World War 2

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Your primary document readings for this week engage with several homefront social justice challenges:

1) congressional inability to ameliorate discrimination against African Americans;

2) congressional efforts to use immigrant ethnic Mexican labor in the U.S. Southwest;

3) and, congressional and executive unwillingness to address satisfactorily the Jewish immigration crisis before or during the war.

As you read the material, think about the following questions:

1) Why were a minority of lawmakers opposed to anti-‐lynching legislation? 2) Why were a minority of lawmakers opposed to anti-‐poll tax legislation? 3) How did these minorities still manage to block the two reform laws from

being enacted? 4) What do these battles suggest about the integrity of American war aims? 5) What were the needs of Jewish refugees in the mid and late 1930s? How did

the federal government respond? What were the arguments against helping Jewish refugees before 1941?

6) How did the needs of Jewish refugees change with the progression of the war? In what way or ways did U.S. policy change? In what way or ways did it stay the same?

7) Should the circumstances of African Americans, ethnic Mexicans, and Jewish refugees be lumped together in one category? Why or why not?

It is highly important that our Mexican Farm Labor Program be put on a positive basis so aas to enable farmers in California and Arizona to plan this years production and to make it possible for General Bruton to go to Mexico City immediately after the first of the year. Mr. Cannon’s Committee on Appropriations has recommended continuation of 229 and is making available an additional $10,000,000. Senator O’Mahoney has obtained a budget from the Budget Bureau which calls for $22,000,000. We have reason to believe that the Senate will recommend $22,000,000 instead of the $10,000,000 and that the House will go along with them in the Committee. We are anxious that no compromise be made and would rather have $10,000,000 than any place between $10,000,000 and $22,000,000 and would then wait for next year. Message for Senator Carl T. Hayden, probably from James Mills Jr., Carl T. Hayden Papers ============================= Have concrete evidence so called antilynch bill first step in legislative program aimed at South supported by Communist Party. In addressing myself to this subject publication referred to in Supreme Court decision Angelo Herndon case ‘An Appeal to Southern Young Workers,’ ‘The Communist’s Position on the Negro Question,’ ‘Party Organizers’ and any other literature used on Herndon trial will be very useful and will appreciate your forwarding it to me by air mail. Sen. Richard B. Russell to John Boykin, 1/21/38, Richard B. Russell Papers =============================

Congress has recognized, in the enactment of the kidnapping law, that the Federal government has no authority to intervene in a purely local matter. It is necessary that the person kidnapped be carried across the state border to give the Federal government jurisdiction. There is just as much reason for the Federal government to intervene in cases of gang warfares and assassinations, bank robberies, burglaries and other purely local disturbances and law violations as to intervene where there is a lynching, which is a purely local matter. Why should there not be a provision in the antilynching bill to include kidnapping, acts of highway robbery, bank robbery, gang warfare, etc., all being a purely local matter. If the Federal government has a right to intervene where there is a lynching, the logic of the situation applies to one, as well as the other. John Boykin to Sen. Richard B. Russell, 1/22/38, Richard B. Russell Papers ============================= I had some material which showed that the lynch bill was of particular interest to the Communists as a part of their program to enlist all of the negroes within their party, but nothing any more in point than the material you forwarded. We have had a long hard fight here, but it seems that now we have a fine chance to win. At the outset, the sponsors of this bill in the Senate were very confident that they would pass it within a few days, but the fight we have made has crystallized public opinion in our favor, even in the Northern and Western States, and but for the fact that a majority of the Senate had definitely committed themselves to support this bill, we could defeat it overwhelmingly on its merits. As the matter

now stands, we will doubtless be compelled to debate it for several more days before it is laid aside. I am glad to have your suggestion with reference to other crimes. As a matter of fact, both Senator McKellar and myself have offered amendments to bring gang murders and racketeering within the purview of offenses to be punished by the Federal Government. Of course, if the Government has a right to legislate on murder by lynching it has a right to legislate against murder committed by any means or in any form. I wish again to express my genuine thanks for your great aid in this matter. I found the book to which you referred me very valuable, and I read some extracts from it during the course of my remarks. Sen. Richard B. Russell to John Boykin, 1/29/38, Richard B. Russell Papers ============================= This job of stopping lynchings without a federal law such as the ones which were under consideration, is my one indulgence in the way of an avocation. Sometimes, I think avocations are much harder on a person than a vocation. Incidentally, I should like to tell you face to face the very hot water you got me into last spring without ever knowing it. For a time, it looked as if the wrath of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People would get me. Jessie Daniel Ames to Senator Tom Connally, 9/25/[38], Tom Connally Papers ============================= This morning’s Atlanta Constitution carries the news story from Washington that you are entirely out of sympathy with the bill

which the President endorses and which would empower the Federal Government to investigate outbreaks of mob violence and lynching. This measure was the occasion of my visit to you at Marlin. My point made then—and I make it again, but as a private citizen—is that one of the great difficulties in handling the educational program against lynching is that it is almost impossible to get Grand Jury evidence. I am sending you some as yet unpublished data on the lynchings this year. I think you can readily see that when law-enforcement officers in broad daylight, after a conversation with ring leaders of a mob, are unable to identify any individual and the Grand Jury returns a ‘no bill’ because of insufficient evidence, there might be some advantage in a measure such as that about which we talked at Marlin. Jessie Daniel Ames to Senator Tom Connally, 1/23/39, Tom Connally Papers ============================= I shall introduce in the Senate a bill providing for the voluntary repatriation or resettlement of the American Negro in his fatherland, Africa. Aside from the desirability for such a program fro racial, biological, political and economic reasons, this legislation is sponsored by nearly three million American Negroes, who have signed petitions urging the passage of this measure. I am assured by leaders of the Negro Race of the United States that as soon as they finish contacting and explaining the terms of my repatriation program and the advantages of resettlement of their Race in Africa that they will be able to persuade a large percentage of the members of their Race to join in the

petition for an opportunity to be settled in Africa. Sen. Theo. G. Bilbo to Dear Colleague, 2/4/39, Lister Hill Papers ============================= For various reasons, lynching is entering a new and altogether dangerous phase. Lynchings in the past have been characterized by the mob, the faggot, the rope. Hundreds of people, often thousands, poured out to participate. . . . Public opinion is beginning to turn against this sort of mob activity. . . . Lynching, they say, must go on, but it must be done quietly so as not to attract attention, draw publicity. Thus those who must rule by terror and intimidation turn to new methods. The old mob is disappearing but the work of the mob goes on. A Negro is accused of some crime, real or alleged. A few white men gather, formulate their plans, seize their victim. In some lonely swamp a small body of men do the job formerly done by a vast, howling, bloodthirsty mob composed of men, women and children. The word is then passed that the matter has been handled to the satisfaction of those in charge of such matters. Your investigator has probed numerous lynchings. His acquaintance with lynchers and the lynched extends over a lifetime. It is his judgment that countless Negroes are lynched yearly, but their disappearance is shrouded in mystery, for they are dispatched quietly and without general knowledge. Lynching Goes Underground, January 1940, NAACP Papers =============================

