The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1949-05-05
Hypocrisy

- y PONAAPy
The extraordinary manner in which
Mr.. Trumans program has flopped
makes plain so many things that it is
impossible to present them all in
single column. The best way is to
touch today only upon couple of out
standing facts now clearly revealed.
One is the absurdity of the claim
that in the last election either Mr.,
Truman or his program was indorsed
in way to constitute mandate"
If such had been the case, public senti-
ment would have insured congression-
al compliance. No such public senti-
ment manifested itself. 1t simply is
not there. 1t is unlikely we will hear
much more about those mandates
except from the CIO and the profess
sional "liberals.' Mr.. Truman just
squeaked through last November and
the only mandate" he justly can
claim is from the special groups to
which he especially appealed, to which
he owes his election and to which his
promises were made These are still
behind his program, but there is not
the slightest evidence the people gen.
orally want to go in its direction.
That is the real story of why
Congress which the Democrats fully
control so far has refused to go along
with a newly elected Democratic
President. The second outstanding
fact is the shocking Hypocrisy in both
parties on the so-called civil rights"
program, the heart of which is the
ending of racial segregation and the
breaking down of all bars to COM
plete political and economic equality
erected against the Negro in the
South. Of all public questions this
racial equality issue is the one most
completely saturated with politics and
demagoguery With few exceptions,
the only sincere politicians about this
business are those in the South who
OppOSG- anu llOO ellI VI IilOoC. L VI GllO
rest, Democrats and Republicans, it is
not a question of conviction-it is
solely question Of votes. Ninety-five
per cent of the breast-beating and bel
lowing on this subject is sheer hum
bug.
Up to 1886 this was not the case
at least not to the same degree. Up
to that time the Negro vote had been
almost solidly Republican-and the
Democrats had been content to leave
it so. In that year, the then Senator
Joe Guffey, Of Pennsylvania, the then
Democratic chairman; Mrs. James A.
Farley and the then President, Frank
Roosevelt, concocted a cynical po-
litical scheme, without a trace of
principle in it, to transfer the Negro
vote in eleven pivotal Northern states
to the Democratic party. The instru
ments they used, in the order of their
effectiveness, were the late Harry
Hopkins and his WPA, the personal
Negro popularity of Mrs. Roosevelt,
the Federal patronage made available
by Mr.. Roosevelt, the Democratic
National Committee, pay rolls and
propaganda.
The scheme was so successful that
Mr. Farley still regards it as the
greatest political coup in the history
of American politics. The appalling
result, however, was to create a fierce
competition, such as never before
existed, between the two parties for
the Negro vote in the big cities of the
North-the Democrats trying hard to
hold on to what they had stolen; the
Republicans desperately striving to
get it back. In consequence, Northern
Negro leaders found themselves in a