Dublin Core
Title
Box 17, Folder 14, Document 41
Text Item Type Metadata
Text
1963
At bottom, this business is an attack on
no less a thing than representative govern-
ment. This ls s0 because Congress is the
only part of the Government which is Lit-
erally and prectely representative in struc-
ture and characte:
What the perectiers; therefore, are really
reaching for, whether they know it or not, is
a kind of people's republic where public
policy would be exclusively in the hands of
& President who, though quite democrati-
cally and lawfully elected, would thereafter
be under no real check at all.
NEED FOR EFFECTIVE CIVIL RIGHTS
LEGISLATION
Mr. HUMPHREY. Mr. President, I
ask unanimous consent that two recent
articles reporting important statements
on the need for effective civil rights
legislation from outstanding church
leaders be printed in the Recorp at the
conclusion of my remarks. The first of
these articles, Mr. President, is taken
from the August 31, 1963, issue of the
New York Times and reports an action
taken by the Methodist Conference on
Human Relations at a national meeting
of 1,100 delegates representing 10 mil-
lion Methodists. That statement called
for Federal and State laws “that will
open all facilities serving the general
publie to all persons without regard to
race.” Equally as important it called
upon all of the churches within the de-
nomination to make certain that neither
their good name nor their funds be used
in any way to permit racial discrimina-
tion. This is a very far-reaching policy
and one that should be both commended
and-copied by others.
The other article, Mr. President, taken
from the July 8, 1963, issue of Chris-
tianity and Crisis, is an excellent state-
ment on the importance of congressional
action on civil rights. It is typical of
the growing sentiment among church-
men of all faiths. This statement is not
based upon self-interest. It is not based
upon group interest. It is based upon
national interest and upon moral
grounds. What we do here in the weeks
immediately ahead is going to be watched
closely by these good people. They have
chosen the standard of their measure.
it is not put in terms of dollar limits or
the number of stores in the chain or the
type of public service. It is put in terms
of equal treatment of all citizens without
regard to race. I hope and pray that
we will have the good sense to write a
bill that will meet this test.
There being no objection, the articles
were ordered to be printed in the REcorn,
as follows:
[From the New York Times, Aug. $1, 1963]
MerrHopists Back Crvin Ricuts PLAN—WovuLp
Ban DISCRIMINATION BY THOSE SERVING
Pusiic
Cuicaco, August 30.—The Methodist Con-
ference on Human Relations called today for
Federal and State laws “that will open all
facilities serying the general public to. all
persons without regard to race.”
Support for such a policy, a major issue in
pending civil rights legislation In Congress,
Was contained In a statement approved at a
national meeting of 1,100 delegates repre-
senting 10 million Methodists,
The statement took the form of a far-
ranging message to the denormination’s
churches that urged church units to employ
thelr economic power to aid integration and
advocated that the 185 church-related col-
Lok
CONGRESSIONAL RECORD — SENATE
leges, including many in the South, be
opened to all races.
In urging that Methodist schools, colleges,
hospitals and other institutions be opened
to all races, the document proposed “that
the name of the church and funds from its
budget shall be withdrawn from any institu-
tion pursuing a policy contrary to this
recommendation.”
The message also stated, “We are proud
that Methodist youths have participated in
nonviolent demonstrations in behalf of racial
justice all over the land.”
Spokesmen explained that the suggestions
are advisory. They will be submitted on a
petition to the Methodist General Confer-
ence, the top legislative body of the denomi-
nation, which will meet in Pittsburgh next
spring.
The message proposed:
That “investment funds, such as those of
the board of pensions, be used to help achieve
integrated communities.”
That church units develop “a program of
investment only with companies having non-
discriminatory policies” and buy goods and
make contracts only with companies that do
not discriminate in hiring.
That members “work toward full integra-
tion of schools” and assist in voter registra-
tion.
That bishops “prepare the grounds” for
assigning pastors and district superintend-
ents without regard to race.
