Mr. SUTER. Mr. Wilbur S. Finch, president of the Federation of Citizens Associations. Senator HATCH. Mr. Finch, we will be glad to hear from you. STATEMENT OF WILBUR S. FINCH, PRESIDENT, FEDERATION OF CITIZENS ASSOCIATIONS Mr. FINCH. Mr. Chairman, I do not have a prepared statement, but I shall be very brief. My name is Wilbur S. Finch. I am president of the Federation of Citizens Associations of the District of Columbia, which is the central delegate body for 60 or more local community citizens' associations throughout the District of Columbia. The federation itself, as well as practically all of its member bodies have, from time immemorial, supported the resolution which Senator Capper and Judge Sumners have tried to have Congress pass for us. During the course of that time there has only been about two of those local community associations that have not favored the amendment. I can testify from my own personal experience that the majority, the vast majority of the people of this District, particularly those who are active in the organizations and citizenship movements, are heartily in favor of it. I was interested in the reference by Mr. Suter and by Mr. McKelway, of the suffrage referendum which was held here in 1932. It so happens that I was then chairman of the organization which supervised the suffrage referendum. I had occasion to contact the various workers throughout the city who operated the 64 polling places that we set up for the referendum, and I cannot say I was surprised, but I found that even in the two communities where the citizens' associations opposed suffrage, both local and national, yet the residents of those communities came out and voted overwhelmingly in favor of it. So I believe that those who will appear before you representing these two community associations- Senator HATCH. Do you mean to say that we cannot rely on the citizens' associations? Mr. FINCH. I say that I have examined those results just for the purpose of testing whether or not these officers of the citizens' associations really represented the communities, and if every community in the city of Washington in that referendum favored suffrage, both national and local; and I believe I would not be afraid to submit the proposal to the people of the District of Columbia and abide by their decision. Senator HATCH. You do not think the other citizens' associations would reverse their stand by voting themselves to favor it if it were put to a vote? Mr. FINCH. Over a period of years I have been personally active in this citizenship movement, now for about 16 years, and I have been interested all my life-I happen to have been a native Washingtonian and have observed them, and there have been members of my family who have been in the citizen association movement, and I may say this: You read a little earlier this morning a communication from Colonel Miller, of the Dupont Circle Association. Well, the members of the Dupont Circle Association who have come down here through their representative and opposed the resolution Senator HATCH (interposing). He said he was reversing his former position. Mr. FINCH. Yes; they have since reversed their action, and I may say that in the Dupont Circle area, notwithstanding the fact that at the time of the referendum the association officially opposed it, the residents of that particular comunity favored it. The referendum took place a number of years ago, and it was open to anybody who was what might be described as a genuine resident of the District of Columbia, although we have no legal interpretation of who is a resident and we will have to assume that anybody who lives here and does not vote, will be entitled to vote in the referendum. However, the fact remains that there was a large vote in this unofficial referendum in a city that has practically never voted before. Senator WHERRY. Mr. Chairman, are there any citizens associations or groups that are opposing this constitutional amendment in the District? Mr. FINCH. Well, there may be, here and there, a group. I know of only two that are members of our Federation of Citizens Association. Senator WHERRY. I mean, outside of your federation, is there any other group that you know of that is in opposition to this amendment? Mr. FINCH. Not to my knowledge. So far as I know, every worthwhile city-wide group in the city supports it. I think if you will look down the list Mr. Suter will present to you, you will find practically every worth-while labor organization, citizens' association, women's club, and so forth-there is quite an array there, and if there are some organizations which oppose it Senator WHERRY (interposing.) I would like to ask about these organizations, these citizens' organizations. What is their function? Are they connected with any other organization or any other movement? Mr. FINCH. Do you mean the citizens' associations that we represent? Senator WHERRY. Yes. What is the scope of these? Mr. FINCH. No; they are local community and civic communities that are not connected with any other organization except the federation, which is the central delegated body, which is a sort of coordinating body for the whole city. Senator WHERRY. You work for the schools, and everything of that kind? Mr. FINCH. Yes; I would generally describe the federation as an unofficial city council, and I think there are approximately between 60 and 70 organizations in the federation-not all of them are community citizens' federations. Senator WHERRY. About what is your membership in all of those groups? Mr. FINCH. The federation itself is only a delegate body, representing approximately 70 organizations altogether. Senator WHERRY. What is the membership of those 70 organizations? How extensive is it? Mr. FINCH. It runs-well, the actual membership of these community groups, the total would be approximately 35,000. A few months ago we had occasion to ask for the membership, just the community Senator WHERRY. That is right. Mr. FINCH. But that does not take in all the city-wide groups which are in the federation. For instance, the teachers and parents, which has approximately 17,000 members, who are represented in the federation by two delegates. We did not include them in that survey because they are a city-wide group. But the local citizens' associations total approximately 35,000 members. I just want to say that being a representative of city-wide groups, I just want to assure the committee that it need have no fear that the people of the District, as a whole, are not in favor of this resolution. I would be willing to have that tested by a referendum, if the committee would care to do it, but I doubt very much any Congress would like to go to that trouble. I want to put in the record if I may-you have mentioned earlier, perhaps 20 organizations which are member communities of our federation, and I would like to add 3 more to the list that has been sent in. They are listed on this sheet of paper as the Burroughs Citizens Association, Citizens Forum of Columbia Heights, and Sixteenth Street Highlands Citizens Association. The Burroughs Citizens Association is my own community group. Mr. Chairman, that concludes my testimony as president of the federation, but