, in whht it does prescribe, has gone beyond constitutional limits. The procedural provisions of the Act are assailed. But these provisions, as we construe them, do not offend against the constitutional requirements governing the LABOR BOARD v. JONES & LAUGHLIN. 47 Opinion of the Court. creation and action of administrative bodies. See Inter- state Commerce Comm'n v. Louisville & Nashville R. Co., 227 U. S. 88, 91. The Act establishes standards to which the Board must conform. There must be com- plaint, notice and hearing. The Board must receive evi- dence and make findings. The findings as to the facts are to be conclusive, but only if supported by evidence. The order of the Board is subject to review by the desig- nated court, and only when sustained by the court may the order be enforced. Upon that review all questions of the jurisdiction of the Board and the regularity of its proceedings, all questions of constitutional right or statu- tory authority, are open to examination by the court. We construe the procedural provisions as affording ade- quate opportunity to secure judicial protection against ar- bitrary action in accordance with the well-settled rules applicable to administrative agencies set up by Congress to aid in the enforcement of valid legislation. It is not necessary to repeat these rules which have frequently been declared. None of them appears to have been trans- gressed in the instant case. Respondent was notified and heard. It had opportunity to meet the charge of unfair labor practices upon the merits, and by withdraw- ing from the hearing it declined to avail itself of that opportunity. The facts found by the Board support its order and the evidence supports the findings. Respondent has no just ground for complaint on this score. The order of the Board required the reinstatement of the employees who were found to have been discharged because of their "union activity" and for the purpose of "discouraging membership in the union." That re- quirement was authorized by the Act. § 10 (c). In Texas & N. 0. R. Co. v. Railway Clerks, supra, a similar order for restoration to service was made by the court in contempt proceedings for the violation of an injunc- tion issued by the court to restrain an interference with