That the 1964 general conference of the
church take further steps to merge the cen-
tral jurisdiction, which 1s virtually all Negro,
into the five regional jurisdictions.
“We cannot prevent another person from
approaching the altar of God because of his
race without being guilty of grievous sin,”
the message declared.
The message was approved by a show of
hands at the closing session of the confer-
ence.
[From Christianity and Crisis, July 8, 1963]
THE MOUNTING RACIAL CRISIS
The simplest explanation for the increas-
ingly urgent demonstrations of the Negroes
against disfranchisement, segregation in
school and church, lunch counter and public
conveyance, and against every public custom,
that affronts the dignity of the human being,
is that the Negro feels—as we all ought to
feel—that a century is a long time to wait
for the elimination of the “American dilem-
ma.”"
Discriminations against a race in the pres-
ent historical context are as offensive to the
conscience of man and as unbearable to the
victims of discrimination as slavery was in
its day. If we recognize that the present
situation is more unbearable to the victims
of injustice than it is offensive to the con-
sclence of men, we are confronted by the
hardness of the human heart, even among
those whose hearts have been softened by
human sympathy and the stirrings of con-
science. Try as we will we cannot feel the
pain of others as vividly as they do.
If we should still find {t a mystery that
this burst of resentment has come in a
period in which the ice of the long winter
of injustice is breaking—aiter the Supreme
Court decision on segregated schools has
given unmistakable evidence that the law
of the Nation is now unequivocally on the
side of justice and during an administration
that has shown more concern for racial
justice than any previous one, despite the
Southern base of the regnant party—we
have only to consider that social revolt is not,
as Marx thought, motivated by pure despera-
tion. It is motivated by both resentments
and hopes, particularly by hopes deferred,
which “maketh the heart sick.”
The Supreme Court had promised inte-
grated schools “with all deliberate speed.”
Yet a decade has passed without obvious
progress. The customs of the Nation, the
pride of the dominant race, its fear of com-
hehkee ie ‘3 Se
18207
petition from a race whose increasing edu-
cation would refute the dogma of its innate
inferiority have inhibited the attainment
of justice.
Impatience is due in part to the fact that
some Negroes have attained a college educa-
tion. Thus there is now an articulate
core to voice the longings of the voiceless
masses. They have performed the same serv-
ice for their race as the articulate crafts-
men performed for the peasants at the birth
of democracy in the 17th century. Moreover,
they have given evidence, particularly in the
realm of sports and the arts, in theater and
concert hall, and in the novel that the yvi-
cious theory of their innate inferiority is a
fraud. Their leaders in these fields have
sparked the flame of the present revolt as
much as the students did with their orig-
inal sit-ins at the lunch counters and their
freedom rides.
Since the record of the white Protestant
Church, except for a few heroic spirts, is
shameful, one must record with gratitude
that Negro churchmen have been conspicu-
ous among the leaders of the revolt. The
Negro church in the person of Dr. Martin
Luther Eing has validated itself in the life
of the Negroes and of the Nation.
The impatience of the Negro will not sub-
side until the last vestiges of legal and cus-
tomary inequality have been removed. Rev-
olutions do not stop half way. The next
step has been outlined by the President's
new legislative program, which is the natu-
ral fruit of the increasing tension of what
he has defined as our “moral crises."
The legislative program as proposed seeks
to outlaw discrimination in all private com-
mercial ventures on the basis of the 14th
amendment and the interstate commerce
clause of the Constitution. It will not pass
without a great political struggle. If suc-
cessful it might put the legislative capstone
on the emancipation of the race. But the
retreating white supremacists are increasing-
ly desperate. Their murders, their police
dogs and their terror have contributed as
much to the mounting tension as the impa-
tlence of the Negroes. We are, in short, con-
fronted with the ultimate, or at least penul-
timate, chapter in the long history of over-
coming the American dilemma.
Of course laws cannot finally change the
recalcitrant, Their prejudices dictate cus-
toms that are at war with the explicit law
of the land and the law that is written into
the heart. These prejudices are, in the lan
guage of St. Paul, “another law in my mem-
bers warring against the law of my mind.
