Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1963-07-26
BY MARY McGRORY
Star Staff Writer

0y MIAMI l1CNNOnx
Star Staff Writer
The only real question before
the Senate Judiciary Committee
hearings on civil rights is will
they ever end?
The prospects are dim. Ger
tain members Of the committee
are not only defending the
Southern way Of life, they are
living It. They gather leisurely
at 1880, promptly dispense at
noon.
The Senate Judiciary Com
mittee is not in the habit of
reporting out civil rights bills.
: In fact, 1t hasn't done so in
almost a. century, and it doesn't
seem to be in a precedent
shattering frame of mind.
The chairman, Senator East
land Of Mississippi, seems to
have all the time in the world.
So does Senator Erwin of
North Carolina, who was the
committees first witness, and
appears willing to detain its
second, Attorney General Rob-
ert F. Kennedy, until hell
freezes over, or shrimps whis-
tie, or some other unlikely
eventuality.
He Tries to Adjust
The Attorney General, ordi-
narily a young man in q hurry,
is trying to adjust himself to
the plantation-porch pace Of
things. but he's dying to sad
die up and ride away.
After having spent three
mornings with the committee,
he faces countless more.
He has obviously schooled
himself to keep smiling. He
laughs at Senator Ervin's
courtroom jokes, answers his
constitutional questions, and
protests at every opportunity
mis- respect for his old friend
and employer on the Senate
Investigations Subcommittee.
But the way things are 60
ing, the Attorney Generals
brother may have completed
his second term before Sena-
tor Erwin finishes laying down
the law to the Attorney Gen.
eral.
A Barricade Of Texts
Senator Erwin has barricaded
himself behind a pile Of legal
texts and intends to hold his
position indefinitely.
The Attorney General Is at
q slight disadvantage because
he has argued only one case in
his life, while Senator Erwin
has been In and out Of court
rooms, man and boy, and loves
the lore Of the law.
Senator Erwin lays down q
barTage Of citations-yesterday
he was quoting Harrison VS..
Perkins and williams VS.. How
ard Johnson-and when he fin
fishes, the Attorney General is
still there. insisting his
brothers civil rights program
is constitutional and necessary.
Senator Ervin's central point
Is that the law protects the
Negro in the South. The At
torney Generals Is that 1t Is
not the law but custom which
prevails in the life Of Negroes
In the South.
Some Involuntary Servitude
The Senator asks the At
torney General If he seriously
believes that the Thirteenth
Amendment, which forbids in
voluntary servitude. can be ap-
piled to the public accommoda-
tons section Of the new civil
rights measure.
The Attorney General, who
has been finding out q little
about involuntary servitude in
the Senate auditorium, says
he seriously thinks it does.
The only involuntary servi-
tude," the Senator tells him,
occurs when an individual
has to cook a meal or make a
bed for a man he does not want
to serve.
Even when they changed
roles momentarily yesterday,
1t didn't really help.
Not In His State
What would you do about
these situations Of widespread
discrimination, where indivi-
duals have been denied the