Evening star., 1949-11-27
Network Keeps Close
Watch for Signs
of Trouble
By Benz Price

the old SouthWlde Commission on
Interracial Cooperation.
There's nothing underground
about it. though. The network
simply is one of the council ac-
tivities that never makes news.
Why it doesn't is simple, too:
How are you going to make a
headline out Of something that
was only potentially dangerous to
start with and then didn't hap
pen anyway?
The network operates very
quietly along these back streets
and country lanes where race
trouble often has erupted in the
past before any one knew quite
what had happened-or why.
The council is the first to admit
the imperfections of the network.
Many of its 5000 members are
concentrated in urban areas.
There are hundreds of places
where the council has neither
members nor connections.
Watch for Symptoms
AS it now exists, though, this
network in any given town may
involve a Negro teacher, lawyer,
doctor, minister, banker or editor
and their white counterparts.
Through long and bitter ex-
perience, these Negro leaders have
learned to recognize the symp-
toms, however latent, of incipient
race trouble.
Whenever these Negroes feel
that an incident or series of incl
dents has the making of trouble
they call one of their white col
leagues. who passes along the in
formation to the proper authori-
ties. Most of the time the chief
of police. Mayor or Governor Is
not aware Of the informant's con-
nection with the council.
The council membership is
drawn from all walks Of life and
divided about evenly between
whites and Negroes. It includes
Catholic priests. Protestant min
listers, labor leaders. educators,
business and professional men.
churchwomen and newspapermen.
The white member probably
would be best described as a
Southern liberaP'-and that Is
an extraordinarily flexible express
4 sion.
For example, labor leader and
manufacturer may not agree, out
of sheer distaste for each other,
on what time the sun comes up.
But they will agree on the premise
that the South Is in a bad way.
economically and socially. for a
good many reasons. all correct
able.
One of the major factors in the
South is the presence Of q large
marginal population. not self
supporting. Those who do earn
decent livings are taxed for their
support.
The premise on which these two
do agree is that the South cannot
flourish half-rich. half-poor; that
all would benefit If opportunity
is found for all.
Now you come to the fact that
while many of these people are
white. the bulk are Negroes, many
of them barred from making a
decent contribution to society pri-
marily because of race.
The idea, therefore, is If the
barriers of racial prejudice could
be lowered-not so much socially
as economically-the entire South
would benefit.
NATIVE Conclusions
These are not the thought of
outsiders" They are the con-
clusions of native Southerners.
The council long ago decided that
the South's problems could be
solved best by those within the
region-
For that reason alone voting
membership in the council is
limited to residents of the 13
States between Virginia and
Texas, although this does not
mean that the council discour-
ages membership by others.
Let DR.. George S. Mitchell. the
councils executive director from
Richmond. Va. and former
Rhodes scholar, state the case:
1.-THE main job of the council
is to get the South to see that
prejudice and bitterness are, In
part. shadows cast by poverty
and inequality. . We have not
made a head-on attack on race
prejudice. We have worked with
and through people who do not
have it, to spread that example
into as many communities as
possible. But the object Of work.
ing together without prejudice is
to get for the whole South the
material conditions which we
think viii dry up most Of the
prejudices. Thus we press for
whatever will get the South
health and housing and schools
and jobs and good farms. {.
eve have never made it a
point to be so far In advance of
surrounding custom that our
people lose effectiveness in push
ing for change"
DR.. Mitchell, former economics
professor at Columbia University,
claims no spectacular achieve
ment for the council. since it is
impossible to measure the change
of a mans mind.
Yet just recently the council
sponsored a meeting Of church.
woman leaders from all sections
of the South. Each Of the $50
went home after pledging:
~ am concerned that our con-
kstitutional freedoms are not
shared by all our people: my re-
ligion convinces me that they
must be and gives me courage to