The Omaha guide., 1943-06-19

ELMER A. CARTER
There is overwhelming evidence
of a deliberately planned effort on
the part Of certain elements Of our
population to head off the integra-
ton of colored men and women :n-
to American industry except as I'M
skilled laborers. The walkout at
Mobile, Alabama a few weeks ago
and the more recent strike of 90
900 workers in the Packard plant
in Detroit because three Negroes
had been upgraded to jobs requir-
ing skills, has all the earmarks of
being engineered either by axis a.
gents or by unregenerated trans
planted southerners, who see in the
breakdown of the pattern of racial
segregation in industry the doom
of that system by which the meas
ure Of man is the color of his skin,
ond who therefore are panicky lest
the unfair advantage they have
possessed for 300 years be on its
way out. Of course it could be a
combination of both But whatev-
er it is, it could not have happened
if the management of the ship
yard in Mobile and the Packard
plant in Detroit had at the outset
token a firm and fortnight stand.
In all instances of mass walkouts
such as these, the agitation is ini-
tiated and sustained BY a very
small and insignificant group Of
men, in most cases not more than
fifteen or twenty. The number Of
the rank and file who would risk
their jobs because a Negro is up
graded will be found t be infinite
simol. They are persuaded, caiol-
ed, threatened by a few vicious
leaders strategically situated in
various departments. More often
than not, the propaganda is spread
by petty bosses, foremen, or sup
erintendents who hope to gain the
confidence of the workers under
their control by maing a show of
looking out for their interests.
Long before the walk-out occurs,
the management itself is aware of
the undercurrent of ogitation and
is able to identify the ringleaderS.
And where this agitation is con-
tinued without censure, it is as
sumed by the great mass of work
ers that antipathy toward Negro
workers has the sanction and the
blessing of the management.
The Packard Company has been
for many years one of the most re-
dictionary of all the automotive
companies in the Detroit area in
its attitude toward Negro workers.
1t has stubbornly resisted the IN
PRODUCTION of Negro workers for a
quarter of a century, except on
the lower levels. In contrast TO
the Ford Company, Packard has
maintained a racial policy that was
and is a reproach to American in
dustry.
Because of it's past history, it Is
difficult to believe that officials of
the Packard Company are blame
less in this latest and least mex
cusable sabotage of the war effort.
If the management did not stimu-
late the walk out, it certainly IS
guilty of criminal negligence in not
taking steps to prevent it before
it occurred, by summary action a.
gainst the leaders whose activities
must have been known.
These walk-outs are valuable in
that they disclose the present and
what is more important, the post
war program Of certain organized
groups in America. That they re
organized there can be no doubt
and one of their avowed missions
is to destroy the economic gains
which the Negro has been making
as a result o fthe war. These dram
attic demonstrations Of planned RAJ
ial repression and persecution
should be the guide of the Negro
es' strategy for the postwar years.
They reveal the nature of the strug
gle that impends when millions of
jobless soldiers return from the
battlefields Of Europe and Asia
and Africa. There should be no
doubt now in the mind of the Ne
gro as to any plan Of action. The
time for silly maneuvering for
priority in leadership is over The
time to grid for the greatest strIg-
gle in his history is at hand. 1t
will be in truth a struggle for his
survival as a free citizen in this