House Special Committee Investigating the National Labor Relations Board

On December 11, 1939, Virginia Democratic congressman Howard W. Smith (left), chairman of a special committee investigating the National Labor Relations Board, speaks off the record with William M. Leiserson, a member of the board. Leiserson would take the stand later that day as the first witness before the investigating committee. The recommendations of the so-called "Smith Committee" hearings resulted in the Taft-Hartley Act of 1947, which limited union activity.