St. Paul recorder. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1934-2000, 1945-09-28
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IN one Oh the regions tndC VIII DC
served by a regional worker Of the
national staff, because she thinks
that our Minnesota Council and
cooperating organizations viii be
able to handle the situation here
in Minnesota without the assist
ance Of a regional secretary. To
be sure this is tribute to Us here
in Minnesota, but it carries a cor
responding responsibility and we
dare not fail!
The most important work Of our
delegation to the national confer
ence was the conferences we held
with our Minnesota Congressman.
Our longest conference was with
R Representative Walter Judd of
Minneapolis. DR.. Judd, who is pos
sibly the best informed member Of
Congress on China because Of his
many years as a medical mission
airy there, said in the very begin
ming of our conference that the
race problem is the outstanding
problem of the post war period in
the world. He says that he does
not think that the present bill, HR
1892, is a good bill because it pro-
poses to "nationalize" jobs. DR..
Judd says that he does not think
that bill in its present form has a
chance to pass in the House of Rep
resentatives.
He refuses to sign the dis
charge petition to permit the
bill to come to the floor be-
cause "the bill in its present
form would do more harm than
good to the cause" DIR. Judd
would have the bill go back to
the Labor Committee and be
worked over. The Minneapolis
Representative stated that he
had received hundreds of COM
muncatiOns in favor of the bill
for a permanent FEPC and
only a few (three) against the
bill. We asked him if it were
not the responsibility of the
Representative as his cOnstitu-
ents want him to vote on leg
islation? His reply was that
this is not a democracy, but
republican form of govern
ment and that a Representa-
tive is to vote as he thinks
best regardless of what his
constituents may think or de-
sire. In brief, DIR. Judd says
that he is for the "cause" but
is not in favor of the bill in
its present form. q shall re-
frain from giving my honest
opinion about DR.. Judd in the
matter.)
Representative Joseph O'Hara
criticized the Rules Committee for
it's failure to give a rule. for HR
1892 so that it might be brought
to the floor for debate. He would
not commit himself on the matter
of signing the discharge petition.
When he was pressed for definite
answer on the matter, he said,
"Now don't insist am intel
lgent." Representative O'Hara
asked why the bill for a state
FEPC was not passed by the last
Legislature and he suggested that
we ought to lay off the bill for a
national FEPC until we can see
how we'll the New York state bill
fares.
Mr.. O'Hara reiterated his belief
in so-called Estates rights" by tell
ing US why he voted against the
anti-poll tax bill. He told us that
he was in charge of Negro soldiers
in the first World War. "I loved
them like children" he declared.
In the conference with Rep
resentative August Andersen,
Of Red Wing, we received a
new suggestion. Mr.. Andersen
said he does not sign dis
charge petitions because debate
is limited to just one hour for
both sides together. He said
that this bin could be brought
to the floor on Calendar
Wednesday," However, he adj
mitted that Calendar Wednes-
day had not been used during
the war, IN the Congress. Rep.
Andersen told us that he had
received many communications
from his district urging him to
support the FEPC bill and to
vote against the Halliburton
Hatch Labor Bill. He says
that he has an open mind on
Sthe bill, but will not sign the
discharge petition.
One of the most interesting
conferences was the one held
(while standiAg) in the outer
Office of Representative Will
liam A. Pittenger of Duluth.
Mrs. Colby, Mr.. Allen, MIR.
Phillips and were in this con-
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