Minneapolis spokesman. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn.) 1934-2000, 1943-09-24
japanese and German Propaganda
Based On Anti-Negro
Discrimination
By LOUIS STARK
Gin The New York Times)
4 German PronaRanda


Qn The New York Tfmes)
Washington, Sept. Is
President Roosevelt's new
committee on Fair Employ
ment Practice, of which Mgr.
Francis J. Haas is chairman,
began a series of public hear
ings today on complaints of en-
ployment discrimination against
filed by the committee
against twenty-five railroads and
fifteen labor unions.
Witnesses asserted that Negroes
were ineligible for production on
most railroads and yet promotion
vas based largely on seniority. 1t
was maintained that Negro en-
ployees, denied a voice in the at
fairs of the railway unions, were
presumed to be represented by
these unions in collective bargain
ing vet had no way of getting their
grievances considered.
Negro firemen who, unlike white
firemen, are never promoted 70
engineers, according to the testi-
mony, are now facing elimination
from their jobs as a result OF the
so-caIled "non-promotable" agree
ment made by major Southeastern
railroads and the Brotherhood OF
Locomotive Firemen and Engine
men in February, 1941.
While the racial policies of the
rail unions which bar Negroes
were not regarded as typical OF
all unions, it was said that out Of
seven unions in the railroad shops
where repairs are made, but one'
the firemen are oilers, admits
Negroes. Of twenty-nine unions
which exclude Negroes nineteen
were said to be in the railway field.
Roads Make General Reply
Although each of the roads on
which specific complaints have
been served has made or will make
individual reply to the charges,
they combined today to make one
general reply.
Presented to the committee by
Sidney S. Alderman, who is also
of counsel for the Southern Rail-
way, the carriers asserted that the
solution to the problem presented
at the hearing 'flies in a gradual
and moderate process of educa-
ton" and would be retarded "by
too abrupt an attempt to change,
by governmental decree, long
standing practices rooted in the
customs of the people"
1t was commended that "such
problems cannot be solved over
night by a stroke of the pen" that
they must be worked out through
social evolution and civic reform"
Railroads do not operate in a
vacuum or in theoretical utopia"
the reply declared. ''They have to
operate in and serve the civiliza-
ton in which they find themselves"
In it's reply brief, the Pennsyl-
vania Railroad denied discrimina-
ton against Negroes, basing its
assertion on a percentage Of Ne
groes in their employ as compared
to white employees.
The Southern Railway, however,
frankly stated in its brief that it
has never employed a Negro loco
motive engineer, for to do so in
it's territory would be bitterly re-
might result in boycott
and bloodshed" and would also re-
suit in suspension of service by
the white engineers and firemen.
The gravity of the problem be-
fore the committee was mentioned
by Mgr. Haas in calling the hear
ing to order. He said the COM
mittee would make findings of facts
and recommendations upon COM
pletion of its work.
Problem Is Called Economic
He was followed by BARLEY C..
Crum of San Francisco, the COM
mittee's chief counsel, who sum-
the charges as involving
an economic rather than a racial
problem, urging that the issue be
faced during the war and not post
poned.
DR.. Herbert N. Northrup, the
first witness, who said that he has
spent most of the last four years
in an intensive study of the rela-
ton of Negroes to the American
labor movement, occupied the at
tention of the committee several
hours and offered specific charges
in which he criticized the National
Board and the National
Railroad Adjustment Board, both
created under the Railway Labor
Act. He asserted that they had
helped to continue racial discrimi-
nation on the railroads.
The hearing ended with testi-
mony of Negro firemen who
charged discrimination on the Gulf,
Mobile G. Ohio Railroad, and un-
availing efforts to obtain redress
from the carrier and the firemen's