One can only hope that the church will be
more effective in restraining and transmut-
ing these vagrant and recalcitrant passions
of man than it has been in the past. The
contribution of Roman Catholicism is an-
other story.
We Protestants might begin the new chap-
ter in our national life by contritely confes-
sing that evangelical Christianity has falled
to contribute significantly to the solution of
the gravest social issue and evil that our
Nation has confronted since slavery.
RN,
FEASIBILITY OF ADOPTING THE
METRIC SYSTEM OF WEIGHTS
AND MEASURES
Mr. PELL, Mr. President, on Tues-
day, October 8, 1963, the White House
released the first report of the Consumer
Advisory Council which recommends,
with other proposals, that a study be
made by an appropriate executive de-
partment or agency of the desirability
and practicability of conversion—by the
United States—to the metrie system, T
applaud this recommendation of the
Council, for it adds substantially to the
growing weight of opinion that such a
feasibility study be made.
Since I first introduced S. 1278 on
April 4, of this year, calling for such a
study by the National Bureau of Stand-
ards, I-have received ¢ ns
support from many diverse groups,
individuals—professors, il
gineers, persons
national trade, e
others. In addi
State, Cc r
Be reiee thie nadia hovers useful
The SL ae recta ek
Metric System of the
this field. The
different g
ye 5 ae oonsideriaucnts charee
dva is to them, was a very high
Bi percent Those who felt our export
suffering we have not
Ties iclne Ao cpleosion theo S
report and address were Grderadito be
printed in the Recorp, as follows:
Procress RePorT oF THE COMMITTEE FOR THE
SrupY oF THE Merric SYSTEM IN THE UNITED
STATES
Floyd W. Hough, Chairman; Carl I. Aslak-
son, Finn E. Bronner, John G. Ferris, Helmut gress.
E. Landsberg, G. Medina, John A. O'Keefe, It was early recognized by the committee
1 7 i that an initial poll must be taken to ascer-
" i : ‘ | tain the feeling of the scientific field on the
Thomas Dando as alternates; and L. V. Jud- question of a change to the metric system. shows) by 1 "
son, consultant. Accordingly, a subcommittee was appointed wmns and the various professions by number
At the May 7, 1958, business session of the to draw up a suitable questionnaire and a at the left.
*
TABLE coaee oe of questionnaire
Change odvan- Period for | eee | Export trade now | 1 r Cost et radon
(question4)| (question 5) (question 6) “rable Gaus nibitive itive (ques ee pee ee
8| Bessessnessssecsased | Answering
Average
Other
No
Yes
Profession 1
Number
answering
Answering
| Professional |
soclety
y
coRS RR ooccok SENSEESF
$| S28S2SSSseseSazsesqn | Answering
8| SSS35SE22Seanecseeee |
aan
S| BS8Seho48 BucSSBaQuean a
SwkRSE..Beg
ae
a
Ssee3
a
=
Sinema steno
3| senesusageeesens
KWOuUowWe hanes
ssnsnesexrgass | Education
ewe
g| S28SeSSeseseeeezesed
SESSSESSESeE ene | Anverme
3
ssgassssSsesusgeae | Ye
eSSeeseseceeeasees | Ye
wl aes St
ss
S85
S38
5 oeeuaucedexscunewess Metric
=| s2exangexesageuaeees | British
a Be ees ee ee ;
8 eNeveusussusysesuens
S ee etee Go eee No
g| BSeSSSSSESSSSseSe5S8 | Answerine
3| sasgessepssesesaenes | Answering
2| SesseSSSSsSeceesqend
g| ekerevaseensveseeess
=| @eeneetscsenuantaxce | Industry
2| seuepeseewenseeseued | Government
BS Soronwmoo
| 322833=223s
5
£
3
8
2
1 Key to professions:
Others (including not identified)
Physics 3
eograp!
