Wagner Labor Relations Act

The Wagner Labor Relations Act was a 1935 measure guaranteeing workers the right to join unions and bargain collectively. In the book’s account, it stands among the far-reaching New Deal laws that Harry S. Truman supported as a senator—not through public advocacy, but through his vote.

Purpose and Provisions

The act’s stated significance here is its protection of workers’ ability to organize in unions and bargain collectively. The account identifies those rights without detailing the law’s administration or enforcement.

Place in the New Deal

Truman entered national public life at the start of the Second Hundred Days, when the New Deal’s emphasis had expanded from economic recovery to reform. The act appears among several major measures passed during this period, alongside the establishment of the Works Progress Administration, the Social Security Act, and rural electrification.

Truman’s Senate Role

Truman voted for the act as a member of the Democratic majority. He did not speak in its favor or participate in debate; his contribution, as described, was legislative support by voting. This quiet role matched the account’s broader description of his early Senate years, which were devoted chiefly to committee work and learning the institution’s practices.

Historical Record

The book presents the act both as a specific guarantee of union membership and collective bargaining rights and as part of the ambitious reform program of the Roosevelt years. Its index also places it under labor and labor unions, linking the measure to the wider subject of organized labor.