The opposition will contend that the all- time low of five lynchings last year proves that lynching is no longer a problem and therefore the Anti-Lynching Bill is unnecessary. But this is far from the truth. Lynchings have gone underground, as the enclosed report will show; but even if there were in truth only five lynchings last year the lynching spirit is as alive as it has ever been. Just as long as a single lynching can take place in the United States and the perpetrators allowed not only to go scot free but also are not even questioned about their crimes, just so long will the spirit of terrorism, which lynching is designed to create and perpetuate in order that not only Negroes but whites as well are restrained from doing anything about wages, hours, voting, justice in the courts and the like, continue. Walter White (Secretary of the NAACP) to Sen. Matt Neely, 1/25/40, NAACP Papers ============================= I am highly gratified, as you must be gratified, that lynchings during 1939 decreased so substantially. I note that Tuskegee reports eighteen cases in which officers prevented lynchings. I am very anxious to secure detailed information respecting these particular instances and if you have any facts available respecting them I shall be most happy to have them. The Sub-Committee of the Judiciary Committee which has jurisdiction over the bill now pending will probably have hearings and I want to develop in the hearings the facts respecting the instances in which officers of the law prevented lynchings. We want to demonstrate to the world that the Southern people are making a heroic effort to control this situation and

that they are succeeding. Your organization is doing a very splendid work and I desire most heartily to congratulate you. Senator Tom Connally to Jessie Daniel Ames, 1/27/40, Tom Connally Papers ============================= In the entire United States during 1939 there were only two lynchings and the proof as to one of these is not at all clear. The states are doing a most excellent job in preventing lynching and it is my view that it will entirely disappear. The House of Representatives voted down an amendment to have the law also cover gangster murders and killings, which constitute mob action just as much as the so-called lynchings. This reveals its political and partisan aspect. Sen. Tom Connally to Mrs. J.F. Lane & Mrs. F.A. Dobbins, 2/16/40, Tom Connally Papers ============================= In addition to your untruthful letter, you caused to be published in the ‘Louisville Defender’, a colored newspaper, published in Louisville, Kentucky, a front-page article with boxcar headlines across the page, the statement that I was holding up a vote on this bill, that I was opposed to it, that ever since last November I had refused to confer with you or Senator Wagner about it, and repeating and magnifying the statements you had made in your letter to me. You knew when you sent this misinformation to the ‘Louisville Defender’ that it was wholly untrue, and you did it for the deliberate and malicious purpose of deceiving the readers of that paper and willfully misrepresenting me. You did it for the purpose of attempting to build a fire under me by sort of local intimidation and in order to do this

you were responsible for the publication in that paper of statements that were without the slightest foundation in fact. I am sending to that newspaper a copy of this letter to you in order that its publishers may get the truth. Sen. Alben W. Barkley to Walter White (NAACP secretary), 4/22/40, NAACP Papers ============================= An even greater resentment is felt by a great many people throughout the country at the manner in which this legislation for years has been kicked about in the Senate. . . . There is widespread resentment which is steadily growing at the apparent complete failure of the Senate leadership to initiate or even contemplate the initiation of any determined effort to secure action. Your letter of April 22nd echoes this same defeatism and manifests not the slightest determination to put up any effective resistance to the obstructionists who, two years ago, tied up the Senate for nearly seven weeks at a cost to the American taxpayer of an estimated $460,000. . . . With such weak opposition to filibustering, there is no wonder that the filibusterers are so cocksure and are so confident that they can once again prevent a majority of the Senate from voting one way or the other on this legislation. . . . As for your gratuitous reference to the effect that the Senate sponsors ‘are under no exigencies of employment’, which we assume you mean by implication also to apply to yourself, I would not ordinarily deign to pay any attention to such a gibe. But it is sufficient for me to say that you and every other member of the Senate presumably, under our Constitution and our form of Government, are in the employ of the

people who elect you to office. Otherwise, there would be no necessity of political campaigns to elect members of the Senate, presidents of the United States, or any other elective officers. Walter White (NAACP secretary) to Sen. Alben W. Barkley, 4/23/40, NAACP Papers ============================= Here is the real low-down on the situation. There is no doubt that Barkley and other senators, Democratic and Republican, did not want the bill to come up this session during an election year. Barkley is scared of the Connally-Bilbo-Ellender gang. He planned either not to call the bill up at all or to do so late in the session when a filibuster could succeed without much difficulty. Like most southern white men, and even a great many northern white men, he believed that Negroes could be soft-soaped or that at least the supporters of the anti-lynching bill could be given some sort of an excuse which would keep the bill from being made an issue in the November election. Because we saw what was coming we kept asking him when he was going to call up the bill. He finally lost his temper—and wishes now that he hadn’t—wrote that intemperate and wholly unfounded letter and, either consciously or subconsciously, believed as most southern white men do that when a white man speaks to a Negro the latter is going to accept the white man’s statement or at any rate not answer back. Walter White (NAACP secretary) to P.B. Young, 5/3/40, NAACP Papers ============================= The name ‘anti-lynching bill’ is now a red rag in the face of the professional

Southerners, as we all know. This is particularly true of Tom Connally who is not going to have so easy a time getting reelected next November and who is counting on a filibuster building up for him his political fences. Walter White (NAACP secretary) to Arthur B. Spingarn, 6/3/40, NAACP Papers ============================= Touching the question of poll tax, I remembered that tens of thousands of people in Virginia who qualified to vote by payment of poll taxes fail to appear at the polls. For instance, in Newport News last year $11,154 were collected on account of poll tax payments, and only 4,770 persons voted. So in Lynchburg, my home town, last year $17,608.23 were collected on poll tax account and only 6,622 votes were cast in the Presidential election. In Richmond, $69,631.50 were collected in poll taxes and but 25,363 votes were cast in the Presidential election. In Roanoke, $28,449 were collected on account of poll taxes last year, and but 10,495 votes were cast. In Norfolk, $35,980 were collected on account of poll tax last year, and 16,268 votes were cast. In the preceding gubernatorial election the contrast was severely greater. From these and other statistics, I have been thoroughly convinced that it is not the poll tax which prevents people from voting in Virginia, but indifference to the right of suffrage. Sen. Carter Glass to Raymond E. Bottom, 6/30/41, Carter Glass Papers ============================= You will find the Negro group 100% American. They have no other flag nor land,

