DIY History | Transcribe | Campus Culture | Dorothy Schramm newspaper clippings, 1949-1955 (folder 1 of 2) | 1952-04-21 Des Moines Register Article: "Both North and South Showing More Sense On Race Matters" Page 1

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Dorothy Schramm newspaper clippings, 1949-1955 (folder 1 of 2)

1952-04-21 Des Moines Register Article: "Both North and South Showing More Sense On Race Matters" Page 1

So long as present rules of procedure remain in the senate of the United States, there is practically no chance of getting a compulsory fair employment practices law through congress. But that does not mean that Senator Humphrey's hearings are completely futile. 
We are still going through the same old ritual, long so stale, of the North prissily calling on the South to reform, and the South replying angrily, "Let us handle our problems in our own way; you're not so perfect yourselves."
But instead of being a mere exchange of recriminations, the ritual has now at last become a genuine two-way conversation. Now at last, the South is actually tackling its problems in its own way--putting new emphasis on the "equal" part of the old formula of "separate but equal" in some places, and relaxing segregation itself in others, particularly the border states.
And the North has heard the South's criticisms of it, and is working seriously to end its own discriminations and segregations. It is working out new techniques for doing this which are quite unlike the crude and clumsy measures of Reconstruction days which so embittered the white South.
On the surface, there is little in common between the proposals of Representative Brooks Hays (Dem., Ark.) and Senator Robert a. Taft (Rep., Ohio) for voluntary fair employment programs and the Trumnan-Humphrey compulsory type.
But the early stages of a compulsory fair employment program are almost indistinguishable from a voluntary one: The enforcement agency necessarily starts with the easiest cases, the ones where persuasion and conciliation will do the trick. Most of the Northern city and state compulsory programs began as voluntary ones. Even in a mature compulsory program, the police power is kept very far in the background, and the major techniques are those of the [[italics]]educator and the salesman[[end italics.]].
These can and do operate on both sides of the Mason-Dixon line--not trying to establish uniform customs by legislative fiat, but [[italics]]talking[[end italics]] people into being a little less foolish about ancestry and superficial physical traits.
Thus the tension between North
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DMR 4/21/52
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So long as present rules of procedure remain in the senate of the United States, there is practically no chance of getting a compulsory fair employment practices law through congress. But that does not mean that Senator Humphrey's hearings are completely futile. We are still going through the same old ritual, long so stale, of the North prissily calling on the South to reform, and the South replying angrily, "Let us handle our problems in our own way; you're not so perfect yourselves." But instead of being a mere exchange of recriminations, the ritual has now at last become a genuine two-way conversation. Now at last, the South is actually tackling its problems in its own way--putting new emphasis on the "equal" part of the old formula of "separate but equal" in some places, and relaxing segregation itself in others, particularly the border states. And the North has heard the South's criticisms of it, and is working seriously to end its own discriminations and segregations. It is working out new techniques for doing this which are quite unlike the crude and clumsy measures of Reconstruction days which so embittered the white South. On the surface, there is little in common between the proposals of Representative Brooks Hays (Dem., Ark.) and Senator Robert a. Taft (Rep., Ohio) for voluntary fair employment programs and the Trumnan-Humphrey compulsory type. But the early stages of a compulsory fair employment program are almost indistinguishable from a voluntary one: The enforcement agency necessarily starts with the easiest cases, the ones where persuasion and conciliation will do the trick. Most of the Northern city and state compulsory programs began as voluntary ones. Even in a mature compulsory program, the police power is kept very far in the background, and the major techniques are those of the [[italics]]educator and the salesman[[end italics.]]. These can and do operate on both sides of the Mason-Dixon line--not trying to establish uniform customs by legislative fiat, but [[italics]]talking[[end italics]] people into being a little less foolish about ancestry and superficial physical traits. Thus the tension between North [[Handwriting]] DMR 4/21/52 Please return to Schramm