Special Message to the Congress Transmitting Convention Adopted by the International Labor Organization.

To the Congress of the United States:

In accordance with the obligations of the United States of America as a member of the International Labor Organization I transmit for the consideration of the Congress an authentic text of a Convention (No. 102) concerning minimum standards of social security, adopted on June 28, 1952 by the International Labor Conference at its thirty-fifth session, held at Geneva from June 4 to June 28, 1952.

I transmit also the report of the Acting Secretary of State with regard to the Convention, together with a copy of a letter from the Secretary of Labor to the Secretary of State, setting forth the coordinated view of the interested departments and agencies of the executive branch of the Government with respect to the Convention.

Since, under the constitutional system of the United States, the subject matter of the Convention is appropriate in part for action by the States and in part for action by the Federal Government the Convention is regarded, in accordance with Article 19, paragraph 7(b), of the constitution of the International Labor Organization, as not suitable for ratification but rather for referral to the appropriate Federal and State authorities for their consideration.

I am sending texts of the Convention to the Secretary of the Interior in order that they may be transmitted to the Governments of Alaska, Guam, Hawaii, and the Virgin Islands for such action as may be deemed suitable. I am also transmitting the Convention to the Secretary of the Interior for appropriate action and advice with regard to American Samoa, and to the Secretary of the Interior and the Secretary of the Navy for appropriate action and advice with regard to those areas of the Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands under their respective jurisdictions.

DWIGHT D. EISENHOWER