Deeds v. Ideals

In Aberdeen, Miss, last week, a Negro, exonerated by proper process of law, was seized by a lynch mob of white men, shot twice and left to die. In Baltimore, a synagogue was desecrated. A public opinion poll showed that one-third of the nation thinks Jews have too much economic power; one out of seven believes that Catholics have too much political power.

This kind of news was evidence that in a country where all men are legally free & equal there is a wide and continuing gap between U.S. deeds and U.S. ideals. Eleven months ago President Truman appointed a special committee to see what could be done about closing that gap. Last week the committee, headed by General Electric's Charles Edward Wilson,* made its report.

Four Rights. The committee, its members reported, found "much that has shocked us, and much that has made us feel ashamed." The committee felt that everyone in the U.S. was entitled to the protection of four basic rights: to safety. and security of person, to citizenship and its privileges, to equality of opportunity, to freedom of conscience and expression. At present only freedom of conscience and expression, said the committee, is "relatively secure" in the U.S.

Certain specific steps could be taken immediately. The committee proposed strengthened power for the Department of Justice's Civil Rights Section. It recommended the establishment of a permanent commission in the Executive Office of the President, and of a joint standing committee in Congress to act as watchdogs.

Better to Judge. The committee recognized the special problem of dealing with Communists and other subversive groups. The report decried proposals, arising out of "near-hysteria," which would restrict a Communist's freedom to speak. The committee recommended instead that groups "which attempt to influence public opinion" be required to disclose all pertinent facts about themselves, as now required of business by the SEC. Said the report: "Our purpose ... is to enable the people better to judge the true motives of those who try to sway them."

For the future, the committee asked what had often been asked before: an anti-lynching law, an anti-poll tax law, a new FEPC, a law protecting the right to vote, laws guaranteeing equality of treatment in education, health and public service. In the nature of things political, many of these recommendations would remain pious hopes. But the committee's report provided a sharp and much-needed prod to the nation's conscience.

*Not to be confused with General Motors' President Charles Erwin Wilson. Other members: Lever Bros.' Charles Luckman, C.I.O.'s James B. Carey, A.F.L.'s Boris Shishkin, College Presidents John S. Dickey of Dartmouth and Frank P. Graham of the University of North Carolina, ex-Assistant City Solicitor Sadie T. Alexander of Philadelphia, Lawyer Morris L. Ernst of New York, Lawyer Francis P. Matthews of Nebraska, A.V.C.'s Franklin D. Roosevelt Jr., Methodist Social Worker Mrs. M. E. Tilly of Atlanta, Rabbi Roland B. Gittelsohn of Long Island, the Most Rev. Francis J. Haas, Bishop of Grand Rapids, the Rt. Rev. Henry Knox Sherrill, presiding bishop of the Protestant Episcopal Church, and Channing H. Tobias, director of the Phelps-Stokes Fund.

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