Southern Senators

"The biggest pair of shoes that ever walked out of Mississippi" belonged, according to Senator Pat Harrison of that State, to John Sharp Williams, onetime (1911-23) U. S. Senator, who now dozes in gardenia-scented retirement on his plantation near Yazoo City, Miss. To fill the Williams shoes, Mississippi sent to Washington Hubert Durett Stephens, a man who was considered brilliant as a youth because he started practicing law at the tender age of 20, but who has yet to distinguish himself either as a shoe-filler or as a Senator.

Last week, almost in spite of himself, Senator Stephens found himself in the public eye. He did not get up in the Senate, where his voice is seldom heard, but in the press, to which he released a correspondence he had been having with Secretary of Commerce Hoover.

Secretary Hoover had ordered the U. S. Census Bureau to discontinue its custom of segregating Negro clerks from white clerks. Senator Stephens called this an "unfortunate action." Senator Stephens referred to "personal political advantage." He said it was a grave injustice to both races and that certain white men and women would have a Negro for their superior officer.

"Foolish untruths," replied Secretary Hoover, "I have received no complaint from either group."

Senator Stephens replied: "A good position has often been lost for a smaller offense than protesting the action of a superior." He reported an instance he had heard about Negroes who had been assigned to desks among white men and women. The Negroes, he said, were "all grins, and congratulated . . . on the recognition that had been given them." He further charged that white and Negro women were obliged to use the same washroom. Senator Stephens said his protest was "in the interest of decency and the welfare of Government. Whenever there has been a step toward social equality between the races, dire results have followed."

The matter might never have come to public notice and the Stephens-Hoover exchange might not have been published but for two colleagues of Senator Stephens whose faith and skill in oratory are great.

Senator Coleman Blease of South Carolina, who "loves all the citizens of America," made a speech quoting an anonymous woman in the Census Bureau as having written: "We call these colored Census Bureau employes 'Hoover Chocolates' and all wish we could make him eat them."

And Senator James Thomas ("Tom-Tom") Heflin, who mortally hates and fears the Roman Pope, made a speech, saying:

"Such a thing is a shocking outrage upon these fine American girls, and a shame on any Administration. . . .

"Senators, Mr. Hoover cannot play with this question in this fashion. . . . And you have no business, Mr. Hoover, to undertake to interfere with the handiwork of the Almighty. . . .

"Just as the eagle is the King of all fowls, just as the lion is the King of all beasts, and just as the whale is the King of all the fishes of the seas, the white race is the crowning glory of the four races of black, yellow, red and white! . . ."

But the Census Bureau's Negroes remained unsegregated, except of their own volition. Southerners continued to be vexed.