eternal life and that each individual should seek his highest fulfillment as a gentleman of integrity. In so doing he most resembles his Creator.

A fair practice law is necessary to set our record straight according to the spirit of American democracy as enunciated in the Declaration of Independence. "All men are created equal; they are endowed by their Creator with (the inalienable right) to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness." The right to work and to receive equal pay for equal services is inherent in these phrases of our democratic faith. We cannot expect first-class citizenry and only offer second- and thirdclass opportunity.

The South is at the threshold of a new industrialization that can bring the South to an economic prosperity on a par with the rest of our Nation. This will mean much to the South. It will mean much to our entire Nation. But for this new era to come to pass the South must utilize all her human and natural resources and not waste them as has been so tragically true in the past. There are stirrings in the South that are significant. Many fine groups and individuals are striving hard to rid the South of old fancies and ancient prejudices. We no longer are proud of antiquated mansions that should be relics and museum pieces rather than places of abode. We no longer cling to the false illusions and hug outworn dreams. We look to the future when all men can walk in dignity, each striving to reach his greatest stature as a human being.

I do not look upon S. 984 as an idealistic bill and impossible of achievement. Many of its items are similar in design and approach to State laws on fair employment that are actually working successfully, notably the one in New York State.

Suddenly, the world has moved in on us. We see clearly as a result of World War II and its aftermath that we are one people living in one world. At this hour America is looked upon as the hope of decent living among nations everywhere in the world. To pursue our role in world affairs with honesty and vigor we must clean house at home. The words of old John Donne, slightly paraphrased, seem especially fresh and meaningful today:

No man is an island to himself alone

He is part of the mainland

If a wave washes my shore I am the lesser

Every man's death diminishes me

Because I am involved in all humanity.

And, therefore, never send to find for whom the bell tolls

It tolls for thee!

Senator DONNELL. Mr. Williams, is the organization for which Mr. Clarence Barbour appeared here yesterday affiliated with the Southern Regional Council?

Mr. WILLIAMS. I do not know Mr. Clarence Barbour.

Senator DONNELL. As I remember, he referred to you in his testimony yesterday.

I do not know whether you were present or not.

I think it was Mr. Barbour. You are not associated in any way with Students For Democratic Action at the University of North Carolina?

Mr. WILLIAMS. No, sir; we are not at all related.

Senator DONNELL. Have you any questions of Mr. Williams?

Senator ELLENDER. Mr. Williams, what is the position of your organization on segregation in the South?

Mr. WILLIAMS. Well, the best answer I can say is to outline our daily practice; we work in a common office; we have some Negro stenographers, and some white stenographers; we have a paid executive director who receives $7,500 a year. We have a Negro associate director who receives $6,000 a year. We could obtain the services of an adequate Negro at much less than that. But we think as an earnest application of what we believe in that there should be only the difference that would normally take place, perhaps, in a university between a full professor and an assistant professor.

We utilize the same toilet facilities and this takes place in Atlanta, Ga. When we meet annually, we meet as individuals; when the time comes for lunch, we do not run in different directions; we sit down to a common table and eat as gentlemen.

Senator ELLENDER. So that your conference, then, you would say, advocates or believes in nonsegregation.

Mr. WILLIAMS. Yes; I think you could draw that conclusion.
Senator ELLENDER. Do you preach it in the South?

Mr. WILLIAMS. We do not preach that that is the way to do things. We do not think

Senator ELLENDER. I am just asking if you do.

Mr. WILLIAMS. We do not like to preach. We go ahead and set the example.

Senator ELLENDER. But you have not taken a definite position against segregation in the South?

Mr. WILLIAMS. Not that I know of.

Senator ELLENDER. Except as you have just indicated.
Mr. WILLIAMS. Yes.

Senator ELLENDER. That is all.

Senator SMITH. Mr. Chairman, I have one question I would like to ask. I gather from your description of your organization that you are really set up to fight this discrimination. Is that your main purpose, or what is your main purpose?

