Minneapolis Spokesman

Minn. G.O.P. Congressmen Support
Dixiecrats' Legislative Blockade

The Minneapolis Tribune on January 31 published lengthy statements about the House Rules Committee controversy, by Congressmen Albert Quie and Walter Judd, which will give scant comfort to those who want to uphold the Republican party as a guardian of civil rights.

The fight on the Rules Committee was over the fact that as it then constituted, it was a roadblock to any civil rights legislation. Because the rules committee has the power to bottle up legislation and prevent the House of Representatives from voting on it, the outlook and philosophy of those on the committee is of crucial importance in the consideration of a forward-looking civil rights program.

Unfortunately, the operation of the seniority system in committee appointments has elevated backward-looking men from the rotten borough districts of the most unenlightened parts of the south to positions of power on this committee. Even more unfortunately, enough Republicans have been willing to join forces with them to outvote the liberals of both parties.

The Democratic leadership decided to fight this issue out, and proposed to enlarge the committee by the appointment of enough liberals to outvote the reactionaries of the north and south. In this, the Democrats got scant help from the Republicans. The typical Republican attitude was expressed by Congressmen Quie and Judd. In effect, they supported their own anti-civil rights reactionaries.

This was a Democratic foul-up and a Democratic responsibility they said. The Republican congressmen had no responsibility in the matter and no intention of helping. (They didn't help, either). Somewhat smugly. Mr. Quie opined that the whole mess was the product of philosophical chaos among the Democrats.

He might have considered the other side of that coin. If the philosophical division between the Dixiecrats and the Liberals in the Democratic party is the issue, then we must conclude that Mr. Quie, Mr. Judd, and the rest of the GOP congressmen are in harmony with the Republicans on the rules committee.

This may be a comfortable position for an unquestioning partisan to take in a case like this. But outside of Congress, among the voters, and especially among the forward-looking people of our country, the issue is civil rights, and what Congress is going to do about it. It is our privilege to examine the deeper implications of the Judd and Quie statements, and to interpret their meaning.

And our interpretations are that regardless of any formal for-the-record statements they make or votes they may cast—when the chips are down and the issue hot, these Republican Congressmen are against civil rights legislation.