Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1957-10-03
A-is'' THURSDAY. OCTOBER J, 1857
From Bad to Worse

The latest statements from the
President and Governor Faubus indicate
more clearly than before that this coun-
try Is faced with long. bitter and dan
gerouS school indignation struggle-a
struggle in which the losses promise to
Tar outweigh any hoped-for gains.
Governor Faubus is an unpredictahle
man. AS We read his latest statement,
however, he is saying that he viii not
use force to integrate Little Rocks Gen.
trail High School. He says that they
(meaning the President and his adj
viserS) want him to take troops and
place bayonetS in the backs of young
sters in my own State" He adds that he
never felt the need for this deplorabIe
action" One may discount this as
purple prose. Still, If the Governor
means what he seems to be saying, the
President cannot defederalize the Ar
kansas National Guard and remove the
Federal paratroopers. One or the other.
or both, will stay In Little Rock, and we
fear they win be there for long, long
time.
The Presidents statement, issued
through his press secretary James
Hagerty, is not confined, however, to
Little Rock. In effect. it is warning to
the entire South that he is prepared
TO use whatever means may be required"
to enforce school indignation orders in
any State. The wisdom of issuing such
statement at this time and in the form
in which 1t was made public may be
questioned. But there is no mistaking its
meaning.
Mr.. Eisenhower said that "it Is the
duty Of the State authorities to give FUN
aid to the enforcement OF a desegrega-
ton public school plan once It is finally
ordered by the court" Then he said this:
sWhen an obstruction of justice has been
interpoSed or mob violence is permitted
to exist so that it is impracticable to
enforce the laws by the ordinary course
OF judicial proceedings the obligation of
the President under the Constitution and
the laws is inescapable. He is obliged to
use whatever means may be required by
the particular situation"
There is nothing unclear about this.
If the State authorities will not enforce
indignation, and many Of them certainly
will not, then the President will use
whatever means may be required, and
this includes Federal troops, to see to it
that a court order commanding inte-
grafton is enforced
The President has this ultimate
responsibility, and he cannot evade it.
One may hope, Of course, that the issue
Of Indignation will not be forced In
areas where the people, in the absence
Of armed troops, will not accept it. But
this probably is a pious hope, for the
issue already is being forced in solidly
hostile areas such as Virginia'S Prince
Edward County. Furthermore, the dis
trict courts in the end will order inte-
grafton throughout the South, for they
have no choice under the Supreme
Courts ruling except in the matter Of
timing. And this at best is limited and
uncertain choice. for the court has never
spelled out what 1t meant when IL de-
creed desegregation with "all deliberate
speed"
The question which concerns us is
not whether, in the narrow sense, this
battle can be won. OF course it can. II
the schools remain open, and If enough
force is used, integration can be imposed
anywhere. The real question has to do
with the coSt-the cost to education, the
cost to the children, colored as well as
white, the cost to that better relation
ship, that better understanding, between
the races which holds the only hope for
real solution Of Americas tragic problem.
AS things are going, we are very much
afraid that, in the long run, this cost,
whether exacted in the name Of re-
quiring respect for court orders or in the
name Of imposing an indignation pro-
gram that is pushed too far and too fast,
will be disastrous.