Ready for Civil Rights

Michigan's Republican Senator Charles Potter, up for 1958 re-election in an intensely civil-rights-conscious state, last week added his name to the brief list of Senators who will fight for a filibuster-busting rules change in the opening days of the 85th Congress. The attempt is foredoomed, and has diverted attention from a significant fact: there is a real possibility that in 1957 the Senate, its rules unchanged, and the House of Representatives will enact the first major civil-rights legislation since Reconstruction.

The 1956 elections, which saw more Negroes voting Republican than at any time in two decades, convinced Northern and Western Democrats that they must start paying more than lip service to civil rights. The elections also encouraged Republicans to try even harder for the Negro's vote. Result: at least 70 Senators and a healthy House majority are determined to pass a civil-rights bill. In the face of such strength, the Southern leaders of Congress, who pride themselves on recognizing (and facing) reality, are prepared to give way.

Instead of bottling the civil-rights bill up in committee, they will probably let Congress get it out of the way early so that the 85th can move on to other business. Most likely form of the legislation: a moderate bill setting up a federal civil-rights commission--but possibly without the subpoena power that the Administration has requested and which congressional Southerners have violently opposed.

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