Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1948-02-04
Civil Rights Message
Called Political Move
For Minorities' Vote
Both Parties Insincere
Since They Fail TO Apply
1t to Right to Work
By David Laurence

On the surface, President Tru-
mans message to Congress on civil
rights looks like commendable
piece of simple patriotism.
Actually, 1t is a piece OF clever
politics designed to win the votes of
Negroes and other minorities to the
Democratic Party in the face OF
historic opposition by Southern
Democrats to the passage Of laws
safeguarding those rights.
The Republicans are no more sim
cere about it, because they know
the opposition of the Southern Dem
ocrats will kill off any legislation
and hence there is no harm in
shouting long and loud for civil
rights.
The key to all this hypocrisy is
that each party may want the Negro
vote in the North and the. votes
of other minority groups which are
Disseminated against, but neither
party has the courage to protect
the most important civil right in
America-the right to work.
The Republicans fell down badly
when the Hartley Bill, which would
have afforded protection of workers
against violence on the labor front,
was turned down by coalition of
Republicans and Democrats in the
Senate
Silent on Labor Violence.
Today President Truman does not
say q single word denouncing the
violence seen on the labor front,
where the worst forms of lynch law
prevail. When proposals are made
in Congress to ban coercion from
any source" and to put the Federal
Governments power behind the
citizen who wants to work. the
President refuses to 60 along. There
was however, one exception. He
was the first to propose that rail-
road workers be drafted when the
rail crisis occurred in 1916. It was
Senator Taft, Republican. of Ohio,
who prevented passage of that bill,
which would have taken away civil
rights from railroad workers.
The right to strike has been ac-
cepted as fundamental by both po-
litical parties, but the country has
understood this to mean that an in
dividual has the right to quit work.
Today labor union dictators, by
concerted action and control over
individual workers, say who shall
or shall not work. Indeed, they de-
eide who shall have Jobs. The big
unions insist on the right to dictate
how many apprentices shall learn
a trade. They insist also that pick
citing can extend to the point of
calling workers who cross a picket
line all manner Of profane names.
Mass picketing"-the most flag
rant example Of denial of civil
rights to those workers who want to
work-never receives the slightest
condemnation from Mr.. Truman or
his Democratic lieutenants in Con-
gress. To do so would. of course,
offend the labor union vote.
Citizens on the sidelines cannot
but be puzzled that message as
comprehensive as Mr.. Truman in
tended his communication to Con-
gress on civil rights to be should
omit all mention of what happens
on the picket line in labor disputes.
1t is we'll known that employers
have been denied access to their
own offices and that entrances have
been blocked so that business cannot
be carried on. Thousands of pho
tographs of this violence have been
printed in newspapers and maya
zines in recent years. 1t is well
known also that local police are
Influenced by local politicians not
to do anything to offend the unions.
The principal argument for an
antilynching law is that the states
or counties or cities in the South
do not enforce their own laws
against violence. The same is true
in labor disputes where other civil
rights are at stake.
Law Enforcement Issue.
The issue is whether the Federal
Government or the states shall ex-
ercise police power where individual
or mob violence occurs. If Presi-
dent Truman and the Northern
Democrats and Republicans are
ready to take the police power from
the states on the ground that the
Constitution guarantees all citizens
their civil rights, then 1t Is sheer
hypocrisy to limit the legislation
solely to %ynching" of one kind
without including the lynch law
that occurs on the labor front.
If the states are so weak that
they cannot be expected to follow
an enlightened public opinion in