Meteorology
‘Teaching
Oceanography
Civil engineering
Electrical cnpiieerihy
HeSon ys
ae
At bottom, this business is an attack on
no less a thing than representative govern-
ment. This ls s0 because Congress is the
only part of the Government which is Lit-
erally and prectely representative in struc-
ture and characte:
What the perectiers; therefore, are really
reaching for, whether they know it or not, is
a kind of people's republic where public
policy would be exclusively in the hands of
& President who, though quite democrati-
cally and lawfully elected, would thereafter
be under no real check at all.
NEED FOR EFFECTIVE CIVIL RIGHTS
LEGISLATION
Mr. HUMPHREY. Mr. President, I
ask unanimous consent that two recent
articles reporting important statements
on the need for effective civil rights
legislation from outstanding church
leaders be printed in the Recorp at the
conclusion of my remarks. The first of
these articles, Mr. President, is taken
from the August 31, 1963, issue of the
New York Times and reports an action
taken by the Methodist Conference on
Human Relations at a national meeting
of 1,100 delegates representing 10 mil-
lion Methodists. That statement called
for Federal and State laws “that will
open all facilities serving the general
publie to all persons without regard to
race.” Equally as important it called
upon all of the churches within the de-
nomination to make certain that neither
their good name nor their funds be used
in any way to permit racial discrimina-
tion. This is a very far-reaching policy
and one that should be both commended
and-copied by others.
The other article, Mr. President, taken
from the July 8, 1963, issue of Chris-
tianity and Crisis, is an excellent state-
ment on the importance of congressional
action on civil rights. It is typical of
the growing sentiment among church-
men of all faiths. This statement is not
based upon self-interest. It is not based
upon group interest. It is based upon
national interest and upon moral
grounds. What we do here in the weeks
immediately ahead is going to be watched
closely by these good people. They have
chosen the standard of their measure.
it is not put in terms of dollar limits or
the number of stores in the chain or the
type of public service. It is put in terms
of equal treatment of all citizens without
regard to race. I hope and pray that
we will have the good sense to write a
bill that will meet this test.
There being no objection, the articles
were ordered to be printed in the REcorn,
as follows:
[From the New York Times, Aug. $1, 1963]
MerrHopists Back Crvin Ricuts PLAN—WovuLp
Ban DISCRIMINATION BY THOSE SERVING
Pusiic
Cuicaco, August 30.—The Methodist Con-
ference on Human Relations called today for
Federal and State laws “that will open all
facilities serying the general public to. all
persons without regard to race.”
Support for such a policy, a major issue in
pending civil rights legislation In Congress,
Was contained In a statement approved at a
national meeting of 1,100 delegates repre-
senting 10 million Methodists,
The statement took the form of a far-
ranging message to the denormination’s
churches that urged church units to employ
thelr economic power to aid integration and
advocated that the 185 church-related col-
Lok
CONGRESSIONAL RECORD — SENATE
leges, including many in the South, be
opened to all races.
In urging that Methodist schools, colleges,
hospitals and other institutions be opened
to all races, the document proposed “that
the name of the church and funds from its
budget shall be withdrawn from any institu-
tion pursuing a policy contrary to this
recommendation.”
The message also stated, “We are proud
that Methodist youths have participated in
nonviolent demonstrations in behalf of racial
justice all over the land.”
Spokesmen explained that the suggestions
are advisory. They will be submitted on a
petition to the Methodist General Confer-
ence, the top legislative body of the denomi-
nation, which will meet in Pittsburgh next
spring.
The message proposed:
That “investment funds, such as those of
the board of pensions, be used to help achieve
integrated communities.”
That church units develop “a program of
investment only with companies having non-
discriminatory policies” and buy goods and
make contracts only with companies that do
not discriminate in hiring.
That members “work toward full integra-
tion of schools” and assist in voter registra-
tion.
That bishops “prepare the grounds” for
assigning pastors and district superintend-
ents without regard to race.
That the 1964 general conference of the
church take further steps to merge the cen-
tral jurisdiction, which 1s virtually all Negro,
into the five regional jurisdictions.
