Tyranny or Blasphemy

Just as the Senate chaplain finished the opening prayer one day last week, a big, white-haired man in a blue suit and bow tie walked slowly into the chamber and took his seat. Vice President Barkley, presiding, noted the white-haired Senator's presence and the members stood and applauded. Arthur Vandenberg, who had undergone nine major operations in the past seven months and had not been at his Senate desk since February, rose with some effort, smiled and made a slight bow.

He had come to the chamber to cast his vote on one of the most perplexing questions before the 81st Congress: How far should the Federal Government go in guaranteeing the rights of all its citizens? The Senate was about to face a showdown on the Fair Employment Practices bill--the measure which would make the nation's employers liable to fines and possible imprisonment if they were found guilty of discriminating against their workers on account of race or religion.

Neither Daddy nor Mammy. The Senate had approached the matter grudgingly. Majority Leader Scott Lucas, doggedly vowing to make good on Harry Truman's civil rights program, had made FEPC the next order of business, had then let an easygoing Southern filibuster jog along for most of two weeks. The debate had had its high & low points.

Georgia's Walter George managed to combine demagoguery and intelligent discussion all in one speech. "The Republicans did not 'daddy' the thing," charged George, "and the Democrats did not 'daddy' it nor 'mammy' it. The Communists are entitled to the credit." On an even keel--"The bill we are discussing raises a fundamental issue of government," he said and he raised the familiar issue of states' rights. "There are honorable Senators who will say that such a law is working very well in certain states." But he was against the government attempting to force moral attitudes upon 150 million citizens. "I myself do not undertake to point out how government can make a man be good or Christian or tolerant because government cannot do so. If government undertakes to do so, it becomes a tyranny."

"What We Are Doing." Replied Scott Lucas: "The laws of a government are considered civilized to the extent that they protect the life of its citizens against the conduct and acts of others. The right of life is no less than the right to work and earn a livelihood . . . A nation which must call upon every man and woman, regardless of race or religion, to protect it in time of grave crisis should secure to each of its citizens the right equally with all men to earn a livelihood . . . What we are doing here is trying to solve rationally a serious national problem."

But the Senate, in a worn and angry mood, was more waspish than rational. Minnesota's bouncy Hubert Humphrey called the South's arguments "blasphemy," and twice had to take his seat for defying senatorial decorum. Senators swapped insults and personal attacks. Lucas finally moved in to shut off the Dixiecrat filibuster by cloture, not in order to get a vote on FEPC itself but just to get to the first step: a vote on a motion to bring the bill to the floor.

The Stayaways. Under new Senate rules, cloture requires a constitutional two-thirds majority (64) of the entire Senate. Before filing his petition, Lucas had challenged the Republicans to support him in trying to get the Senate to limit debate. The Republicans threw back a yelling gibe; it was up to Lucas to produce the necessary support from among the Trumancrats. An hour after Arthur Vandenberg took his seat, Barkley called for the cloture vote. It failed of passage by twelve votes. The score: 52 for, 32 against.

There was no comfort for Lucas in the results. An almost solid phalanx of Southern Democrats stood against him. Such Administration stalwarts as Tydings of Maryland and Frank Graham of North Carolina, who was engaged in a bitter primary fight, managed to be absent. Six Democrats from western and border states voted against cloture. Lucas was able to count only 19 Democrats in his camp. From the other side of the aisle, 33 Republicans, including the ailing Vandenberg, gave Lucas more embarrassment than satisfaction by coming out loud & clear for cloture; only six Republicans turned up on the side of the Dixiecrats.

With the habitual, well-dressed air of weariness which he wears like a shroud, Scott Lucas laid aside FEPC. But "only temporarily," he said. They would get on with other pressing business, but they would come back to the FEPC fight.

But FEPC was as good as dead and only useful for political tubthumping. From the Republican side Minority Leader Kenneth Wherry crowed: "The Democratic Party again has failed . . . The Democratic Party is split into northern and southern wings and cannot deliver on any of its promises."

Last week the Senate also:

P: Killed three more (making a total of five) of 21 presidential reorganization plans which otherwise would have automatically become law on May 24. The measures: to increase the authority of the Secretary of Agriculture by bringing agencies in his department more closely under his control; to make the chairmen of the Interstate Commerce and the Federal Communications Commissions directly responsible for the commissions' activities.

P: Received a report on employment of homosexuals in the U.S. Government after a Senate subcommittee heard the testimony of a Washington police lieutenant that 3,750 perverts hold Government jobs. Dr. R. H. Felix, director of the National Institute of Mental Health, informed Senators that perhaps 4% of the white U.S. male population were "confirmed homosexuals," so he did not think that Washington, D.C. was much worse than anywhere else. The appalled subcommittee thought an investigation should be made anyhow.

The House:

P: Passed a bill (like one already voted by the Senate) to ban importation or interstate shipments of obscene recordings.

P: Passed an authorization stuffed with pork fat to spend $1 billion in the next two years on the construction of new highways, sent the measure on to the Senate.

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