Minneapolis spokesman. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn.) 1934-2000, 1944-07-07

ANCo M'"
bore the burden
of advising the
Re o | u ions
Committee as to
what ground should be covered in
an effort to lure the Negro vote
back into the Republican fold.
Several groups appeared before the
Resolutions Committee and voiced
their grievances and suggestions.
The Negro Republicans who met
in Chicago in February presented
their position through Robert
Church and Theodore Berry. Wal
ter White appeared before them
as a non-partisan. A. Philip Ran
dolph with a group representing
the March on Washington Move
ment got in a few words. The
church was represented through
the voice of Bishop D. H. Sims.
DIR. Emmett Scott, bearing the full
weight of his Joseph Pew connec-
lions, exerted an unmistakable in
fluence, as did Pew himself on the
almost unanimous selection of
Dewey as the COP standard bear
er.
The efforts of these men and
these groups brought forth a plat
form which for the first time de-
parted from the usual generalza-
ton of opposition to "discrimina-
ton because of race, creed, or
color" Actually, the platform is
more specific and goes farther than
has been ventured before.
The big question is whether it
gives that "first class passage" on
the Republican ship of state so elo-
quently pied for by Bishop Sims
before the full convention.
True, the platform covers the
four major grievances of Negroes
~ ARM mis-. ,atment, segrega-
ton and discrimination, (2) es-
tablishment of a permanent FEPC,
(3) abolition of the poll tax, and
az adoption of anti-lynching
legislation.
But while meeting the demands
of the Negroes as to the ground
to be covered, the Resolutions
Committee, minus the services of
the only Negro scheduled to serve
In capacity where he could have
had some say as to the wording,
has so set up the planks as to leave
plenty of loopholes.
The army plank is good-except
that such a study as is mentioned
could be run on and on till the
war ends without anything being
done about it. And the Negro al
ready has been Studied to death"
The FEPC plank is left dan
Cling in the air. Negroes are in
terested not only in the four-letter
symbol FEPC, but in what kind
of an agency it will be. They are
not unaware that Republican Sena-
tors helped put through Senator
Russell's Gripping amendments
tackled on to the present appropria-
ton for the existing FEPC.
The immediate submission of a
Constitutional amendment to
abolish the poll tax means nothing.
That, the Republicans have al
ready done. Leaving out the rela-
tive merits of a constitutional
amendment and statutory legisla-
ton, a plank calling for submits
sion without a pledge to work for
its adoption is nodded and warped
and doesn't make good building |
material.
The anti-lynching plank gives
promise only of "our sincere effort
in behalf of its early enactment"
whereas the Army plank pledges
"the adoption of corrective legis-
lation." Why the difference in en-
phasis?
The only way to close the loop
holes and demonstrate real sin
cerity is for the Republicans now
in office-the Senators and Con-
gressmen-to take immediate ac-
ton in the directions the planks
are pointing, without waiting It'll
after the elections.
But even with the loopholes, the
Democrats are faced with a real
dilemma. They can draw the
strings and unite the loops by
a more dynamic platform
on the Negro, or they can syn
thetically plug up the holes for the
by lodging the real
issues.