and they are ready to march at the call of duty. All that they are asking is that they be given a chance to enjoy the fruits of democracy, and to make our country typically the land of the free and the home of the brave. The rainy day is upon us now, and those who shout that the skies are clear and that there is no danger do not represent either wisdom or knowledge. The Negro in this hour of peril is willing to forget any differences, any prejudices or fights and march side by side with people from every section of the country in their effort to insure freedom and life to all citizens, and to leave a heritage of freedom to generations following. There must be no divisions, there must be unity of purpose and highest endeavors to put forth the safety of us all. James E. Shepard (African American college student) to Sen. Tom Connally, 10/21/41, Senate Committee on Foreign Relations ============================= I appreciate your statement as to the problem confronting the country and the Negroes in connection with the proposed reduction or substantial abolition of a number of federal aid services. I shall be glad to give the most careful consideration to the points which you make and also to the recommendation of the joint congressional Committee on Non-defense Expenditures. In this connection, I wish to call it to your attention that the extraordinarily heavy burden of defense expenditures is bound to fall upon the federal government. Therefore, in many instances where federal expenditures, which were undertaken in the depth of the depression, can be replaced by appropriate local recognition of the need for these expenditures, they should be placed on a

state or local basis of support. We are in a great crisis in the life of humanity and America must not fail either in its effort to win the war or in its demonstration of the capacity of self-government to meet the needs of humanity. This also carries with it an extraordinary obligation on the part of all citizens of our free country to make every possible effort and contribution on their own part toward the success of our enterprise. Sen. Harold Burton to Walter White (NAACP secretary), 1/2/42, Harold Burton Papers ============================= Because there is no person there on the job seven days a week and twenty-four hours a day, the plight of the Negro steadily worsens. You know already the situation in the Army, Navy, Marine Corps, and Coast Guard. You have read in the press releases of the row about the Red Cross and its refusal to accept Negro blood. Those problems require constant watching and action. The need to do something immediately has been created by the President’s abolition of the OPM and his placing of Nelson in charge of the whole war-production machinery. Modest gains that we have made through getting Bill Hastie into the War Department, Bob Waver in OPM, Frank Horne in USHA, Bill Trent in Defense Housing, and a few other persons like them may conceivably be wiped out at one fell swoop. Over and above the fate of these individuals is the more basic one of what can and will happen to Negroes in employment as well as in the armed services. The Southern bloc which voted for social gains during the last nine years, only because of pressure from the White House,

are determined to utilize the war emergency, as seen in the report of the Byrd Committee to eliminate these gains. The result is seen also in the manner in which the Negro is being completely ignored in the making and execution of policies. We urged the President to appoint at least one qualified Negro to the War Labor Board. We felt that the mere presence of a man like, for example, A. Philip Randolph would visually impress upon the other members of the board the fact that a tenth of the population is Negro and that the color problem in other parts of the world is one of the most important factors in the question of the war and of the post-war period. But the President not only did not see fit to include a Negro in the twelve members of the Board, but failed also to include one in the twenty-four alternates named yesterday. What may be the result and what almost certainly will be the result unless we are able to impress upon the government from day to day the need of remembering that thirteen million out of one hundred thirty [million] Americans are Negroes. For the Negro it will mean greater delinquency, ill health, poverty, and degradation. For the country as a whole it will mean a steady increase in the alarmingly low enthusiasm of the Negro for the war. Japanese propagandists are using the recent attack on Negro soldiers at Alexandria, Louisiana, and I do not doubt, the burning of a Negro at Sikeston, Missouri, last Sunday morning during the church hour as examples of what would happen to colored peoples throughout the world if the democracies win. Latin America is distinctly suspicious of the United States because so many people from South America who are swarthy of skin have either encountered prejudice and discrimination in

the United States or are impressed chiefly by the news of lynching, discrimination in the Defense Program, the Ku Klux Klan, and other American phenomena based on race prejudice. Walter White (NAACP secretary) to William F. Illig, 1/27/42, NAACP Papers ============================= In the prosecution of our defense, and in the prosecution of our offense against those who seek to despoil mankind, we rejoice in the unity of our people. We recognize that this is no class war so far as the American people are concerned. We will not be misled by the vicious propaganda of the enemy nor deviated by ancient or superficial disagreements either geographical, racial or religious. We rejoice that the men and women who constitute the colored portion of our population in America have placed themselves and are placing themselves at the service of their Government. They know what it means to be the victims of injustice. They know what it is to be able to lift their faces toward the rising sun of a greater opportunity under the American Flag and the American Constitution, and they know what it will mean if these things are destroyed. . . . We have been at war with the Axis powers for less than three months. Shall we prove ourselves to be inferior in fortitude, in patience, in optimistic outlook upon the righteousness and the ultimate invincibility of our forces than have those who are united with us in this great struggle? The answer is an emphatic negative. In the pursuit of this task, the colored people of America will do their share. Howard University has set for them an example which will inspire them in the performance

of this duty, and the diffusion of higher training and education among the Negroes of America is aiding them in its performance. . . . While the primary duty of the American people today is to win the war and drive back the forces of aggression, we cannot lose sight of the kind of world that will remain for mankind when this struggle has been concluded. While we are fighting to preserve everything we have gained in economic, political and religious freedom, we must struggle in the world that mankind must inherit to enlarge the enjoyment of these privileges, in our own midst and throughout the world. We must strive for an equitable distribution, not only of the earth’s riches and its raw materials among nations that need them, but we must strive also for a more equitable and universal enjoyment of these privileges within our own midst. We must recognize that without designations of race, color or religion , men who are compelled to fight or who volunteer to fight to preserve our national integrity and our individual liberties are entitled to work wherever their capacity and their opportunities may come together. We must recognize that the obligations of individual men to preserve Democracy for the enjoyment of every man carries with it a mutual obligation to see to it that the fundamental rights of self-preservation and of individual development go hand in hand. We must recognize that every child born into the world has a right to a fair chance to live amid healthy and wholesome surroundings, to be educated according to his ability to absorb it, and to strive in a world of peace and justice to improve his individual as well as the collective welfare of all the people. We must recognize that men who are required to support government with their energies, with their earnings or

their blood, have a right to a fair share and a fair voice in determining the kind of government which they and their fellowmen shall live under. Sen. Alben W. Barkley Speech, Howard University Bulletin 21 (April 1, 1942): 5-10, Alben Barkley Papers ============================= The world beyond our shores is undergoing a virtual black-out of civil liberties. . . . In the few remaining lands where democratic traditions still hold sway, civil liberties have been drastically curtailed, because of military necessity or fear of subversive activities. Their fate rests in the crucible of war. Even in the democracies, the most fundamental rights of men will be fully restored, if at all, only after victory is won by force of arms. . . . If we are to vindicate our proud position as the foremost example of a functioning democracy, if in the eyes of the world we are to practice what we preach, we must put an end to the barbarous practice of lynching. Above all, the history of these troubled times gives solemn warning that the threat of mob violence, tolerated or connived in by local officials, must be stamped out before its contagion spreads. To ignore the menace of the lynching mob is to acquiesce in the tactics by which dictators rode to power. Radio Broadcast, Senator Robert F. Wagner, 4/29/42, NAACP Papers ============================= It is not practicable to provide separate wards for white and colored patients in our hospitals. All hospital capacity must be utilized to care for the sick or wounded no matter what their race or color may be.

