Evening star., 1944-03-19
FEPCS Power to Act Tested
In Southern Rail Race Case
II Roads Decline to Obey Directive to Hire New
Employees Barred or Limited in Contract,
Bringing Issue to Head
BY Joseph II. Baird.


The controversy and criticisms cur
rently swirling around the head of the
Presidents Committee on Fair Employ
ment Practices are, for two reasons, of
more than transient interest First, they
involve the issue, applicable equally
to some twoscore other Government
agencies, of what critics call govern
ment by executive order" Second, they
touch, in more particular way, the
whole question of whether conflicts of
race and creed within the American
social structure can be curbed by Fed
eral intervention.
These issues have been pointed up
by two developments. The Russell
amendment to the current independent
Offices appropriation bill provides that
agencies established by presidential
order which have been in existence for
as long as IL months must come to Con-
gress Tor future funds-which means, in
practical political terms, that they must
appear for an examination of their
worthiness.
Also, the FEPC has just filed with
the Smith Select Committee in the
House an answer to criticisms raised in
Its handling of the case of alleged racial
discrimination in the employment prac-
tices OF Southern railroads, which goes
into the whole question of it's hotly con-
tested right to issue directives.
Out of the issues so raised there NAV
come further light on the basic Ameri-
can political conflict today-that be-
tween the advocates of centralized Fed
eral power and those who believe the
trend in this direction has gone too far
already.
FEPC Shifted Three Times.
First, look briefly at the FEPC: 1t is
only one of the many commissions,
agencies, bureaus and offices that have
been created by the administration to
deal with the complexities raised first
by the depression and then by the war,
and is not too well known.
Although less than three wears old.
the FEPC already has gone through
three metamorphoses. It was created
first by executive order in 1941 within
the old Office Of Production Manage
ment, the forerunner of the War Pro-
duction Board. Thirteen months later
1t was transferred to the War Manpower
commission. Finally, in May of last
year, 1t was shifted to the Presidents
own Office for Emergency Management
and given full-time salaried chairman
and board of six members paid on a
per diem basis for the actual time they
work
The job Of the FEPC was defined in a
series of executive orders, the core of
which is contained in the directive To
bring about 'the full utilization and
training OF manpower in and for war
production without discrimination be-
cause OF race, creed, color or national
origin"
Malcolm Ross, who recently succeeded
Bishop Francis j. Haas upon his retire.
ment as chairman and who had pre-
viously served under him as deputy
chairman, fails to fill out the picture
painted Of him by some of his critics
that OF violent radical who is trying
to turn the American social system
topsy -turvy.
Ideas Are Advanced.
Mr.. Ross is middle-aged man with
wide-set blue eyes, crinkly red hair
tall and sparely built-rather in the
physical mould of Lincoln. In his youth
he held number of manual labor Jobs
In the Southwest, spent year on a
Texas newspaper, and for the last
decade, has been a minor Government
ofnclal. His ancestors settled in this
country some 300 years ago, one of them
being Capt. James Lawrence, whose
Don't Give Up the Ship is well known
TO every schoolboy. His ideas on race
ana labor relations are advanced. He
lmpresses one as an idealist. But he
hardly fits into the role of flaming
revolutionist.
Mr.. Ross conceives of FEPC's iob as
that OF seeing that American manpower
is used fully in the war effort without
any consideration of the race. creed or
national origins of the worker. Or, as he
puts it:
IF war employer needs a worker.
and man fully qualified to do the lob
presents himself, the employer must
not turn him away, nor put him at work
OF lesser skill than he can contribute to
the war effort.
Good shop practice and patriotism
are both wholly on the side of the en-
ployer who accepts the worker without
racial, color or creedal reservations. In
eff1clency and lack of patriotism must be
charged to the employer who discrimi-
mates against, and to the workers who
refuse TO accept as one of them, anv
member Of minority group"
Admits Tough Problem.
All OF which is very much in the pure
American political tradition and at the
same time bound, in its application, to
split wide-open some hornets nests of
racial antipathy, sectional custom and
tradition, and deeply entrenched privi-
leges established by skilled labor organi-
cations
Mr.. Ross critics call him "Utopian."
He denies this, but admits he and the
FEPC have tough problem on their
hands. The FEPC, Mr.. Ross explains,
was not set up to abolish with a wide
sweep all racial or creedal antipathies
In the field of industrial relations. It
can act only on specific complaints by
individuals or groups that they are being
Disseminated against in industries con-
nected with the war effort.