Minneapolis spokesman. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn.) 1934-2000, 1945-06-29
Defeat Congress
Members Who
Fail To Sign


who failed to sign the discharge
petition to bring FEPC to the floor
of the House for voting is worthy
of reelection" declared Walter
White in a vigorous speech Tuesday
evening at a SAVE THE FEPC
rally in Town Hall sponsored by
the Council Against Intolerance in
America. "He should be defeated
and retired to private life by the
votes not only of labor, Negroes,
Jews and other minorities but by
all decent, liberty-loving Americans
who do not belong to minorities,"
Mr.. White said.
In emphasizing the fact that
FEPC may be the margin between
a speedy or long deferred final VIC
tory, White declared, "FEPC is not
an issue affecting only those to
whom it will afford protection of
the right to work. General Joseph
Stilwell only two weeks ago an
nounced that the war in the Pacific
may last another three and a half
years. President Truman, with
magnificent courage and fortnight
ness, has called on the Congress to
establish a permanent FEPC be-
cause we still have a long and
bloody path ahead of US which re-
quires that full production must be
maintained until the war is won"
"The Congress-" warned White,
SHOULD not be permitted to adjourn
until it has enacted this legisla-
ton"
White labelled the conduct and
procedure of reactionaries maneu-
vering for the defeat of the meas
ure "a nauseating example of legis-
lative trickery at its lowest"
There is no more bewildering
experience one can undergo" he
said, "than has recently been mine
to come back from battlefronts
where saw men die, to find men,
bers of the Congress viciously and
dishonesty attempting to destroy
the very things for which men
fight"
Citing the more than half million
Negroes in the Army, Navy and
Marine Corps overseas as of April
28-in addition to thousands more
sent over since then, White said,
II invite you to imagine the emo
lions and thoughts of these more
than 700, 900 Americans-as well as
those members of other minorities
they hear that back home
the John Tabers of New York and
the Rankins of Mississippi are
using every trickery known to Iegls-
lative procedure to preserve the
poll tax, to wipe out the owl, to
deny the right to work without dis
elimination on account of race,
creed, color, or national origin.
"'You can fight, work and die for
democracy these American fascists
declare, but you cannot vote, we
will lynch you if we choose, we will
deny you the right to obtain home
without segregation through the
FILA, and now you shall not even
have a job! The House Appropri-
atoms Committee, obviously with
tongue in cheek, declared it would
make no appropriation for the
FEPC because legislation dealing
with that agency is pending before
the Congress. The House Rules
Committee promptly refused rule
to permit the overwhelming ma
jority of the House of Representa-
tives the opportunity to debate and
vote for the FEPC. AS of noon
today, only 1S1 of the 435 men,
bers."
In conclusion, White admonished,
Twill mankind never learn the ter
rible price of hate? Norman
Counsins, editor of the Saturday
Review of Literature, cited these
appalling figures at a meeting re-
Gently. Between ninety and one
hundred million persons have died
to date in World War II. This is
an average of 10000 dead for
every page in MEM KAMPF.
Three hundred men, women and
children have died to date for every
word in that volume of hate. But
there are still Americans who seem
to have not learned that hate
breeds hate nor that when one OPP
poses another human being because
of his creed or color or place of
birth, he thereby Injuries not only
the hated but the hater."
Mr.. White also spoke in Wash
ington Friday, June %, at D. c.
branch FEPC Mass Meeting in the
South Interior Auditorium.