Where local hospital conditions and capacity so warrant, it is the practice to segregate the two classes of patients in separate wards, recreation rooms and in separate sections of the mess hall. The specific occurrences alleged by Mr. Hutcheson have been investigated, and the commanding General, Lawson General Hospital, reports that he has been unable to establish a factual background for any such incidents. He states, for example, that at no time are any ‘white ladies’ permitted to clean and arrange beds for either white or colored patients in the wards unless they are members of the Army Nurse Corps. It is possible that Negro patients may have left the recreation hall on the night of May 25, 1942, when Negro spirituals were sung, as patients frequently leave the hall in groups, especially if the program does not appeal to them. But investigation reveals no one who will admit having heard Negro patients yelling at the chanters. It was further developed by this investigation that the hospitalization of both white and Negro patients at Lawson, as at other General Hospitals, has resulted in no manifestation of racial or color problems, that there has been no evidence of friction between members of the hospital staff and Negro patients, and that if these questions are left to work themselves out, no racial difficulty need be anticipated. The War Department, as any other agency of the Government, is bound by the laws made by the Congress and approved by the President. It must utilize the Negro manpower representing more than 10 percent of the population. Under the law, it cannot discriminate. It will continue to be our policy to solve rather than to accentuate the problems presented by the situation.

John W. Martyn to Sen. Richard B. Russell, 6/20/42, Richard B. Russell Papers ============================= You of course are familiar with the troubles and difficulties that we have in dealing with the negro problem. I shall continue to do everything within my power to see that the stress of the war is not used to try to force any change in the South in the relations between the races. If you have any further information on the incidents referred to in your letter which will controvert the War Department’s statements, I shall be glad to have them and demand further action and investigation. Sen. Richard B. Russell to Carl F. Hutcheson, 7/4/42, Richard B. Russell Papers ============================= You have probably noticed where some of these radical parlor pinks have been trying to browbeat the Red Cross into taking the labels off the blood that is being banked for treating our wounded men in this war, so that no one could tell what race it came from. You have probably noticed my defense of the Red Cross against the attacks of these scavengers. I am glad to tell you that the Red Cross is standing firm; and I promise you now that I shall continue my active support of that great organization in that position. We are not going to have the blood of other races injected into the veins of our white boys who are injured in this war if I can possibly prevent it. It is time to expose these crackpots, parlor pinks and social scavengers, and drive them forever from every position of power or influence, whether it be in government, in the press, on the radio, or as secret agents of a foreign power. As George Washington once

said, this is a time to put Americans on guard. Rep. John E. Rankin Speech, 8/24/42, House Committee on World War Veterans ============================= I was sent to Hawaii in 1937 to investigate the question of statehood for those Islands, and there I learned of the treachery of the Japs. I found that the Japanese who were born in the Hawaiian Islands were claiming what they called dual citizenship. They claimed to be citizens of the United States for the purpose of their own protection, and citizens of Japan as a matter of loyalty to the Japanese Empire. Some of them who were born and reared in Hawaii, and had actually voted in our elections, were being drafted into the armed forces of Japan at that time. I agree with Chief Justice Fuller of the United States Supreme Court that since Japanese immigrants could never become American citizens under our laws, their offspring could not become American citizens either. They are simply aliens in our midst. They are alien in race, pagan in their philosophy, atheistic in their religion, or lack of religion, and should never be permitted to become citizens of the United States. I am in favor of placing every one of them in concentration camps until this war is over and then sending them back to Japan where they belong, and never letting a one of them come here again. Not only that, but I am in favor of taking care of those radicals who are attempting to stir up race trouble throughout this country. Many of them are Japanese 5th columnists. The Japanese are boasting that they are going to lead the colored races to dominate the world. Only a few days ago the F.B.I. uncovered a system of espionage known as the Black Dragon

Society through which agents of Japan claimed an organization of 100,000 members throughout the United States working among the colored people, scheming to undermine and destroy this Nation. We find these crackpots who are stirring up this race trouble and preaching hatred of the white people of the South, are dedicated to changing the form of this government and to the setting up in its place of some sort of bureaucratic Fascisti or Communistic system of totalitarianism. It is time for every red-blooded American to be on the alert for these enemies boring from within, and to help to stamp out these nefarious attempts to destroy everything we hold dear. We must not permit them to destroy a system of government that it took our forbears thousands of years to build. Our American system, our way of life and our Christian civilization must be preserved. Rep. John E. Rankin Speech, 8/24/42, House Committee on World War Veterans ============================= The question of poll tax exemptions is one to be decided by the legislature of Alabama and not by Congress. Intrusion by Congress into state election laws means the ultimate control by the federal government of our local elections and should not be permitted. I earnestly request that every effort be used to stop the present attempt to invade state sovereignty in this regard. For the people of Alabama this issue is paramount. Gov. Frank M. Dixon to Rep. John Sparkman, 8/28/42, John Sparkman Papers ============================= I do not consider [the poll tax] a proper subject for federal legislation, and we have

too few States Rights left already. Those who advocate this measure do not seem to realize the serious racial problem this will create in Southern states. Sen. Richard B. Russell to Louis H. Andrews Jr., 9/30/42, Richard B. Russell Papers ============================= We join the great majority of the American people in commending you for signing Discharge Petition #1, assuring democratic consideration of the Geyer anti-poll tax bill. On the basis of the nation-wide interest in this bill, we are certain that your constituents will be quick to appreciate the contribution to the war effort which your ‘yes’ vote will represent. It is important, therefore that you be present in Washington when the bill comes up for consideration on Monday, October 12, and that you actively support its passage. Milton Kemnitz to Rep. Sol Bloom, 9/29/42, House Committee on Foreign Affairs ============================= This opportunity to vote for abolition of the undemocratic poll tax system is a magnificent chance to tell the people of the whole world that the United States is indeed the hope of all freedom-loving people. . . . It will restore the fundamental rights of citizenship to 10 million loyal southern Americans, and it will reassert the faith of all loyal Americans in the fundamental basis of our constitutional form of Democratic government. Virginia Foster Durr to Rep. Sol Bloom, 10/3/42, House Committee on Foreign Affairs =============================