Mr. WILLIAMS. Our idea is that we want to utilize all the manpower in the South and all the natural advantages that the South has and not waste them. We are not an interracial organization. That is, we emphasize everything, the soil, the climate, the displacement that is coming through the revision of the cotton industry in the South. We are interested in health and education. We believe in taking the racial thing in stride as one of the items of culture in the South.

Senator DONNELL. The committee will be in recess for a few moments. Will you be kind enough to wait for just a few moments, Mr. Williams?

(At this point in the hearing a short recess was taken.)

Senator DONNELL. The committee will be again in session.

Senator IVES. I have just one question I would like to ask Mr. Williams.

Do you think, sir, this bill, if enacted, would work satisfactorily in the South?

Mr. WILLIAMS. Yes; I do.

Senator IVES. Do you think that the provisions in the bill are not such as to cause difficulties which as you will foresee might arise among those who might oppose it?

Mr. WILLIAMS. I think it can work in the South and what I like about the bill is its emphasis on education and persuasion and conciliation.

Senator DONNELL. You notice it also has enforcement provisions, Mr. Williams.

Mr. WILLIAMS. I know that, but that is necessary. It has to have sanction and enforcement, but I do like the emphasis on education and conciliatory measures as you operate in the State of New York.

Senator IVES. The only thing that has arisen here, and it is an honest difference of opinion, one that can be easily understood is as to whether by having enacted on a national basis legislation of this type with its mandatory enforcement features, we would be taking a step in the South, to be exact, which might actually impede the very thing we are trying to do. That is what has come up. I am not expressing my personal opinion. I am expressing the honest difference where the difference lies, the difference exists.

Mr. WILLIAMS. I think that is a sincere and legitimate viewpoint for some people to have. I think that in the South there are a great body of people who want to do things just as progressively and just as decently as people in New York State or any other State, and I would not yield to say that something could work in New York or Massachusetts that could not work in Virginia or Louisiana.

Senator IVES. You do not think that the fact that you have such a large colored population in the South would operate to the disadvantage of the working of this type of legislation?

Mr. WILLIAMS. Well, I would say that the administration of it would perhaps be a more difficult thing and that therefore in the selection of personnel for the administration you would have to give a great deal of consideration to that.

Senator IVES. You think wisely administered, administered with discretion, that this would work satisfactorily as it stands in the South?

Mr. WILLIAMS. I do, sir.

Senator IVES. Thank you, sir.

Senator DONNELL. Are there any further questions?

Mr. Williams, I wonder if you could remain just a few minutes and we will proceed with another witness, but if Senator Smith should desire to resume his interrogation-if you could stay just 10 minutes

or so

Mr. WILLIAMS. I will be glad to.

Senator DONNELL. Thank you.

We will hear now from Robert Latham, international vice president, Food. Tobacco, Agricultural, and Allied Workers Union of America, CIO.

STATEMENT OF ROBERT LATHAM, INTERNATIONAL VICE PRESIDENT, FOOD, TOBACCO, AGRICULTURAL, AND ALLIED WORKERS UNION OF AMERICA, CIO

Senator DONNELL. Please state
your name, sir, and your address.
Mr. LATHAM. My name is Robert Latham.
Senator DONNELL. Where is your home?
Mr. LATHAM. South Winston-Salem, N. C.
Senator DONNELL. A native of North Carolina?

Mr. LATHAM. No.

Senator DONNELL. Where were you born?

Mr. LATHAM. South Carolina.

Senator DONNELL. And how long have you lived in North Carolina? Mr. LATHAM. About 20 years.

Senator DONNELL. What is your educational background?

Mr. LATHAM. High school.

Senator DONNELL. And what has been your business?

Mr. LATHAM. Employed as factory worker.

Senator DONNELL. Employed as factory worker?

Mr. LATHAM. Yes.

Senator DONNELL. Now, I have you listed here as "vice president." Are you vice president of some organization?

Mr. LATHAM. International vice president of Food, Tobacco, Agricultural, and Allied Workers Union, CIO.

Senator DONNELL. You are international vice president?

Mr. LATHAM. That is right.

Senator DONNELL. What factory have you worked in?

