Correspondence: 1929, Feb 6 - 1930, Jan 6., 1929

The year 1929 was dominated by the Association's attempt to institute workmen's compensation in the few southern states without it. The curtailment of contributions made the financial conditions even more critical than usual. Andrews was hard-pressed to match the Chadbourne pledge. The AALL's first mid-year annual meeting was organized in March. In May, and throughout the year, Andrews corresponded with John R. Commons and others concerning a very extensive study by the Association of labor law administration in the United States. Later that month Frances Perkins appointed Andrews to the Governor's Commission on Unemployment Problems in New York State. Andrews' attacks on a new appointee to the United States Employees Compensation Commission upset Fiorello La Guardia, who wrote to Andrews that the man in question "...may not have a college degree but he does have a heart." (6/11/29) The Association's relationship with the International Longshore-men's Association suffered when the new president, Joseph Ryan, was displeased by Andrews' actions in the union's behalf (6/20/29). Congressman G. W. Norris wrote Andrews (6/22/29) that Ryan informed him that the Longshoremen were not behind the legislation that Andrews had requested Norris to introduce. William Doak wrote (7/5/29) in regard to compensation for railroad workers that some of the men were too strongly opposed to it for the union to favor such legislation. The Andrews' enjoyed a long working trip across the country in the summer. During most of the fall, Andrews worked on unemployment prob-lems. In a December letter, John Fitch (12/6/29) reported that Labor News had suggested that the AALL be asked to draft a bill to create a federal unemployment insurance system, and that if the Association did not do so, a new national organization would be formed to push such legislation. In January John Andrews and AALL staff member Cornelius Cochrane traveled in the South to generate support for workmen's compensation legislation.