It is amusing, if not tragic, how these new- fangled Democrats are following the Communist Party line to break down state rights and other cherished fundamentals of our party. I wrote Communist headquarters in New York for copy of the enclosed pamphlet and, thinking I was a Red, they sent several thousand which I am mailing to influential people in certain Northern and Eastern congressional districts where there is a contest November 3d. I think that a constituent should know that when his congressman votes for the Geyer Bill to abolish the poll tax he is voting the Communist Party line and not the Democratic platform. The Republicans are making capital out of this. The rumor is being quietly circulated that they will put a stop to all this Communist-Negro equality agitation by nominating and electing a bachelor president in 1944. Vance Muse to Sen. Tom Connally, 10/12/42, Richard B. Russell Papers ============================= I have introduced a constitutional amendment to outlaw the poll tax and all other property or tax qualifications. It is, in my judgment, the only constitutional way in which this reform can be accomplished. Since my amendment was introduced I have found that the advocates of poll tax legislation would rather have the bill than my amendment because they know that my amendment would completely abolish poll taxes whereas the bill gives its supposed beneficiaries only a law suit. Sen. Joseph O’Mahoney to James Morgan, 10/20/42, Joseph O’Mahoney Papers =============================

The Constitution of the United States gave to the states the clear and unmistakable language the power to define the qualifications of voters. That power can be taken away only by constitutional amendment. . . . If organized labor really wants to abolish the poll tax the way for organized labor to do it is to get behind the O’Mahoney amendment now. There are only eight poll tax states. More than enough legislatures to ratify the amendment will be sitting in January like the Wyoming Legislature. Sen. Joseph C. O’Mahoney to N.H. Lescoe, 10/23/42, Joseph C. O’Mahoney Papers ============================= Three lynchings within five days in Mississippi are as much sabotage of our nation’s war effort as a bomb in an airplane factory or a shipyard. Nothing angers and embitters thirteen million American Negroes like lynching. Nothing delights the Axis powers more. Nothing damages America so much in her dealings with Brazil, China and India. The Mississippi mobs gave important aid to Tokyo in her task of holding the millions of colored peoples in the Far East. National Association for the Advancement of Colored People calls upon our federal government under your leadership to act swiftly against mob violence not only for the protection of elementary rights of Negro citizens but for the safety of the nation itself in this critical hour. NAACP Demands Lynch Probe in telegram to Pres. Roosevelt, 10/23/42, NAACP Papers =============================

The Communist Party supports these demands of the Negro people unconditionally, and we declare that they must be granted now, at once—precisely in the interests of national unity, of utilizing every productive force, for winning the war. Support for the war requires support for the demands of the Negro people, and not silence on these demands or their denial. A leading Negro paper, the New York Age, in its current issue, while recognizing the Communist Party as an outstanding fighter for Negro rights ‘until the war,’ assumes that we are sacrificing Negro rights to the needs of the war, and have made our peace with race prejudice, in order not to come into collision with Southern Democrats and their ‘white supremacy’ dogma. Such an assumption is nonsense, as we have always proved by our work, and can arise only from a misunderstanding. We consider the ‘white supremacy’ slogan of Southern Bourbons one of the greatest dangers to the U.S. in this war, tending to drive away from us our allies and potential allies in Asia, Africa, and parts of the Americas; only as we prove this ‘white supremacy’ ideology does not represent the United States can those allies have trust in us. “Excerpts from the Remarks of Earl Browder,” Negro Rights Must be Granted Now! – Communists Declare, Oct. 1942 Richard B. Russell Papers ============================= In the name of the officers and members of the March On Washington Movement, I want to register my protest against the brutal assault upon Lieutenant Norma Green in Montgomery, Alabama, under the shadow of the building which now houses

the state government. This Negro lady holds the rank of an officer in the United States Army and was brutally beaten and robbed by white policemen after an altercation with a bus driver who was driving a public conveyance. Lieutenant Green, a Negro nurse from the hospital attached tot he 99th Pursuit Squadron from Tuskegee which shortly is expected to be transferred to active duty abroad, had volunteered for foreign service with this unit. We hope you will investigate this case and bring the culprit to justice. A. Philip Randolph to Sen. Lister Hill, 10/16/42, Lister Hill Papers ============================= No one is more opposed to lynching than I am, and no one is more anxious to see it completely eliminated. However, the proposed bill in my opinion is clearly unconstitutional, inasmuch as it places in the Federal Government the power to impose punishment upon states and counties. Furthermore, I know and you know that if such a law is forced upon the Southern States it will not prove adequate. There are always so many different methods possible for getting around a law that is not liked. There has been great progress made in recent years in completely eliminating the lynching curse from our section. The recent flare-up in Mississippi, in my opinion, is the result of just such agitation as comes from such proposals as the present anti-lynching gill. By far, the better plan is to continue the educational process and the building up of good relations between the two races. I regret that we are not in accord in our views. I feel confident that our aims and our wishes are the same. It is simply a difference

in opinion as to how those ends can best be reached. Rep. John Sparkman to H.J. Banks & L.E. Dobbins, 10/22/42, John Sparkman Papers ============================= There are a great many residents of Nogales, Sonora, Mexico, immediately across the international boundary from Nogales, Arizona, who are dependent upon the retail business houses in Nogales, Arizona, for supplies of many sorts. It has been the practice for these Mexican citizens to cross the border into the United States for brief periods each day in order to do their necessary shopping. I believe that an investigation would establish that a considerable number of the residents of Nogales, Sonora, Mexico, are illiterate and, therefore, to refuse to renew crossing card privileges for those individuals who cannot pass a literacy test would simply mean that a large number of Mexican citizens who have heretofore depended upon retail stores in Nogales, Arizona, will be unable to purchase essential supplies from these stores from now on. I shall deeply appreciate your consideration of this problem, and your advice as to whether there is any action the Immigration and Naturalization Service may be able to take to provide for the reissuance of crossing cards to residents of Nogales, Sonora, Mexico, who are unable to pass the required literacy test. Sen. Carl T. Hayden to Earl G. Harrison, 10/30/42, Carl T. Hayden Papers ============================= I propose to vote against the passage of the Geyer Anti-Poll Tax Bill for the reason that

