St. Paul recorder. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1934-2000, 1947-11-07

| pursuit Of life, liberty and hap
piness.-Robert Durr.
said the Philadelphia Inquirer, abe
cause of the avidity with whicl
foreign prOpagandists seize upol
certain evils in our national life t,
try to prove the failure of de
mocracy."
On the other hand, the BALTI
MORE SUN was critical Of the sec.
ton Of the report respecting the
right to equality of opportunity
While cOnceding that some OF
the committees proposals "fol
strengthening the federal law re.
speeding civil rights in areas where
the federal jurisdiction is clear I'M
der the Constitution are worthy OF
careful consideration" The Sun
said:
But the committee errs rather
generally in seeking TO extend
federal authority into the juris-
dictiOn Of the states. And though
a substantial minority of its
members dissents on some of the
TOUGHEST issues, the majority Of
the committee would actually
try by law to settle intricate
social problems which truly wise
and compassionate men under
stand will yield only to educa-
ton and evolution"
Under the caption, "Coercive
Laws Are Unwise and Dangerous"
the Richmond Times Dispatch said:
IF the program of federal legis-
lation now proposed by the Civil
Rights commission were to be
adopted by Congress in the near
future, which seems completely I'M
thinkable, the results in the South
ern states would be even worse
than those in the nation under pro-
hibition.
They would be worse because
the explosive issue Of race rela-
tons is involved, and it has been
demonstrated time and again
that when efforts are made to
settle that question through
passing cOercive laws, conditions
are made worse rather than bet
ter.
Real progress in improving the
lot of the Negro has been made
in the South, and the nation, in
the past generation. The lynching
total has been so sharply reduced
that these manifestations of the
mob spirit have almost been elm
mated from our national life. OPP
portunities which did not exist a
short time ago are opening up for
Negroes in business, industry and
the professions. Educational and
health facilities are steadily grow
ing better, and salaries and wages
are being equalized.
"All this is being done without
arousing interracial animosities;
indeed, relations between the two
groups are improving. But much
of the genuine progress that has
been made will be wiped out if,
for political or other reasons, Con-
gress succeeds in imposing radical
solutions on the Southern states.
In that event, the Negro will be
the first sufferer, and decades Of
progress in race relations will be
lost"
The ATLANTA CONSTITU-
TON said:
However laudable may be the
detectives laid down by the
Presidents committee, little good
is accomplished, and much harm
result, from any attempt to force
reforms which legitimately may
come only in the course Of time.
1--WE believe the Committees in
sistence upon immediate action is
especially unwise at this particular
time and that, instead of assisting
in solving a serious problem, it
serves only to confuse the issue.
For racial segregation is merely
an outward manifestation Of an
inner state of mind. Whether this
state Of mind is proper or improper
is immaterial. 1t is there, and it
can be eradicated not by law but
only by the evolutionary process
and the requirement by the human
race of the spiritual qualities which
effectively eliminate it."
The St. Paul Pioneer Press
pointed out that the really sig
nifcant feature of the report is its
rejection Of the idea that the solu-
tion Of minority problems can be
left safely TO evolutionary proc
esses.
Thoughtful students of the
question often advise, for ex.
ample: Give the South time and
it will work out its own Negro
problem Ordinarily the eau
tious approach would probably
have been favored by a commit
tee of this sort, but the state of
the world today demands speed
Ter action. Unfair treatment of
minorities is too severe a handi-