St. Paul recorder. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1934-2000, 1945-09-14

during that Pc McALPIN
Rod, McNutt was thought of mostly
as head of the War Manpower
Commission. He was, also, Admin
istrator of the Federal Security
Agency. The War Manpower Com
mission soon will pass into dis
card with the end of the war, but
the Federal Security Agency will
not.
The FSA now encompasses the
Social Security Board, the Public
Health Service. the Office of Ed
ucation, the Food and Drug Ad-
ministration, and other welfare
agencies. Those in the know"
in Washington are confident the
FSA will be the nucleus of a new
Department of Public Welfare,
repeatedly in the long-range plans
of President Truman.
A group of people who have been
held in the lower economic stratum
of American life through discrimi-
nations, prejudices and exclusions
will be the principal beneficiaries of
a properly administered Depart
ment of Public Welfare. Such a
department, under the guidance Of
a head with experience and under
standing of the problems involved,
would do more than try to ease the
pain of sores on the surface. It
would delve into the reasons for
disproportionate morbidity and
mortality rates among Negroes, the
high iliteracy ratio, the economic
insecurity of so many, etc.
Improvement Of the plight Of Ne
groes in these regards would, of
course, be the greatest service any
public servant could render to this
country. This land Of abundance
and opportunity can never progress
at its potential speed while ten
per cent of its population is arti-
ficially held back by restrictions
based on color of skin.
Among the names for FSA Ad-
ministrator likely to come before
President Truman is one which
would be roundly applauded and
sOidly supported by Negroes
throughout America 1t belongs to
a man who has demonstrated his
progressive-liberalism on more
than one occasion. He is Oscar
Chapman, present assistant secre-
tary of the Department of Inter-
ior.
Oscar Chapman has been the
observation-disclosures in many
of Interior Secretary Ickes' bold
strokes for democracy. While it
takes away none of the credit
rightfully due Ickes, the little
known fact is that Oscar Chap
man was the initiatOr of the plan
which led to Marian Anderson
singing an Easter Sunday concert
before 5000 persons on the steps
of the Lincoln Memorial after the
Daughters of the American Revo-
luton denied her use of their tax
exempt Constitution Hall because
of her color a few years ago.
Chapman, after getting the ap-
proval and support of Ickes, had
the job of working out the details
for that memorable event.
He is a sincere and constant
worker on interracial problems. He
is keenly interested In human be-
ings.
And besides, Oscar Chapman has
sort of a prior claim on the FSA
job. 1t was practically his when
the agency was set up in 1889. Nc
Nuts return from the Philippines
and his reminder to Roosevelt that
he had been promised a big job
and wanted to stay around Wash
ington, led the President to giving
him the FSA position. Chapman
accepted the Presidents explana.
ton and has never voiced a single
complaint.
President Truman could perform
a real service to the nation, to its
largest minority group, and to pa
tient Oscar Chapman by naming
him to the FSA vacancy now that
McNutt is going back to the Philip
pines.