everyone knows in South Carolina that the Poll Tax Law does not disenfranchise people. There are some 240,000 people who pay Poll Tax, while only forty or fifty thousand vote in the General Elections. The Poll Tax in South Carolina is a Revenue Measure to aid the schools and further is not paid by those over sixty-five years of age or by women. In my opinion it is unfortunate that the Federal Government is again interfering in the financial business of the Sovereign States. Sen. Burnet Maybank to W.H. Miller, 11/5/42, NAACP Papers on Microfilm ============================= The filibuster is in the hands of Senator Bilbo of Mississippi and Senator Connally of Texas, opponents not only of legislation to protect the rights of Negroes but of all liberal legislation to give our American citizens their democratic rights. The present filibuster is not only a disgrace to our country; it is a serious threat to our democratic principles. . . . The present filibuster is a direct attack on our democratic principles of government and during this war emergency gives great hope to the Nazis and Fascists who are using it for their own propaganda purposes. It is up to us to break this filibuster. We therefore call upon you for your cooperation and also urge that you contact all labor unions, churches, social clubs and political clubs in your area, urging them also to send telegrams to your senators along the same line. Walter White to NAACP Branch Officers, 11/17/42, NAACP Papers on Microfilm =============================

My study of the Anti-Poll Tax Bill has absolutely convinced me that it is unconstitutional. Knowing what a splendid lawyer you are, it is indeed gratifying to me to know that you have the same opinion of the bill. I realize the authority with which you speak as a lawyer. I am doing and shall continue to do everything in my power against the bill. I so much hope that we may be able to defeat it. Senator Lister Hill to Ben F. Ray, 11/17/42, Lister Hill Papers ============================= I believe that [the poll tax] can be excluded because the payment of a poll tax of one or two dollars, such as is now required in those eight states has nothing to do with the ‘qualifications’ or fitness of a person to vote. I believe that a person is equally qualified to vote whether or not at the moment he has a few dollars in his pocket and that states do not have the right to impose purely arbitrary conditions upon the privilege of voting for federal officers merely by calling those conditions ‘qualifications.’ Sen. Harold Burton to Walter White (NAACP secretary), 11/19/42, NAACP Papers on Microfilm ============================= Your statement today that you will vote for Pepper-Geyer Anti Poll Tax Bill but will not vote for cloture means death to the bill. The action of the assistant minority leader, Senator Austin of Vermont, in opposing the bill and otherwise supporting the filibusterers without any disassociation of his position from that of the Republicans has caused many persons in Washington and throughout the country to believe that the

Republicans are not sincere and that they are playing both sides of the fence on this vital issue. In saying this we do not refer to some of the Republican Senators whose sincerity, like that of some of the Democrats, is beyond question. We refer instead to the official attitude of the Republican party as a whole. Only yesterday afternoon a prominent Negro Republican told me that, ‘if the bill is scuttled it will be the Republicans who do it through an understanding between them and the reactionary Southern Senators who are leading the filibuster.’ At that time I doubted this. But your refusal to vote for cloture which will be followed by majority of Republican Senators you lead gives credence to the report that a deal has been worked out by which filibusters will permit on Friday or Saturday a vote on motion to consider the bill and that on Monday or Tuesday a cloture vote which the Senate leaders are sure will fail will be permitted after which bill will be abandoned. Such manipulation with the democratic rights of ten million white and Negro Americans who are thus being sold down the river by a bi- partisan deal can only result in complete skepticism with respect to the motives of those who legislate the destinies of America at this critical hour. Walter White (NAACP Secretary) to Sen. Charles McNary, 11/19/42, NAACP Papers on Microfilm ============================= Nowhere in the Constitution, which set up the national government, can any language be found which grants to the federal Congress any power to fix the qualifications of electors even for federal office and the attempt is therefore made by inference and

implication and by ingenious combinations of words and ideas to call into existence a power which is nowhere expressed. More than that, it has become necessary for the proponents of this legislation to argue that a poll tax is not a qualification, that it has, in the words of Senator Pepper’s original bill, ‘no reasonable relation to the intelligence, ability, character, wealth, community consciousness or to the qualifications of voters.’ This definition of qualification flies in the face of every concept which the framers of the Constitution had and expressed. At the time the Constitution was adopted, the right to vote in all of the original states depended in one degree or another on some form of property or tax qualification. The men who drew the Constitution and prescribed the powers of the federal government all came from states in which the right of suffrage was limited by state law to certain classes of the people. . . . The Congress, by legislative enactment, cannot change the Constitution. If it desires to change the Constitution it just do so in the way pointed out in the Constitution, namely by constitutional amendment. The Pepper Bill is Unconstitutional, Article written by JCOM for Washington Post, 11/19/42, Joseph C. O’Mahoney Papers ============================= We’ve got to keep the government close to the people through the states, or else we shall have more illustrations of bureaucratic stupidity, such as that experienced recently by us with the Office of Defense Transportation which, until a few of us raised the roof, was willing to permit some clerks in Detroit to decree how many miles the farmers and ranchers of Wyoming and the West could operate their trucks.

Sen. Joseph O’Mahoney to Joseph Sullivan, 11/27/42, Joseph O’Mahoney Papers ============================= This is about the toughest proposition that has come before the Congress for several years so far as the interests of your people are concerned. I am glad you are planning to have the bill reintroduced. I believe there will be a better chance for favorable action in the next Congress. The big fight is on the proposed cloture. I believe we can put the cloture over. Sen. Arthur Capper to Walter White (NAACP secretary), 12/11/42, NAACP Papers on Microfilm ============================= Please do not be mistaken. I did not kill the Anti-Poll Tax Bill,—I supported it. I supported it when it applied to soldiers and shall do so when it applies generally. I know there is a close constitutional point involved. The Supreme Court has intimated that elections should be controlled by state laws. In any event, the bill came up at the wrong time, at the end of the session, which really invited a filibuster. I have never been identified with any filibuster nor am I in sympathy with that procedure. I did not vote for a cloture rule because I do not believe that the minority should give away any of its rights regarding its opposition to any measure which might arise in the future. Free and full debate is a right assured to the minority and its purpose is to prevent tyranny. I have stated over and over again that I favor the Anti-Poll Tax Bill and shall vote for it if it comes up at the next session of Congress when it cannot be filibustered

successfully as it was at the end of this session. Sen. Charles McNary to Mr. & Mrs. J.H. Meyer, 12/19/42, Charles McNary Papers ============================= Thank you so much for your letter of December 15th enclosing me copy of remarks that you made on the floor of the House December 10th. I thoroughly agree with everything you say. It is indeed unfortunate that the negro question and the labor question are continually stirred up on the home front when of all times in the world we should be a united people for the one sole purpose of whipping the Jap and the German. Roane Waring to Rep. John E. Rankin, 12/19/42, Committee on World War Veterans Legislation ============================= Just as Hitler used Jews as scapegoat to bring the Nazis into power in Germany, so similar forces today are attempting to use the Negro question in the united states. The things the Negro asks of his government are in no wise different from those he has been seeking since the Civil War—the abolition of lynching, disfranchisement, economic and educational discrimination, and the abolition of the caste system based on skin color. If any of these are improper or disloyal for the Negro to ask, then all the announced war aims of the United Nations are a mass of hypocrisies and lies. Not being able to answer these demands, a frenzied effort is being made by the Talmadges, Dixons, Rankins, and Bilbos on the one hand, and the scared Southern ex-

