St. Paul recorder. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1934-2000, 1944-07-14


full idleness on a broad scale. Could
it be, his critics asked, that the
Mississippian secretly wanted to
protect Southern planters and mill
owners at the expense of the dis
charged veteran, who might want
more than SIS week in wages on
which to build his future? Rankin
was known to be gagging, also, on
the bills provisions for free educa-
ton. Could he have been thinking
of the dread possibility that the
knowledge that is power might
come at last to thousands of young
Negro men?
John, naturally, has an answer
for the Negro problem. There are
four possible solutions, he has said:
determination, deportation, ANAL
gamation and segregation. With
genial magnanimity he discards
the first two as Impractical"
Amalgamation is out, too; it would
"mongrelize" the white race. This
leaves segregation as the only way.
But segregation where? He is
vague as to details, but if pressed,
will indicate his belief that there
are vast stretches of Arizona and
New Mexico which would be ideal
for the purpose. Negroes, once
therein, might even be permitted
to enter white territory now and
then, for good and sufficient rea-
son, and always providing they
could qualify for a passport!
Arizona and New Mexico have
not yet been heard from, regarding
this. Neither have the defenders of
the Constitution of the United
States, among whom John Rankin
counts himself a leader although,
of course, he will have no truck
with its Fourteenth and Fifteenth
Amendments.
He is fond of the Constitution,
within limits. He freely admits that
he and several supporters who led
the fight for Estates Rights" in
connection with the soldiers ballot
overcame the most vicious threat
to Constitutional liberties since the
Supreme Court Reorganization Bill;
Certainly Rankin's triumphant as
sault on the "Federal' ballot did
nothing to facilitate soldier voting
in 1914.
Rankin lives quiet private life
in the Methodist Apartments, near
the Senate Office Building in Wash
ington. His wife is on the staff of
the World War Veterans Commit
tee of the House. Their daughter,
Miss Annie Laurie Rankin, aged
twenty-one, is paid a salary by the
Committee on World War Legisla-
ton, of which her father is chair
man.
Rankin works hard. When he is
not busy with legislation he reads
omnivorously, and he especially
relishes poetry of the drum-beating
type. The next day he is apt to
spring his latest rhymed discovery
on his colleagues. Thus, he wound
up his climatic speech on soldier
voting by a recitation of Henley's
Invictus, which brought the House
and gallery to their collective feet
in wild applause. Afterward, a Con-
gresham from New England was
feeling a little foolish about his
share in the demonstration.
II know it was a lousy speech"
he confded. II know it will read
like a sixth grade defamation. But
that little guy Rankin, he holds the
same fascination for me that big
fire does. l hate to think of the
waste and destruction, but I sim
ply can't resist the entertainment"
The most active larynx in Con-
gress has INDUCED itself, in recent
months, on a bewildering array of
subjects, including:
An attack on Pearl S. Buck
for advocating inter-racial
marriages;
Championship Of the "Jim
Crow" policy by which the Red
Concluded next week.