St. Paul recorder. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1934-2000, 1943-01-29
Nation Writer Charges
Administration PigeOnhOles
Attack on Discrimination
By James A. Wechsler, in
The Nation
Washington, January Is


The Administrations effort to
combat racial discrih nation in war
employment has reached a sudden,
explosive crisis. The blOw-up is
the direct result of ManpOwer Com
missioner Paul v. McNutt's order
Indefinitely pOstpOning" the Fair
Employment Practices Committees
exposure of the anti-NegrO cOal-
ton on the railroads.&c. coalition
of rail management and "lily-white"
unions to drive Negroes from pres
ent jobs and bar them from future
ones. Public hearings at which the
full story was to be told were sched-
uled to begin on January Is. Prep
aratiOns had been announced as far
back as last October; the move had
been widely heralded in the Negro
press and by Negro labor leaders,
A. Philip Randolph describing it as
a Showdown test" of the FEPCs
power to put Jim Crow out of bust
ness. On January II McNutt for
mally called of the show. He prom
ised that "Other ways" would be
found to secure maximum utiliZa-
ton of labor on the railroads. He
didn't say how. One committee
m mber commented privately,
They've been trying the other
ways since the Civil War"
McNutt's action has obviously
paved the way for the FEPC's col
lapse either through the abrupt
resignation of it's members or the
slow deterioration of its prestige
among minority groups. But the
story behind the ban provokes much
bigger questions than the fate of
the committee, which might con-
ceivably be replaced by another
agency. In the minds of informed
officials here the breakdown on the
FEPC has stirred unacceptable sus-
picion that the "Negro issue" is to
be pigeonholed-as if it could be
for any length of time. Belief that
McNutt's order is part of deiber-
ate retreat by the Administration
has been publicly voiced by Negro
leaders. This view is being COM
municated to the Negro people.
Walter White, head Of the National
Association for the Advancement Of
Colored People, has openly charged
that Marvin Mcintyre, Southern
er and White House secretary, is
making the Administrations de-
cisions" on the handling of the fight
against discrimination; and that the
decision is to stop fighting.
There are unmistakable signs
that suppression of the railroad
hearings Is not an isolated admin
istrative bIunder committed by Nc
Mutt. know that McNutt has pri-
vately told other officials he was
acting at the direction of the
White House, and was ready ia
stake the rap" for his chief. 1t is
obviously unlikely, moreover, that
the ManpOwer Commissioner would
have made SO controversial a de.
cisiOn without consulting anyone
except members of the Indiana
Alumni Association.
The consequences of his action
will be vast-perhaps more seri.
GUS than some Administration off.
Gals want to believe. McNutt's in.
PREVENTION in the railroad case
threatens to overshadow the au,
thentic progress made under the
Roosevelt Administration toward
giving the Negro - and Other
minorities-a better break at the
employment offices. It will give the
Axis radio plenty to say about oul
democratic pretensions. It directly
affects war production, where full
employment of Negroes is desper
ately needed. And it is a crue
slap in the faces Of Negro Ameri
cans, whose devotion to the demo
cratic cause has been so severely
tried already.
The full impact of McNutt's &C
ton can be seen only in terms o.
the FEPCs background and TIN
circumstances under which it ha'
operated. On June Is, 1941, Presi
dent Roosevelt issued his celebrated
Executive Order 1902 declaring i
to be official United States polio.
ITO encourage full participation il
the natiOnal-defense program by al
citizens of the United States, re
CARELESS of race, color, creed, O
national origin" The order directe.
that all contracts between the gov
eminent and private firms shoul'
body an anti-discriminatiOl
pledge. The Fair Employment
Practices Committee was set up t.
act as an enforcement agency. TIL,
committee included representative
of the public-Mark Ethridge,
Southern publisher, was its frs
chairman-of the A. F. of L. an,
the c. I. O., of Negroes, and Of in