“We cannot prevent another person from
approaching the altar of God because of his
race without being guilty of grievous sin,”
the message declared.
The message was approved by a show of
hands at the closing session of the confer-
ence.
[From Christianity and Crisis, July 8, 1963]
THE MOUNTING RACIAL CRISIS
The simplest explanation for the increas-
ingly urgent demonstrations of the Negroes
against disfranchisement, segregation in
school and church, lunch counter and public
conveyance, and against every public custom,
that affronts the dignity of the human being,
is that the Negro feels—as we all ought to
feel—that a century is a long time to wait
for the elimination of the “American dilem-
ma.”"
Discriminations against a race in the pres-
ent historical context are as offensive to the
conscience of man and as unbearable to the
victims of discrimination as slavery was in
its day. If we recognize that the present
situation is more unbearable to the victims
of injustice than it is offensive to the con-
sclence of men, we are confronted by the
hardness of the human heart, even among
those whose hearts have been softened by
human sympathy and the stirrings of con-
science. Try as we will we cannot feel the
pain of others as vividly as they do.
If we should still find {t a mystery that
this burst of resentment has come in a
period in which the ice of the long winter
of injustice is breaking—aiter the Supreme
Court decision on segregated schools has
given unmistakable evidence that the law
of the Nation is now unequivocally on the
side of justice and during an administration
that has shown more concern for racial
justice than any previous one, despite the
Southern base of the regnant party—we
have only to consider that social revolt is not,
as Marx thought, motivated by pure despera-
tion. It is motivated by both resentments
and hopes, particularly by hopes deferred,
which “maketh the heart sick.”
The Supreme Court had promised inte-
grated schools “with all deliberate speed.”
Yet a decade has passed without obvious
progress. The customs of the Nation, the
pride of the dominant race, its fear of com-
hehkee ie ‘3 Se
18207
petition from a race whose increasing edu-
cation would refute the dogma of its innate
inferiority have inhibited the attainment
of justice.
Impatience is due in part to the fact that
some Negroes have attained a college educa-
tion. Thus there is now an articulate
core to voice the longings of the voiceless
masses. They have performed the same serv-
ice for their race as the articulate crafts-
men performed for the peasants at the birth
of democracy in the 17th century. Moreover,
they have given evidence, particularly in the
realm of sports and the arts, in theater and
concert hall, and in the novel that the yvi-
cious theory of their innate inferiority is a
fraud. Their leaders in these fields have
sparked the flame of the present revolt as
much as the students did with their orig-
inal sit-ins at the lunch counters and their
freedom rides.
Since the record of the white Protestant
Church, except for a few heroic spirts, is
shameful, one must record with gratitude
that Negro churchmen have been conspicu-
ous among the leaders of the revolt. The
Negro church in the person of Dr. Martin
Luther Eing has validated itself in the life
of the Negroes and of the Nation.
The impatience of the Negro will not sub-
side until the last vestiges of legal and cus-
tomary inequality have been removed. Rev-
olutions do not stop half way. The next
step has been outlined by the President's
new legislative program, which is the natu-
ral fruit of the increasing tension of what
he has defined as our “moral crises."
The legislative program as proposed seeks
to outlaw discrimination in all private com-
mercial ventures on the basis of the 14th
amendment and the interstate commerce
clause of the Constitution. It will not pass
without a great political struggle. If suc-
cessful it might put the legislative capstone
on the emancipation of the race. But the
retreating white supremacists are increasing-
ly desperate. Their murders, their police
dogs and their terror have contributed as
much to the mounting tension as the impa-
tlence of the Negroes. We are, in short, con-
fronted with the ultimate, or at least penul-
timate, chapter in the long history of over-
coming the American dilemma.
Of course laws cannot finally change the
recalcitrant, Their prejudices dictate cus-
toms that are at war with the explicit law
of the land and the law that is written into
the heart. These prejudices are, in the lan
guage of St. Paul, “another law in my mem-
bers warring against the law of my mind.
