The Omaha guide., 1945-06-23
BY Harold Preece

Copyright, 1915, by New South
Features)
All social progress in Dixie i:
going to be slowed up for the
next 20 years if FEPC is not made
permanent.
1t will take US at least that
long to gain back the ground well
lose if the thousands of Negro
workers now holding good jobs at
good wages, now learning the
meaning of American citizenship,
are forced back to nursing cotton
and waiting on the white folks.
1t might mean 20 more years Of
lynch rope and 20 more years Of
the poll tax. 1t might mean 20
more years of the riding boss down
in Georgia and 20 more years Of
Bilbo up in Washington.
We can talk about all kinds of
reforms in Dixie, and we ought
to fight for every kind of reform.
But we ought also to understand
that every reform is going to
operate with sand in the
until the Negro worker Of the
South has the right to the same
jobs and the same pay as the
white worker.
Wages Underwrite Democracy
Equality of opportunity in en-
ployment is the very minimum we
must insist upon to assure democ-
racy for all Of our people," In
ternational Vice President E. Carl
Mattern of the CLIO Oil Workers
Union in Fl. Worth, Texas, said
in a recent statement supporting
FEPC. And Brother Mattern is
speaking for the whole awakening
South in demanding that the fed
eral government underwrite de-
mocracy in Dixie by underwriting
a mans right to bring a weeks
wages home to his family.
But without FEPC, Negroes will
be bringing home sowbelly and not
dollar bills to their wives and
their youngsters. Without FEPC,
Negroes will be unable to vote in
large numbers, will be unable to
build decent homes, churches and
schools, unable to be more than
semi-slaves in a section where
slavery is the state religion of the
ruling class.
Two Freedoms
Virginia, Florida, Louisiana,
North Carolina, and Georgia have
repealed the poll tax by enact
ment Of their own state legisla-
lures. The U. S. Supreme Court
has killed the Southern white pri-
mary. But the Negro vote in the
South is still practically nil. By
and large the Negro will be denied
the right to vote in the South so
long as he is denied the right to
work. He cannot win full politi-
cal freedom until he wins economic
freedom, until he can use his
strength as a wage Garner protect
ed by a permanent government
agency, to knock down the jim crow
sign on the ballot box
Now, the five Southern states
which wiped out the poll tax took
a big step toward that complete
democracy which won't be smear
ed up with any color lines. But
they failed to go further and pass
legislation which would permit
Negroes to be something besides
pillow pushers and diaper washers.
1 believe it could easily be shown
that the reason Negroes have made
progress during the war is that
their economic strength has been
greater than in any previous period
of history. Many Of them left
the plantations and got on payrolls
so that they had money to join
labor unions, to fight teacher equal
ization suits, to finance movements
for the ballot, and to subscribe to
Negro newspapers. Today, the
Southern congressman are fighting
FEPC like the Devil fights a saint
because the old plantation South
knows the FEPC is, as Brother
Mattern implies, the minimum
guarantee Of a New South, great
and free because its people viii
be free.
This is an S. 0. S. from Dixie
for the black people and the white
people who have gotten stronger
in heart because they've gotter
a little stronger in their pocket
books.