The potters herald. [volume] (East Liverpool, Ohio) 1899-1982, 1950-02-02
Ask Senofe To
Pass An+i-Lynch
Law With Teeth

Washington (LPA) = An anti
lynching law with real teeth in il
was urged by Sen. Hubert Hump.
hrey Cd, Mimi and a spokesman
for Attorney-general J. Howard
McGrath in testimony before &
Senate Judiciary subcommittee Jan
| 20.
A measure already approved by
the Judiciary group, Humphrey
warned, has a fatal Achilles heel
which "makes it unacceptable to
all those genuinely concerned with
civil rights" The bill, originated
by Sen. Homer Ferguson Or
Mich.) would require that before
the law could be used, conspiracy
must be proved between a lynch
mob and law enforcement officials.
Either the bill sponsored by
Humphrey and Sen. Wayne Morse
Or, Ore.) or the one proposed by
Attorney-general McGrath when
he was in the Senate, would avoid
this pitfall, the Minnesota Senator
asserted.
Through approval Of the United
Nations Charter, the Senate has
already by its own vote dispelled
the Constitutional argum en- S
against this measure" Humphrey
asserted. "The next step is to full
fill our treaty obligations by putt
ing into public law the UN Char
ter's declaration that there shall
be no discrimination because of
race, creed or color"
"The major weakness of our for
eign policy is our failure at home
to provide civil rights for all our
people," Humphrey warned. Soviet
propagandists have taken lynchings
and mob violence incidents here,
and blow them up into propaganda
stories, especially in southeast
Asia, using the "modicum of fact
to substantiate the big lie."
Mob violence in New York, De-
troit or Minneapolis is just as re-
prehensible as the same kind of
violence in Birmingham or Atlanta,
Humphrey insisted, and his bill is
'of universal application to all
people in all parts of the U.s."
H. M. Griffith, vice-president of
the National Economic Council
Inc, semi-Fascist organization tied
in with the Committee for Consti-
tutional Government and other
such outfits, appeared to call all
anti-lynching bill proposals "a first
class tragedy for the Negro peo-
ple." Besides arguing that such
bills are unconstitutional he main
aimed that lynchings are ''for all
practical purposes non-existent"
and that "the resentment it will
is bound to create an
in which so-called
1ynchings" will be more likely to
happen than not to happen. Every
'ealist knows this. Not only could
t gravely offend the white people
If the south but it would be bound
% create among some colored per-
sons a belief that punishment for
rhine would be less likely, with a
corresponding rise in the incidence
If the type of crime which might
cad to unlawful violence"
He charged that sponsors of the
lnti-lynching bills "think that
labor violence is all right, just one
If those things that must be ex-
,ected in the great battle for
abor's gains. When the hackers of
;o-called anti-lynching legislation
ome out for stringent action
against labor union violence and
awness, they will then, and only
hen, be entitled to ask the Ameri-
an people to believe in their sim
Gritty" j.
Queried by Sen. Harley Kilgore
d, w. Va.) on the composition of
he organization he represents,
iriffith said that the statement
ed read had been approved by the
ive-man executive committee, but
aid he couldn't recall" offhand