Davis-Bacon: Who was Bacon?

The President recently issued an executive order temporarily abrogating the provisions of the Davis-Bacon Act for the purposes of expediting reconstruction of hurricane-demolished areas.

Davis-Bacon provides that 'the prevailing wage' must be paid on Federal contracts--and typically, States and municipalities also invoke 'prevailing-wage' language in their contracts.

The Act is a Sacred Cow for Big Labor--and, by the way, for a number of contractor-firms, as well--it's protection for them.

But who is this guy Bacon? and why did he ram this through Congress in 1931? Mike Shedlock did some homework.

It's not very pretty.

"The co-author of the Davis-Bacon Act, Rep. Robert Bacon, represented a congressional district in Long Island. Bacon's opinions on issues like immigration demonstrate the extent to which his views were patently racist. For example, in 1927, the same year he introduced the Davis-Bacon Act, he submitted the following statement from 34 university professors concerning a new immigration law into the Congressional Record:

"'We urge the extension of the quota system to all countries of North and South America from which we have substantial immigration and in which the population is not predominantly of the white race… Only by this method can that large proportion of our population which is descended from the colonists…have their proper racial representation… Congress wisely concluded that only by such a system of proportional representation…could the racial status quo be maintained.'

And as one might expect, that race-animus has been quite effective. Let's quote Ron Paul:

"Most small construction firms cannot afford to operate under Davis-Bacon's rigid job classifications or hire the staff of lawyers and accountants needed to fill out the extensive paperwork required to bid on a federal contract. Therefore, Davis-Bacon prevents small firms from bidding on federal construction projects, which, unfortunately, constitute 20% of all construction projects in the United States.

"Because most minority-owned construction firms are small companies, Davis-Bacon keeps minority-owned firms from competing for federal construction contracts. The resulting disparities in employment create a demand for affirmative action, another ill-suited and ill-advised big government program.

"The racist effects of Davis-Bacon are no mere coincidence. In fact, many original supporters of Davis-Bacon, such as Rep. Clayton Allgood, bragged about supporting Davis-Bacon as a means of keeping `cheap colored labor' out of the construction industry.

Not only "cheap," but "colored." That's also "Mexican."

And the Dimowits, benighted but beholden (AFL-CIO) tell us that Bush is a Racist.

Right.