The Wilmington morning star., 1947-03-31
Brooks Takes Over
BY ARTHUR KROCK

BY ARTHUR KROCK
WASHINGTON-A casual newspaper reader
might suppose, what indeed Chairman Brooks
and his fellow members of the Senate Rules
Committee have by Inference conveyed, that
the committee interviewed recently to prevent
discrimination in the Senate press gallery
against a newspaper reporter because he is a
Negro. But an appraisal of the facts on which
the committee based its action leads to the
conclusion that the governing board of the
Senate press gallery was forced by the COM
mittee to violate its rules only because the
reporter affected by them is a Negro.
That may be good politics for Senator
Brooks and the members of the Rules Com
mittee, especially those from Illinois, Ne
braska, Iowa, California, Massac husetts, In
diana, Ohio, New York, Rhode Island, Pennsyl-
vania and Connecticut. But it transgressed a
gallery rule and its applications that go back
to 1887, imposed a space-and-seating problem
which the governing board cannot solve and
the Senate shows no inclination to, and left
its immediate beneficiary in the position of
being a member of the Senate press gallery
but not of the press gallery of the House.
The governing board, thus overruled, cor
rected this absurd situation on its own motion
by admitting the correspondent to the House
press gallery as well, having jurisdiction on
admissions to both from Congress, an all.
thority now infringed for the first time since
Congress made the gallery rules. Because
government and public property take the posi-
ton that the press must be held responsible
for the way in which it uses its constitutional
freedom, and the effect of the gallery self
government was to accept and police that re-
sponsibility, the Senate Rules Committees
contribution is a disservice to the end in view.
Before reviewing an incident which would
be trivial were not press responsibility and
racial discrimination burning issues, two state
ments should be made. One is that the gov
erning boards Of the Capitol press galleries
have never passed favorably on the applica-
ton of a Negro candidate for admission under
the rule that any gallery member must give
his 'chief attention. to a daily newspaper Or
newspapers. But the other is that, if any
Negro correspondent who meets that qualifica-
ton applies for membership, Or seeks to use
the galleries on a professional errand here,
the boards obligation to grant the request is
too plain to permit evasion.
The present situation arose when a cor
respondent for the Atlanta Daily World and
the Negro Newspaper Publishers Association,
the latter a group of Weeklies, applied for
membership in the House and Senate press
galleries. Those are governed by Congressional
rules administered by the Standing Committee
of Correspondents, its members selected by
the members of the galleries. This commit
tee after hearing the correspondent rejected
the application 4 to l on the factual ground
that he does not give his ''chief' attention to
daily newspapers and thus is automatically
barred. The Senate Rules Committee, review
ing the case, simply asserted that the cor
respondent came within the rules and ordered
him admitted to its press gallery.
The Standing Committee protested on these
grounds:
l. Because Congress recognized the lmita-
ton its rules impose on correspondents for
the radio and for periodicals so far as the
press galleries are concerned, it created some
time ago separate galleries for such cor
respondents.
2. When the present rules were adopted
the press galleries had about 200 members.
Now there are 700, and, if the rules are
abrogated, the space problem will become in
soluble.
8. Two previous standing committees re-
jected the application in question, but a re-
hearing was ordered in the event there might
be new evidenc of qualification. There was
none which substantially changed the case.
4. The Standing Committee is opposed to
discrimination and therefore doubly regrets
that such colored correspondents as have ap-
piled do not come within the rule. 1t will be
glad to accredit any who do.
5. It's chairman, who voted for admission,
held that since the correspondent testified that
"the majority of his income came from his
daily paper ''this should establish that
his chief attention was so given. HE took
the position that the committee would be justi-
fled in stretching the rules" but his four col
leagues did not agree.
6. They based their decision on these facts:
the weeklies served by the correspondent have
an estimated total circulation of 3, 900, 900 while
that of his daily is believed to be from 1000
to 5000; over his Washington dispatches he
is identified as correspondent of the weeklies
association; if he were admitted correspond
ents of other non-dailies would have to be,
and this would break dow the rules and gal
lery facilities.
The Standing Committee then urged that
Congress provide such facilities by changing
the press gallery rules it made itself so that
a small quota of weekly correspondents could
be admitted legally. or provide them with
other space. 1t suggested that a mixed COM
mittee be appointed to study solutions.
The Senate Rules Committee ignored all this
and simply ordered this particular cor
respondent admitted. Thereby it greatly dam
aged an ancient system of protection of Con-
gress and the public in the gathering and dis
semination of news and took away the press
self government established at the Capitol in
1887.-New York Times.