liberals on the other to place the blame for ‘racial tension’ on the Negro himself. NAACP Secretary Walter White Calls for FEPC Independence, 1/29/43, NAACP Papers on Microfilm ============================= [W]hite women have been reporting to a negro man at a local [Mobile, Alabama] Army port of embarkation. [H]e addressed them by their given names while they were addressing him as ‘Mr.’. You have well and ably expressed my views with reference to the situation which confronted you at Mobile. I am indeed gratified to know that the situation has been corrected, but I will endeavor to use the information which you sent me to good advantage in an effort to prevent the recurrence of such a situation. Sen. Lister Hill to Lucy Crichton Snevely, 3/4/43, Lister Hill Papers ============================= I am happy to say that the State Department has agreed informally with the suggestion that such cards be issued to aliens who are otherwise entitled to them and to admission to the United States except on the ground of illiteracy. I have, therefore, decided to authorize the issuance of such cards to illiterates and have further decided to do so at once without awaiting decision on the other changes in procedure and formal amendment of the regulations. I am pleased to advise you, therefore, that I am today addressing a letter to our Mexican border districts instructing them to proceed immediately with the issuance of such cards to persons who are illiterate but who are otherwise entitled to admission to the United States and to the use of such cards.

Earl G. Harrison to Sen. Carl T. Hayden, 3/22/43, Carl T. Hayden Papers ============================= I am sure you will be glad to learn that [the Immigration and Naturalization] office has taken steps to direct immigration officials along our Southern Border to issue non- resident aliens’ border crossing identification cards to persons who are illiterate. Don A. Gustin to E.K. Cumming, 3/24/43, Carl T. Hayden Papers ============================= I feel there has been in many respects a tendency in the last few years to destroy legislative machinery of the Congress. Judiciary and legislative committees in many instances have been circumvented by special committees of one kind or another, and more and more there is a growing tendency to bring legislation to the floor through the discharge petition route. In the interest of orderly legislative procedure and ultimately in the interest of accomplishing the desired objective, it is my firm conviction that the discharge petition is not the best method to follow. Now when we are attempting to unite our forces for a victory in war, I do not desire to see a legislative battle that in one body of Congress would no doubt result in a bitter filibuster and frankly I believe it would be for the time being a mistake to force such an issue. Rep. J. Percy Priest to Walter White (NAACP secretary), 3/29/43, NAACP Papers on Microfilm =============================

I believe you will want to see the enclosed copy of House Joint Resolution 96 as it was reported yesterday from the Senate Committee on Appropriations. This measure, as it now stands, effectively removes the Farm Security Administration from any direct contact with farmers who employ agricultural labor. It is not just the way I wanted it, but seems to me to be a substantial improvement over the text as adopted by the House, which would have stopped all importations of Mexican workers within thirty days.” Carl T. Hayden to A.E. Taber, 4/7/43, Carl T. Hayden Papers ============================= I talked with Congressman Heidinger about forty-five minutes in his office today relative to the Anti-Lynching and Anti-Poll Tax Discharge Petitions. He said that during the last Congress he did a great deal of work on the Anti-Poll Tax Discharge Petition and feels that he was personally responsible for forty signatures. The reason why he is not interested in signing this petition, he says, is that the Administration wants to say that it passed an anti-poll tax bill in the House but, acting in bad faith, will order it killed in the Senate. Heidinger said that he is honestly opposed to the requirement of a poll tax but that the only thing that is deterring him from signing is his feeling there is great insincerity in the present effort. He talked a great deal about eh Negroes continuing to keep the Southern Democrats in office thru the Democratic Party. Only the other day, he said, a Congressman from Mississippi said that we have got the Negro vote in the bag. The only people who have written the Congressman with reference to the matter

has been the CIO and the Railroad Brotherhood—both of whom tried to defeat him in the present election so that he isn’t responsive to their request. The Negroes in his district have not expressed any interest in the poll tax fight. My impression of Heidinger is that, for one thin, he appears to have been left out of the picture. His office is next to Congressman Bender but as far as I could determine Bender has never approached him nor have any other members of the coalition approached him. It is entirely possible that if he can be made to feel important, in view of his claims in connection with the poll tax bill in the last Congress he might come through. I have asked the National Committee to Abolish the Poll Tax to write him a personal letter and have this date reframed the letter to him that WW sent to all congressmen. I spent about thirty minutes with Congressman Reed who gives as his reason for not signing the Discharge Petition on either the Anti-Lynching or Anti-Poll Tax bill the fact that he is a member of the Judiciary Committee and is unwilling to sign any petition to discharge this Committee. Congressman Martin Gorski (D. of Ill.) signed notwithstanding the fact that he is a member of the Judiciary Committee, but because he has not written the National Committee or the Association, so far as I know, I was unable to make that point. The Congressman also expressed some doubt as to the constitutionality of either of the bills, but I believe that I successfully dissipated those doubts by the story of Senator Norris who likewise had some doubt but ended up writing the report of the Senate Judiciary Committee in the 77th Congress and being the staunchest member on the floor of the Senate at the time of the filibuster. I have asked the

National Committee to send him a copy of their pamphlet on the constitutionality of this legislation. Mr. Reed had on his desk a copy of the Association’s telegram to Majority Leader McCormack and Minority Leader Martin in which it pledged to defeat members who voted for the continuation of the Dies Committee. The Congressman was more than a little disturbed over this statement but apparently takes comfort in the fact that almost 2/3 of the House voted and that the Association cannot defeat everybody. Reed is a Wendell Willkie man. Memo, Meeting with Reps. James V. Heidinger (R-IL) & Chauncey W. Reed (R-IL), 4/21/43, NAACP Papers on Microfilm ============================= This farming area raising alfalfa, flax, and other vital war crops seriously short of farm labor but situation could be relieved if Mexicans from adjacent Sonora were allowed to help in harvest now commencing. Some Sonora Mexicans have drifted in during the past few months but face immediate deportation. Mexicans recruited by F.S.A. from interior Mexico’s high altitudes and cool climate cannot stand our heat and most of them have left. Border Mexicans from Sonora and lower California used to our climate are experienced farmers. This help absolutely necessary to harvest vitally essential war crops. Can deportation be stayed temporarily or until authority for legal entry can be secured. Henry Frauenfelder to Earl G. Harrison, 4/23/43, Carl T. Hayden Papers =============================

