Evening star., 1950-02-24
The Teeth Can Be Spared

The headlines describe the House approved
Fair Employment Practices bill as ''toothless"
measure That is an accurate description. But
there is ample reason to believe that it is both
the wisest and the only kind of FEPC bill that
could be passed at this time.
1t will not satisfy those who believe that
the delicate problems which stem from racial
prejudices can be solved by forcible means. Their
point of view has been adequately summed up
by Representative Powell, of New York, an advo
cate of compusion, who said that the approved
bill is "a fraud. sham and hypocrisy" This
group would invest Federal commission and the
Federal courts with the power and the duty to
compel employers to hire people without regard
to such considerations as race or religion.
The business of this position in terms of
theory is incontestable. But theories do not
always fit facts. And the plain fact of this
matter is that in the South, and perhaps in other
places, racial prejudices remain so strong that
some people have doubted that such bill as
Mr.. Powell wants could be enforced. The Star
has not shared this view. The chances are,
assuming the use of sufficient coercion, that some
kind of enforcement could be had. But the strong
probability is that enforcement would entail the
use of SO much compulson, and would stir up
such hostile reactions, that more harm than
good would be done. The basic aim of an FEPC
bill is to improve the economic position of the
Negro This newspaper stands with those who
do not believe that this aim can be realized,
at least in the South, by resort to measures of
force and coercion.
The alternative is to set up machinery, as is
done in the House bill, to seek maximum of
voluntary compliance with a national policy
against discrimination in employment. This is
bound to fall short of the goal of eliminating dis
elimination. But it by no means follows that
nothing will be accomplished.
The best guide on this point is the experience
of the wartime FEPC. That committee, set up
by executive order, had no powers of enforce
ment and no recourse to the courts. Yet it
accomplished more in its five years of existence
than many people realize
1t received in all some IA 900 complaints of
job discrimination. About half of these were
dismissed as being without supporting evidence
or outside the committees Jurisdiction Some
5000 cases were settled by negotiation however,
and the others remained unresolved when the
committee went out OF existence. In its final
report, that wartime agency said: The thou
sands of cases . settled in the field were
seldom known to the public because FEPC refused
to give to the press any charges which later
might prove invalid possible of settlement
Because formal cases did go to public hearing
and we're fully reported, the public, ignorant of
the informal settlements, deduced from the few
open hearings that FEPC invariably met with
strong resistance or open defiance. This was
not the truth Hundreds of FEPC charges were
satisfactorily adjusted to every one which reached
the public hearing stage"
This certainly indicates despite the skepticS
that the processes of education and conciliation
are not utterly futile. They take time but they
are apt to produce lasting good results At any
rate, the use-approved bill is the best bet at
this time.