Evening star., 1947-10-30
Drastic Prescription for Cure

The greatest denial of civil rights in
Washington is the denial to its people OF
the right to vote.
The Presidents Committee on civil
Rights makes passing reference in its
report to the lack of the vote here and
perfunctorily recommends self govern
ment and representation in Congress.
But it reserves it's real fire for the
"intolerable" situation which exists in the
District as a result of practices and GUS
toms in racial segregation. The Star
agrees with the committee as to the
illogical, irrational and often unjust
results of some of these practices. 1t
believes they are on their way out.
But The Star has no sympathy with
the committees own show OF discrimlna-
ton in singing out the District as the one
sure place where its complete prescription
for cure could and should be applied. This
prescription Is mixture of compulsion
and coercion under Federal law to enforce
a pattern OF social conduct which large
elements of the population have not as yet
been persuaded to accept voluntarily for
themselves.
The committee indicates its own doubt
that the complete prescription of such
legislation could be applied by Congress in
the States. A number of the identical
proposals have been made time and again
and have failed to find acceptance. The
reasons given for local application are
that Congress can do pretty much as
1t pleases in legislating for the District
and "our Nations Capital, the City of
Washington, should serve as symbol OF
democracy to the entire world" A more
genuine symbol of democracy and one
more in keeping with the fundamental
concepts of the American heritage, would
be to leave the solution of local problems
to the people who must live with them
and to give these people the ways and
means-through the ballot-of working
them out for themselves.
The Star does not believe that the COM
mittee was either fair or accurate in It's
appraisal as discriminatory of "the core
of Washington's segregated society"-the
dual school system. The Star does not
believe that the benefits of ending segre-
cation in the public schools at this time
would outweigh losses, especially to Negro
citizens, in other respects. The commit
schools are inferior to white schools"
because of segregation is not supported
by the facts. There is existing inequality,
the same sort of inequality that the white
schools experienced in the '20s and '30s
from overcrowding. But it is temporary,
due to passing conditions not attributable
to segregation and it is being remedied.
The committee made no attempt to get the
clarifying facts from the Superintendent
of Schools or the Board of Education. Its
selective use of statistics is misleading.
And a quotation of remarks by the Super
intendent of Schools is lifted from the
context and given an implica ton quite
the reverse of what the superintendent
was writing about This does not speak
well for the thoroughness of the CONF
mittee's study or for its judicious inter-
probation of the facts.
suggestion of the same weakness is
found in the reports reference to the
Capital Transit incident during the war.
The reports version is that "tI1e company
would not employ qualified Negro opera
tors Why does not the committee tell
the correct story, available from public
and company records? For the correct
story would illustrate some of the fallacies
of compulsion under legal fiat. It was not
the employer who refused. 1t was the men,
whose threatened walkout in wartime
Washington ended the employer sand the
Governments s-attempt to employ colored
operators.
There is notable lack of balance in
the report which probably represents a
deliberate choice of approach. The COM
mittee frankly explains that it was dealing
with shortcomings of the American people
in relation to an ideal-the ideal of free
dom and equality of opportunity among all
citizens regardless of race, color religion
or social position. The committee there
fore was not concerned with progress that
has been made in the past toward this
ideal. This approach is perhaps permis-
sble, but it makes for some distortion. It
tends to present the ailment of racial
prejudice as responsive only to the drastic
treatment of compulsion by law. AS a
matter of fact, much of the promise for
the future is contained in the past. Slow
as progress may be in wiping out injustice
and inequality, it makes its way with the
burial of old antagonisms. danger in
compulsion. aside from its ineffectiveness,
is its creation of new antagonisms.
There Is much to commend in the report
It does not compromise in its enunciation
of lofty principle of human conduct, an
ideal in morality If not in law. Some of
the results of segregation and discrimina-
ton which are catalogued should and do
Shock the conscience of good citizens. 1t
is well for report, under the sponsorship
of the Federal Government, to lay these
things before the people, to make them
think, to make them realize how wide
is the gap between what we practice and
what we preach. While there are few
who can quarrel with the principle, its
application is something else. A report