The CIO news. (Cumberland, Md.) 1942-????, 1942-08-17
LOOKING AHEAD
By Len De Caux

By Len De Caux
TNHE SNEAKING propaganda of racial prejudice
- and intolerance is the poison gas with which
Hitler seeks to prepare the way for his troops In
every country. It's stencil is now clearly percepti-
BILE in the United States. And 1t is to labors credit
that it Is the first to sound the alarm.
A delegation of southern labor representatives
has recently visited Washington to call to the atten
ton of President Roosevelt series of events which
fit into pattern of conspiracy to promote racial
strife endangering war production and war unity.
4 X X
Among these events are the following
/. An inflammatory speech by Horace c. VIII
kinson former Ku Klux Khan leader, at Bessemer,
Ala, which has been widely circulated through the
South. Appealing throughout to anti-Negro preju-
dice, Wilkinson attacked the administration the
Presidents Fair Employment Practices Committee,
and both the Republican party and the New Deal
Democrats. He called for formation of state
wide, southwide and nationwide" League to Main
tain White Supremacy.
2. The rejection by Gov Dixon of Alabama OF
q war production contract because it contained the
usual non-dscrimination clause, and his attack on
the Fair Employment Committee, followed by
flood of propaganda against federal attempts to
prevent anti-Negro discrimination in war jobs.
r r
3. Dixons action has been used by anti-union
company officials to inflame racial feelings and to
attack labor Misunderstanding in threats and beat
ngs for union officials and strikes of whites against
Negroes or vice versa in mines and elsewhere.
a. An outbreak of anti-Negro violence, includ-
ing the beating and failing of Roland Hayes, Negro
tenor, his wife and daughter at Rome Ca; the re-
ported murder of Negro shipyard worker In Mo-
bile; the lynching of Willie Vinson in Texas; the
A~sv AwnA
the beating of many Negroes in Beaumont, Tex.
S. The political campaign of Gene Talmadge
in Georgia based on the single issue of race preju-
dice, which he is deliberately exploiting.
X Il
Racial intolerance and violence are not In them
selves new phenomenon. But the aforementioned
Incidents and others that could be cited, bear evil
dence Of being part of concerted campaign to pro-
mote racial strife for selfish political purposes.
1t is reported for instance, that before Wilkinson
made his violent anti-Negro speech, he met with
some Is reactionary southern Congressman. The
widespread propaganda around his speech and Dix.
on's action also indicate they more than iso-
lated individual outbursts.
Southern progressives point out that racial preju-
dice is being deliberately exploited to build politi-
cal movement directed against President Roosevelt's
war policies, against progressive social legislation
and against labor.
One of the most serious immediate effects Of all
this propaganda of racial intolerance Is Its impact
on war production. Racial disturbances have oc-
Cured In northern as we'll southern plants, pro-
NOTED by similar elements in both cases.
X X
The labor unions, particularly those of the CIO,
the strongest forces working to scotch this dan
gerous conspiracy against national unity and our
war effort.
The CLIO Steelworkers locals in Ensley and Fair
field Ala, for instance, have issued leaflets declar
ing that IAN appeal to racial prejudice reprehen-
sible at any time, but when made In time of war 1t
Is plain treason to country.
The CIO and its unions have long been doing a
splendid job of improving race relations by their