St. Paul recorder. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1934-2000, 1943-02-26
was applied to the White House to


call off the hearing, but without
success. It is understood that at a
council Of war held in Birming-
ham a night or so before the hear
ing, somebody proposed taking the
whole FEPC, plus its investigative
staff, for a ride, but the scheme
was abandoned lest it give the
President the excuse he was wait
ing for to declare martial law and
take over.
After all this fictitious build-up
of apprehension the three-day
FEPC hearing came off with
astounding calm. On the opening
morning, The Birmingham Age
Herald in a superb column-long
lead editorial entitled "Our Com
mon Aims" strongly endorsed the
purposes and methods of the hear
ing. The moderate Montgomery
Advertiser followed suit, pointing
out shrewdly that "The only cause
for fear is the activity of the I'M
scrupulous within our midst
who would attempt to panic the
rest of US, even as Hitler made use
of the Jews and Communists to
achieve his ends"
The facts brought out by the
Birmingham hearing followed IA
miliar patterns: Negroes restricted
to unskilled and semi-skilled Jobs
or excluded entirely, all but "token"
numbers denied free national-de-
tense training in violation of a
federal statute-unable to get Jobs
because they couldn't get training,
unable to get training because they
couldn't get jobs. Possibly the most
spectacular picture of discrimina-
ton presented at Birmingham was
the case of Mobiles Gulf Ship
building Corporation.
On the exact site of a First
World War shipyard which had en-
ployed thousands of Negroes even
in skilled crafts like riveting and
angle-smithing, according to testi-
mony before the FEPC, Gulf Ship
building had just twenty-five Ne
groes-all porters. While Ne
groes were half of the available
labor supply and there were actual
ly unemployed welders among
them, immigration of whites made
Mobile one of the most dangerous
ly congested war centers in the
country. When Gulf Shipbuilding
accused its white workers of re-
sponsibility for the exclusion of
Negroes, the Mobile Metal Trades
Council (AFL), which represented
these workers, produced evidence
of joint campaign conducted by
that body and the Mobile NAACP
to get Negroes trained for ship
yard jobs. Gulf Shipbuilding
finally indicated the real cause of
its discriminatory policy-a steve
doring subsidiary desired to keep
on tap an abundant supply of casual
Negro labor for loading and I'M
loading ships.
Upon his return from Birming-
ham, Malcolm S. MacLean, Hamp-
ton Institute president who had re-
placed Mark Ethridge as FEPC
chairman, received White House
congratulations for a job we'll done.
The FEPC had hit the zenith of
its brief glory. With White House
sanction, plans were drawn for a
broad nationwide offensive to en-
force 1902. The prospective budget
came to more than 100000 as
against the first years $4,000 pit
lance. Twelve adequately stated
regional offices were to be estab-
lished for the prompt investigation
of complaints, holding of hearings
and routine policing of war indus
tries. Then, to the stupefaction
and dismay of all FEPC members,
none of whom was consulted in ad-
vance, came the Presidents order
of July 80 transferring the body
from his executive office to the
War Manpower Commission, where
it would be subject to McNutt's
direct supervision.
Back of the transfer, as every
body knew, was reactionary South
ern pressure. Also involved were
top government officials who had
been annoyed by FEPC insistence
that they put an end to discrimina-
ton in their own departments and
agencies. Northern industrial in
terests and "lily-white" trade
unions took a surreptitious hand
in the deal. The consequent out
cry from Negro, Jewish and other
organizations supporting the fight
against discrimination drew from
the White House a statement that
the shift had been made with "the
intention to strengthen-not to
submerge-the Committee, and to
reinvigorate - not to repeal -
Executive Order 1902"