In the autumn of 1959, after extended hearings and sharp debate, Congress enacted the Labor-Management Reporting and Disclosure Act of 1959, more generally known as the Landrum-Griffin Act. This legislation marked another change in our national labor policy by subjecting important aspects of internal trade union administration to federal government regulation. At the time there were pronounced divisions about the need for and the adequacy of the regulation, as well as expressions of concern about its ultimate consequences.As this volume goes to press, the legislation has been in effect for slightly more than four years. In the life of a law, four years is a short span, especially the first four when its administration is inevitably marked by experimentation and adjustment to concrete situations not known or considered when the law was passed. Therefore, it clearly is too early to attempt a definitive appraisal of the long-run impact of the law or its administration; but it is not too early to begin the process of evaluation.This volume is tantamount to the first appraisal of the returns on election night-admittedly subject to revision as additional evidence accumulates, but nonetheless useful and necessary for a later judgment.
