, 1951-04-25

The Boys Who Never Sleep
Since the crest of it's influence in the New Deal
'thirties, the movement has come to expect, in
successfully more reactionary Congresses, subtle and hard
to-explain anti-labor amendments and "riders" to legs-
lation. Thus workers. gains are constantly hacked away
by the representatives of wealth and concentrated econo-
mic power.
In the scheme of things it was to be expected that
sooner or later the apostles of bigotry in Congress would
also begin to hack away at the limited progress made by
Negres in recent years. So careful students of social
forces are not surprised to see the clever Winsted amend
ment to the pending UNIT manpower bill : providing
for so-called voluntary" segregation for those sensitive"
GIs who wish to exercise their "option" to draw the color
line all the way from Fort Dix to Korea.
True, the hush-hush approval Of the amendment
by a OBSERVATION-DISCLOSURES coalition in the House Armed
Services Committee is a national disgrace. True, it feeds
the propaganda fires of the Russians and creates anti
American sentiment wherever men of good will reside.
True, it is one more sorry item which the Voice of Ameri-
ca cannot possibly explain away. Even if never finally
enacted into law, the damage alredy is enormous.
But the most significnt aspect of this amendment is
what is forebodes for the future. We, the commo people
of America, face the boldest, most lavShly financed, most
skillfully handled counter-attack on our hard-won Ii
berries, our rights, our standard of living that we have
ever known. For industry it isn't enough to show in
1850 the most ScandalOuS profits on record. Labor must
be regimented, stymied by wage freezes and bureau
cracy, even subjected to a labor draft in order that pro-
fits may go still higher.
1t isn't enough for Negro servicemen to be left
alone to enjoy the limited Indignation which the Army
has painfully instituted in the past several years. No, as
long as Negroes in uniform fraternize to any degree with
Congressman Winsted's CT constituents, the whole struc.
ture of segregation totters uneasily. So segregation : :
hitherto administrative and not 1907 rigid must now
be enforced through mandatory legislation. And amids
all the talk these days about racial progress, let's make
no mistake about one point. The consciousness of racia
distinctions is so profoundly imbedded in white Ameri
cas- mind that many a northern CT, when alerted by his
Army superiors to the Winsted "choice", would decide
under such respectable official auspices to demand
assignment to al al-white unit.
Thus runs the mental processes of those holding
the real political power in Washington in the spring O.
1851. They our adversaries : never miss a trick
They never sleep. Aping the Communists in the art O.
deception, they seek to convince a confused and distract
ed public that black is white, that "a fishpond is
table,, that Jim Grow and soaring rents spell democrat!
and freedom.
Our opponents are determined to manipulate, con
troll and exploit America. They are too %intrenched to b
handled by a few overworked liberals whose reception
in Congressional offices get colder by the day. Our fight
if we are to succeed, must be taken up by millions O