[Letterhead] THE ASSOCIATED INDUSTRIES OF FLORIDA 724-725 Graham Building JACKSONVILLE, FLORIDA W.W. SIMMONS, President JOHN P. INGLE, Secretary August 5, 1942 SUPREME COURT APPROVES LEGALITY OF ATTORNEY GENERAL WATSON'S SUIT Tallahassee, Aug. 4 (AP) - The Florida Supreme Court declined today to stop a suit by Attorney General Tom Watson seeking to invalidate closed shop contracts between the Tampa Shipbuilding Company and 19 labor unions affiliated with the American Federation of Labor. Watson's suit is pending before Circuit Judge L.L. Parks at Tampa. "I am delighted that the technical barrier of threatened prohibition has been surmounted. That gets us started so that we do not appear to be barking up a leafless tree," the red-haired Attorney General said. The State's highest court divided 4 to 3 in holding that "prohibition against Judge Parks' continuing with the suit is not applicable under the showing made." Chief Justice Brown and Justices Terrell, Whitfield and Thomas made up the majority. Justices Buford, Chapman and Adams dissented. PRESIDENTIAL ORDER PROHIBITING DISCRIMINATION AGAINST NEGROES The State of Florida, as well as the other Southern States, is faced with what bids fair to become a most difficult problem. The Social Security Board feels that, particularly in the South, negroes are not being employed in defense industries in the same proportion to the population, and under the same conditions as the white workers. This condition prompted the President to issue on July 25, 1941, Executive Order No. 8802, requiring all holders of defense contracts not to discriminate against any workers because of race or color. As a result of this Order, a Federal committee on "Fair Employment Practice" was created and this Committee has held hearings on discrimination in a number of cities, several being in Southern Cities. This committee has issued "directives" to a number of companies to abandon discriminatory restrictions against negroes. The United States Employment Service is directly concerned with carrying out