To the Bitter End

As long as it could, the Administration had avoided going to war with its own Southerners over civil rights. It had wanted to get the rest of the Fair Deal in the works first. But this week President Harry Truman issued his ultimatum: meet the Southerners head on.

The first battle would not be fought on the field of civil rights. Before that issue was joined, North and South faced a preliminary skirmish over a new anti-filibuster rule. Under the proposed rule, two-thirds of the Senate could limit debate on any motion or measure. Southern Senators, well knowing that this would spike their guns in the civil rights fight, were set to filibuster the anti-filibuster rule to death, and Harry Truman knew it when he gave his order to Senate Majority Leader Scott Lucas.

Leaving the White House after a 45-minute conference with the President, Lucas glumly admitted: "This issue has to be met sooner or later." Democratic National Chairman J. Howard McGrath feared "the greatest marathon of all times" but promised: "We will fight it out to the bitter end, all summer and all winter if necessary." To his Rhode Island constituents, Senator McGrath declared: "Maybe you won't get all the housing or economic welfare you want. But if these things must wait upon human values then I say, 'Let them wait.'" This week the filibuster began. Georgia's respected Walter George got to his feet first. He had plenty of Southern gentlemen beside him, ready to talk on when he tired.

Before the storm broke, the Senate hustled to get some of its cargo under cover. After 3 1/2 weeks of listening to 50 witnesses, the Senate Labor Committee got down to the business of writing a new labor law to replace Taft-Hartley. The Banking Committee, with the support of 22 Senators from both sides of the aisle, brought out a housing bill which would provide 810,000 low-rent housing units by 1955, just about halfway between Harry Truman's request and Republican counterproposals.

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