Atlanta Daily World

Senate Rejects Southern Bias In Islands Post

New Governor To Leave For Islands Post About May 20

WASHINGTON (ANP)—William M. Hastie was confirmed by the United States senate late Wednesday and becomes the first Negro governor in the history of the United States. In one of the most unusual cases of its kind, the senate sub-committee holding hearings on the presidential nomination laid itself open to sharp criticism because of the dilatory and delaying tactics of recalcitrant southern senators opposed to the naming of a Negro to such a high post. For weeks they baited Hastie seeking to throw him off his guard and bring confusion into the already confused issue. But Mr. Hastie, skilled in the art of parrying and legal tactics refused to be led into the trap being set for him and evaded with skill and clever though straightforward replies, all questions designed to bring him in the range of the pettyfoggers Ellender and Eastland. Even at the last moment in the senate vote, Ellender told the senate that Charles Harwood, the retiring governor, should have been reappointed by Secy. of the Interior Ickes, whom he termed an "old pious hypocrite." Ellender said Harwood had been the "best governor the islands ever had" but ran into criticism from Ickes and was not appointed by Ickes' Cabinet successor J. A. Krug. Other opinions did not concur with Ellender on Harwood Thus Gov. Hastie, who is expected to leave the District on or about May 20 to assume his new post, becomes a territorial official on an equal footing with the governors of Alaska, Hawaii and Puerto Rico. Gov. Hastie has received many congratulatory messages since his confirmation and has taken all in his usual quiet reserved manner Married to the daughter of a prominent Virgin Island merchant Mrs Hastie, a native Virgin Islander now becomes the "first lady" of the Virgin Islands and brings to the role of official hostess the best wishes and support of those who know her best