Atlanta Daily World

Do We Mean What We Say?

THE AMERICAN PEOPLE are getting the unusual opportunity this election year 1960 to see their candidates at work in the highest legislative chambers of the land. It is a campaign in political action.

What was promised in the platforms which dazzled the nation from Los Angeles and Chicago is now being given the "big test." The principal actors are the Republican and Democratic parties and their representatives in the Senate and House, notably Vice President Richard M. Nixon and John Kennedy. How well they perform their roles will influence a large number of persons on their voting performance in November. They must be careful indeed, not to give the wrong impression to the electorate.

ALREADY THE DEMOCRATS, who had produced the most "dazzling" platform, have failed in initial tests of convention promises. While the professional politicians had been saying all along that "they could promise the sun, the moon and the stars in convention," the real "proof of the pie is in the eating" in the staid halls of Congress.

Admittedly, some of the moves toward "action now" are politically inspired, since the "pot can't call the kettle black" in a number of performances of both Republicans and Democrats.

The question is, however, where does the nation go from here?

IF WE ARE TO ASSUME that the stalwarts of the Democratic donkey and the Republican elephant meant half they said in convention, there should be little difficulty in getting through the necessary legislation to guarantee equal justice and opportunity for all American citizens. Must there ever be some doubt lurking in the minds of elected servants, insofar as race, color and creed might be considered?

AS A MATTER OF FACT, it is like finding a needle in a haystack during a search for a full champion of unlimited civil rights for all Americans. During last week's debate, even the GOP proponents of such legislation did not exhibit an attitude towards pulling no punches to get before the people what their platform had declared just a few weeks ago.

If we do not mind, when our dollars are gone on the world market, the underdeveloped nations will retain their doubt of our meaning what we say - after all.