The Unjoiner

Traditionally, politicians are enthusiastic joiners. But in this day of the New Frontier, it has become more fashionable to be an unjoiner--and New York's Democratic Mayor Robert Wagner is nothing if not fashionable. Last fortnight he turned in his resignation from the New York Athletic Club on the ground that it bars Negroes and Jews. Last week he announced that he might unjoin the New York Lodge No. 1 of the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, an organization which he once headed, as Exalted Ruler, because the Elks constitution limits membership to "white male citizens of the U.S." But Bob Wagner still has a long way to go. Of 31 other organizations to which he belongs, two social clubs, the Lotus and Tough Clubs, have no Negro members; neither do the two Long Island country clubs where he is a member, the Southward Ho and Harbor Hills.

For that matter, every organization that Wagner belongs to discriminates in its own way. The Boy Scouts of America has no girls, the Knights of Columbus no Protestants, the Young Democrats no Republicans, the County Corkmen's Association no Orangemen.

And all the others, by their very nature, have limited memberships: the National Conference of Christians and Jews, Veterans of Foreign Wars, American Legion, Catholic War Veterans of the U.S.A., Automobile Club of America, Yale Club, Harvard Business School Club, Guild of Catholic Lawyers, Grand Street Boys Club, First Avenue Boys, Friendly Sons of St. Patrick, Ancient Order of Hibernians in America, National Democratic Club, New York Society for the City of New York, U.S. Air Reserve, Order of Ahepa, Emerald Society of the Fire Dept, Greenwich Village Lions Club, Police Athletic League, Cherokee Club, Irish Institute, Affiliated Young Democrats, New York County Lawyers Association, Association of the Bar of the City of New York, New York State Bar Association and the Manhattan Club.

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