St. Paul Recorder

Uncovering Washington
By Harry S. McAlpin

A rose smells the same, no matter what you call it.

That's true of men, too, where not always does the odor of the rose permeate the air.

Basically, for example, the CIO, in principle, is our most liberal labor organization.

Its expressed policy and philosophy are against discrimination and prejudice. But some of the 6,000 whites who tied up the war production effort in Philadelphia until last week were members of the CIO. Of course, the CIO officials were violently opposed to the unauthorized strike.

But some of the men participating in that travesty on democracy "smelled" no sweeter because they belonged to the CIO.

And the analogy goes over into government agencies, too. For example the Army took a forthright and commendable stand on the Philadelphia "tie-up." Its determination to operate the transportation vehicles and support the new hiring policy toward Negroes was affirmed by reopening of the training course last week for the 8 Negroes over whom the 6,000 would-be Americans walked out. Still, it was a member of the Army who almost precipitated a real riot when he sought to enforce his Southern patterns on Philadelphia by separating the whites and Negroes on a bus he was "protecting."

But the most illustrative example of the "rose" smelling the same no matter what you call it, is the War Manpower Commission.

It was the insistence of the Philadelphia regional War Manpower Commission that the priority referral plan be followed in that area, involving hiring of workers without discrimination because of race, creed, color or national origin, which brought the Philadelphia Transit Company around to hiring and training Negroes. The Company previously had defied a directive of the Fair Employment Practice Committee to do the same thing.

In Washington, however, wearing the same "cloak" of the WMC, the regional office of that agency has exempted the Capital Transit Company from compliance with the priority referral plan regulations.

The Capital Transit Company has been defying the FEPC for almost two years now. It has bluntly refused to hire Negroes as operators and platform men. It has admitted to the Labor-Management committee of the Area WMC that it knows the regulations but that it is not abiding by the portion on indiscriminate hiring.

But the area WMC, through its Labor-Management committee and the Area WMC director, Ernest V. Connolly, voted down all suggestions of holding Capital Transit to compliance with the WMC priority referral rules and regulations. They have given the Company carte-blanche - permitting it to hire without clearing through the Employment Service by using its own recruitment methods and program.

Of course, the Capital Transit intends to hire only white men and women as operators and platform personnel.

And so even though the Washington area WMC is called the agency for obtaining maximum utilization of manpower for the war effort, it still smells like what it really is and that doesn't mean like a rose.

The question is whether the government and the people are going to let them "get-away" with it.

They are as guilty of sabotaging the war effort through combatting full labor utilization—at a different stage—as McMenamin, Carney, Thompson and Dixey, who led the Philadelphia Transit employees strike in a five-day unauthorized walkout.

Collusion with the Capital Transit to keep Negroes out is a mild charge to place against Connolly and the members of the Labor-Management committee. Dereliction of duty could be added, and several more serious ones probably could be proved.

It will be interesting to see what happens!