if you will permit me to be a little personal for a moment, I was interested in the lieutenant of the United States Navy appearing here. I am just a little bit too old to have served in this war, but I do have three sons who have served in the United States Navy, and in the 6 years since 1942 they have put in a total of 8 years' active duty, most of it combat, from north Africa to Japan, and I want say to you as a father and a private citizen, that to me I feel almost disgraced to tell those boys-two of them are now of age-that they, American citizens, cannot vote here in the District of Columbia, and they often say to me: to as "Well, Daddy, why is it that I should go out and fight for my country? Why can't I vote as an American citizen? We wear the uniform and come back and have no say as to who is going to govern me, who is going to enact the laws, and what kind of laws I am supposed to live under." Now, that seems to me to be a perfectly logical question that those boys are asking. My youngest boy, who is not yet 20, happened to be over in the Mediterranean area on a destroyer the last election time and when he came home, he was home since then on a short furlough, and he said: "Daddy, I could have made myself a lot of money election day." I said, "Why didn't you do it?" He said, "Because it would not have been honest." I said, "What are you talking about?" He said, "Every member of the crew of the destroyer on which I was a part-I was the only District man there-and every member of that crew wanted to bet me that the people of the District of Columbia voted; that they could not believe anybody in the United States, 21 years old, who was not an idiot or a convict, did not have the right to vote." And he said, "Daddy, I knew that it would have been a sucker's bet, and I certainly would not have taken it, but that is the way the boys in the ship felt about it." I think that is the way a great many people throughout the whole of the United States are talking. A lady yesterday who came in to interview me from a newspaper on another matter-she had been here just about 2 months-and she said to me, to find that people here did not have the right to vote was a great surprise to her, and I think you will find that people here feel the same way, and that that is a general situation throughout the whole country, and I certainly hope that the Congress of the United States will, this time, pass that resolution. Senator WHERRY. Well, you state she was a newspaper reporter? Mr. FINCH. She was a newspaper reporter who happened to come to Washington to take a job with one of our local papers and she knew nothing about the local situation here, and she came in to interview me, and she was amazed to find that we did not have the right to vote. I certainly hope that this committee will do what it can to see that this legislation passes Congress, and I hope that the chairman of this committee may prevail upon the chairman of the full committee to give it its favorable approval. That is all I care to say. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Senator HATCH. Any more witnesses, Mr. Suter? Mr. SUTER. Mr. Chairman, one very interesting thing about the membership of the Citizens Joint Committee on National Representation for the District is that we have, as members, the Democratic national committeeman for the District of Columbia, and the Democratic national committeewoman. And we also have the Republican Senator WHERRY. Now you are getting somewhere. Mr. SUTER. Committeeman, and Republican committeewoman. We usually have them at these hearings. The committeeman from the Democrats, Mr. McConihe, is absent from the city, but we have with us as a representative of the local Democratic Party, Mr. Melvin D. Hildreth, vice chairman of the District of Columbia Democratic central committee, the man who made the successful appeal twice before the committee on resolutions of the two last national Democratic conventions, which resulted in getting the District suffrage proposition in the platform. I would like to call on Mr. Hildreth. Mr. Hildreth is a member of the bar. STATEMENT OF MELVIN D. HILDRETH, VICE CHAIRMAN, DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA DEMOCRATIC CENTRAL COMMITTEE Mr. HILDRETH. Mr. Chairman, what I have to say is very brief, and I would like to say that in what I do have to say, Mr. McConihe, the Democratic national committeeman, as Mr. Suter stated, and Mr. Russell Balderson, the local chairman, share my position on it. As vice chairman in 1940 I had the privilege as delegate from the District of Columbia to the national convention, to serve as a member of the platform committee, that, for the first time in the history of any American political party, a plank was adopted saving the extension of the right of suffrage to the people of the District of Columbia. I think, however, that it would be unfair if I failed at this moment to state that I don't believe we would have been successful here in 1940, or 1944, if it had not been for the magnificient support that we received from Senator Hatch, who was presiding at those meetings. [Applause.] If it had not been for Senator Hatch, I feel that we would not have succeeded. I would like to call your attention to the fact that in the platform of 1940, there appeared these two statements: We favor the extension of the right of subject to the people of the District of Columbia and feel that democracy is more than a political system for the government of the people; it is the expression of the people's faith in themselves as human being, and if this case is permitted to fail, human progress will die with it. In 1944 this plank appeared in the platform: We favor the extension of the right of suffrage to the people of the District of Columbia. And that appears under article 5. Article 5, to me, is one of the great planks of the platform, and perhaps one of the greatest of any platform of any political party in history, because it says at the beginning: We pledge our support to the Atlantic Charter and the "four freedoms," and application of the principles enunciated therein, and the United Nations and other peace-loving nations. I am particularly proud that right in that great statement there is the following reference to the District of Columbia, and then at the close of the platform we read these words: That the Democratic Party subscribes to these principles and the Democratic Party pledges itself in solemn sincerity to support this movement, and in solemn sincerity asks our Representatives in the Senate of the United States to maintain them and all other items of the Democrat platform. Senator HATCH. Thank you, Mr. Hildreth. Senator HATCH. Yes. Senator HATCH. Go ahead. Senator WHERRY. I just wondered if he could guarantee us a majority down here if we favored this resolution. Mr. HILDRETH. Well, we Democrats, Senator, think sometimes that there are too many of you here now. Senator WHERRY. Let us laugh. Senator HATCH. Who is your next witness? Mr. SUTER. Mr. Chairman, we have with us the Republican National Committeeman from the District of Columbia, Mr. Edward F. Colladay, who, I believe, would endorse that part of the Democratic platform. |