Memorandum submitted to Harry Hopkins, 1945

Important disputes in the garment industry were submitted to a permanent Board of Arbitration who would hand down final decisions. On January 24, 1914, the Board of Arbitration created a Committee on Immediate Action that consisted of chief clerks as well as an Impartial Chairman, whose job was to arbitrate all disputes that the clerks were unable to settle and supervise labor conditions. This collection contains the decisions of the Impartial Chairman of the Coat and Suit Industry in New York City. The collection consists of the bound summaries of decisions and complaints that came before the Impartial Chairman and include the case name, brief descriptions, and the board decision. The cases are individually numbered and arranged by year beginning in 1924 and ending in 1962. Also included is a complete transcript of a hearing. The bound decisions in the later years are particularly helpful as they contain an index for the cases according to subject. Through the years there were a number of Impartial Chairmen who are identified on the cases and include (along with the dates of their decisions in the collection): Raymond V. Ingersoll (1924-1931), George W. Alger (1932-1935), Sol A. Rosenblatt (1931-1962), James J. Walker (1940-1945), Harry L. Hopkins (1945-1946), and Charles Poletti (1946).