One can only hope that the church will be
more effective in restraining and transmut-
ing these vagrant and recalcitrant passions
of man than it has been in the past. The
contribution of Roman Catholicism is an-
other story.
We Protestants might begin the new chap-
ter in our national life by contritely confes-
sing that evangelical Christianity has falled
to contribute significantly to the solution of
the gravest social issue and evil that our
Nation has confronted since slavery.
RN,
FEASIBILITY OF ADOPTING THE
METRIC SYSTEM OF WEIGHTS
AND MEASURES
Mr. PELL, Mr. President, on Tues-
day, October 8, 1963, the White House
released the first report of the Consumer
Advisory Council which recommends,
with other proposals, that a study be
made by an appropriate executive de-
partment or agency of the desirability
and practicability of conversion—by the
United States—to the metrie system, T
applaud this recommendation of the
Council, for it adds substantially to the
growing weight of opinion that such a
feasibility study be made.
Since I first introduced S. 1278 on
April 4, of this year, calling for such a
study by the National Bureau of Stand-
ards, I-have received ¢ ns
support from many diverse groups,
individuals—professors, il
gineers, persons
national trade, e
others. In addi
State, Cc r
Be reiee thie nadia hovers useful
The SL ae recta ek
Metric System of the
this field. The
different g
ye 5 ae oonsideriaucnts charee
dva is to them, was a very high
Bi percent Those who felt our export
suffering we have not
Ties iclne Ao cpleosion theo S
report and address were Grderadito be
printed in the Recorp, as follows:
Procress RePorT oF THE COMMITTEE FOR THE
SrupY oF THE Merric SYSTEM IN THE UNITED
STATES
Floyd W. Hough, Chairman; Carl I. Aslak-
son, Finn E. Bronner, John G. Ferris, Helmut gress.
E. Landsberg, G. Medina, John A. O'Keefe, It was early recognized by the committee
1 7 i that an initial poll must be taken to ascer-
" i : ‘ | tain the feeling of the scientific field on the
Thomas Dando as alternates; and L. V. Jud- question of a change to the metric system. shows) by 1 "
son, consultant. Accordingly, a subcommittee was appointed wmns and the various professions by number
At the May 7, 1958, business session of the to draw up a suitable questionnaire and a at the left.
*
TABLE coaee oe of questionnaire
Change odvan- Period for | eee | Export trade now | 1 r Cost et radon
(question4)| (question 5) (question 6) “rable Gaus nibitive itive (ques ee pee ee
8| Bessessnessssecsased | Answering
Average
Other
No
Yes
Profession 1
Number
answering
Answering
| Professional |
soclety
y
coRS RR ooccok SENSEESF
$| S28S2SSSseseSazsesqn | Answering
8| SSS35SE22Seanecseeee |
aan
S| BS8Seho48 BucSSBaQuean a
SwkRSE..Beg
ae
a
Ssee3
a
=
Sinema steno
3| senesusageeesens
KWOuUowWe hanes
ssnsnesexrgass | Education
ewe
g| S28SeSSeseseeeezesed
SESSSESSESeE ene | Anverme
3
ssgassssSsesusgeae | Ye
eSSeeseseceeeasees | Ye
wl aes St
ss
S85
S38
5 oeeuaucedexscunewess Metric
=| s2exangexesageuaeees | British
a Be ees ee ee ;
8 eNeveusussusysesuens
S ee etee Go eee No
g| BSeSSSSSESSSSseSe5S8 | Answerine
3| sasgessepssesesaenes | Answering
2| SesseSSSSsSeceesqend
g| ekerevaseensveseeess
=| @eeneetscsenuantaxce | Industry
2| seuepeseewenseeseued | Government
BS Soronwmoo
| 322833=223s
5
£
3
8
2
1 Key to professions:
Others (including not identified)
Physics 3
eograp!
Meteorology
‘Teaching
Oceanography
Civil engineering
Electrical cnpiieerihy
HeSon ys
ae
Comments