Mr. LATHAM. Export Leaf Tobacco Co.

Senator DONNELL. Is that in Winston-Salem?

Mr. LATHAM. Yes, sir.

Senator DONNELL. And how long have you been in that factory?
Mr. LATHAM. Eighteen years.

Senator DONNELL. This organization of which you are the vice president is one of the CIO organizations, is that correct?

Mr. LATHAM. That is correct.

Senator DONNELL. Have you had occasion to be in New York at any time since the bill there has passed? Or, if you have not been there, have you made any investigation of its success or lack of success? Mr. LATHAM. No, sir: I have not.

Senator DONNELL. But you are prepared to testify today as to this bill. S. 984?

Mr. LATHAM. Yes, sir.

Senator DONNELL. You may proceed.

Mr. LATHAM. My name is Robert Latham, and I am international vice president of the Food, Tobacco, Agricultural, and Allied Workers Union, CIO. Our union stands absolutely opposed to every form of discrimination based on race, creed, color, national origin, or political belief.

The fact that I am an elected vice president of our international union is proof of this statement. Anyone in FTA-CIO can run for office and be elected, solely on his or her merits.

I wish Senators could have been with us at our convention in January this year.

Senator DONNELL. Where was that held?

Mr. LATHAM. Held in Philadelphia.

Senator DONNELL. How large an attendance was there?

Mr. LATHAM. A delegation of about 200. Roughly guessing, about 200.

Senator DONNELL. Roughly, 200 men at the convention?

Mr. LATHAM. That is right.

Senator DONNELL. And from how many States?

Mr. LATHAM. From every State-just about every State in the Union.

65936-47- -35

Senator DONNELL. Very well, go ahead.

Mr. LATHAM. They would have seen white and Negro workers, Filipinos, Spanish-Americans, all meeting and working together for one common aim-the welfare of their fellow workers.

It is often said by the people who oppose fair employment that the passage of a law such as S. 984 and the setting up of a permanent Federal Fair Employment Practice Commission would be unworkable. You cannot, these people argue, make people work together if they do not want to work together.

I will agree that it is hard to make people do something they do not want to do, although the sponsors of the Taft-Hartley antiunion bill do not seem to think so. But what does a permanent FEPC do? Does it force people to work together when they do not want to? Of course it does not.

All that a permanent Federal FEPC would do is to create equal opportunity to hold a job, without being struck out first on grounds of race, creed, or national origin.

This is all that the members of any minority ask for: Equal opportunity. Given equal opportunity, they will stand on their own feet in doing whatever job is necessary. Minorities ask no special privilege. All they ask is the same rights that free men elsewhere enjoy.

It sometimes seems very hard to get those rights in this country, if you happen to be a Negro or foreign-born or a Jew, even though everyone knows the United States is a democracy.

But I would remind the Senators of one thing-the working people of this country are more and more learning how to work and fight together to defend their rights and freedoms.

They are uniting, regardless of race, color, creed, or political belief, to uphold their rights as Americans and to fight for a better standard of living for themselves and their families.

The dismal prophets who say it cannot be done are being proved wrong every day. Workers of different races and different origins are coming together as never before, if only because the attack on all workers is so severe.

The recently settled strike of 10,000 white and Negro workers at the R. J. Reynolds Tobacco Co., in Winston-Salem, N. C., is one of the best recent examples I know of people working together for a common aim.

The aim was to secure a living wage from the Reynolds Co., which had refused to offer more than a 52-cents-an-hour wage increase to the members of the FTA-CIO in their plant.

The strike lasted 38 days. During the strike a picket line was kept going 24 hours a day around the Reynolds Co.'s 73 plant gates. White and Negro workers picketed together, met together, planned strategy together, negotiated together with the company until they won their strike.

At no time was there the slightest incident on the picket line or in the union halls that reflected racial tension. No arrests were made, although the Winston-Salem police were concentrated solely on the picket lines, leaving the rest of the city unprotected.

In fact, the chief of police of Winston-Salem publicly praised the strikers, both Negro and white, for their orderliness and discipline. The local newspaper, which did everything in its power to try to