Evening star., 1961-09-25
DAVID LAWRENCE

Inere S all uIlcApldIIlSu
paradox in the news these
days. 1t raises several inter-
esting questions:
First, why was it necessary
to organize Freedom Riders to
protest against racial diScrim-
ination in the South in seat
ing on buses and at bus-term-
inal restaurants when the In
terstate Commerce Commis-
sion all along has had the
power to do what it has just
done-issue regulations for
bidding such discrimination?
Second. why did the At
torney General wait until May
90 to ask the Interstate Com
merce Commission to issue
these new regulations?
Third, why were the organ
izers of the Freedom Riders
given encouragement by Gov
ernment officials here to
carry on those demonstrations
when there was a remedy in
existing law?
Fourth, why was the United
States subjected to criticism
abroad and the Soviet Union
enabled to get a considerable
propaganda use out of the
news of the disorders at
time Of international tension,
and especially when the
United States was seeking to
win the friendship and favor
Of various African countries
which now have votes in the
United Nations?
The above questions relate
to fundamental belief which
too many people have ex-
pressed that the only way to
get things done is to take
the law into your own hands"
This was the psychology of
those who argued that the
Negroes had already waited
too long for equal treat
ment" and that it was about
time to do something"
Not so many years ago this
was the argument also of
those who started mobs to do
lynchings. The leaders said
it was useless to wait for the
long g-drawn-out process of the
law to punish criminals. This
was widely described as
government by mob instead
Of government by law and
order" Indeed, when the dis
orders broke out at Little
Rock, Arkansas, in the au-
tumn of 1857, criticism was
heard that the incitement to
violence by impassioned par
tisans of the cause of segre-
CATION showed that they did
not believe in law and
order"
But the Freedom Riders in
1861 disregarded the fears of
the local populace that law
and order" would be disrupted
and that violence might re-
suit if the demonstrations
were carried to the point of
actual resistance to local
laws.
Even some clergymen, who
are supposed to teach recon-
ciliation and certainly are
not supposed to do anything
remotely to provoke violence,
actually participated in the
Freedom Rides without get
ting a single letter of repri-
mand from the institutions,
religious or educational, with
which they were associated.
Does this mean that the end
justifies the means" after all,
and that, if the cause one be-
lieves in is a worthy one,
it's all right to engage in a
demonstration notWithstand-
ing that it is likely to incite
a mob to violence?
Whether one likes the law
of the land" is irrelevant,
but, since it's desirable in a
democracy for the people to
await the normal functioning
Of legal processes in one
cause. it is equally desirable
for the partisans of any other
cause to agree that law and
order" must be given an OPP
portunity to apply it's man
dates through the judicial
processes available.
The Kennedy adminiStra-
ton must have known last
January that it could ask the
Interstate Commerce Com
mission to issue regulations