It is precisely because of this that the Negro is no longer accepting at face value statements of friendship by any party or faction unless its statements be affirmed by deeds. We had bitter affirmation of the wisdom of such skepticism in the last session of Congress when in the U.S. Senate certain influential Republicans joined with Southern Democratic filibustering Senators to defeat cloture on the anti-poll tax bill precisely as the same coalition defeated cloture on the anti-lynching bill in previous years. We are grateful to those members of the Congress, irrespective of party, who are sincere and whose campaign pledges are lived up to. But we are equally resentful of those members of the Congress, also irrespective of party, who assume that the Negro is so naïve that he can be easily fooled by obvious political trickery and insincerity. I say all of this in no spirit of bitterness or partisanship. We shall continue to publish the fact regarding the record of each member of the Congress so that the public may know from the facts themselves what the situation is. . . . Since you have stated to a number of organizations and individuals that your signature to the anti- poll tax petition is withheld pending my reply to the charge that the NAACP is ‘anti- Republican’, I am forwarding copies of this reply to those persons who have written us that you have made statements to his effect. Walter White (NAACP secretary) to Rep. Hugh Scott Jr., 4/27/43, NAACP Papers on Microfilm ============================= I talked at some length with Congressman Gavagan this morning. He said that there are 69 signatures on Discharge Petition #5 and that he has personally sent out two

letters to congressmen urging that they sign the Petition. He believes that Minority Leader Martin is the stumbling block because he has declined to urge the Republicans to sign. Martin believes that such a bill should be brought out around election time, Gavagan says. He is favorable to the idea of forming a Congressional committee along the lines of the poll tax coalition to pub over the Anti-Lynching Bill. As members of the coalition he suggests Dirksen, Guyer, McGranery, Dingle and Ford of California. But it is up to us to actually make a choice. He is also favorably disposed to a national committee along the lines of the poll tax committee to push the bill. It is Gavagan’s opinion that now is the time to try to get the Bill discharged so that both Poll Tax and Anti-Lynching Bills can be brought before the House at or about the same time. He has promised to send me the names of the 69 congressmen who have already signed. Memo, Conference with Congressman Joseph Gavagan Relative to Anti-Lynching Bill, 5/4/43, NAACP Papers on Microfilm ============================= Yesterday afternoon there were 198 signatures to the Anti-Poll Tax Discharge Petition. At 3:30 this afternoon there are 208, which means that there are only 10 to go. Congressman Bender has sounded a fire alarm for us to buttonhole congressmen to move with a view of completing the Petition because the Southerners are now doing all they can to persuade Members to withdraw their signatures. Bender expects them to resort to new tactics as time goes by.

Memo to Mr. White from Mr. Perry, 5/5/43, NAACP Papers on Microfilm ============================= Yesterday the 218th signature was obtained on Discharge Petition #3 to bring H.R. 7, to abolish the poll tax, to the floor of the House for a vote. On May 24th the bill will come on the floor and be voted on. The drive which the national organizations have conducted behind this bill has been remarkable. Your work is primarily responsible for the speed (32 days) with which the Discharge Petition was completed. However, the fight is not yet won. The Steering Committee, of which I am Chairman, is most anxious to obtain the largest possible vote for the bill on the 24th. There is considerable danger that the opposition will attempt to amend H.R. 7, and there is even some danger that a goodly number of Congressmen will be absent on the 24th. For these reasons it is necessary that every Congressman be requested to be present on May 24th, that he vote against any amendments and that he vote for the bill. Naturally, letters from back home to Congressmen are the most effective. However, a letter from your organization to every Congressman is very important. The Steering Committee is deeply grateful for the support which your organization and you personally have given to this fight. May we county upon your energetic support through the vote on May 24th? Rep. George H. Bender to Walter White (NAACP Secretary), 5/7/43, NAACP Papers on Microfilm =============================

Immigration restrictions on Mexican workers have been relaxed insofar as the United States is concerned. . . . However, the difficulty has been and still is that the Government of Mexico is definitely opposed to recruiting along the Border and has insisted that all farm workers be signed up at Mexico City. This has been a distinct obstacle to the bringing in of farm labor from just south of the Border and, unless the attitude of the Mexican government changes, it will continue to be a deterrent to such recruitment. Naturally, there is nothing the Congress nor the Executive Branch of our Government can do to bring about a more liberal attitude on the part of the Government of Mexico, but it is to be hoped that some more favorable agreement can be worked out through our State Department. Sen. Carl T. Hayden to Henry Frauenfelder, 5/18/43, Carl T. Hayden Papers ============================= Under the provisions of Public Law 45, the Immigration and Naturalization Service has relaxed its restrictions on the entry into the United States of Mexican nationals at border points so that it is now possible to bring such workers into this country by the simple process of obtaining an identification card with their pictures and fingerprints on its face. However, the fact that the United States has taken such action does not mean that the Mexican Government has changed its attitude with respect to ‘over-the-border’ importation of Mexican nationals. Mexican officials at Mexico City are still definitely opposed to this recruitment of agricultural workers from border points and insist that all of our labor

recruiting activities be carried on at Mexico City. Sen. Carl Hayden to J.C. Kinney, June 2, 1943, Carl Hayden Papers ============================= I am convinced that to beat the filibuster, which Senator Bilbo has promised us in the Senate, it will be necessary to pledge every Senator to vote for cloture. It will be necessary to mobilize every Negro voter to contact each Senator individually and particularly the Republicans. I urge you to do everything humanly possible because I am convinced that this measure can be passed at this session, but it will only be done if every Senator realizes that the entire Negro vote will be cast on this issue in 1944 as well as a large labor and liberal vote. Rep. George H. Bender to Walter White (NAACP secretary), 6/4/43, NAACP Papers on Microfilm ============================= It has been the hope of opponents of lynching that this loathsome practice would be eliminated, particularly during the time when the nation is engaged in fighting the lynching psychology and practices of Nazi Germany and Japan. But instead there has been a tragic growth of mob violence within recent weeks which threatens to become a nation-wide crisis which inevitably will seriously hamper successful prosecution of the war. The rioting in connection with the Packard strike in Detroit against the up- grading of qualified Negroes, mob violence against ‘zoot suiters’ ranging from Los Angeles to Philadelphia which has been shown to be directed almost exclusively against persons of dark skin, racial clashes

in Mobile shipyards and other places, are tragic examples of this dangerous situation which can be checked only by the strong arm of the federal government. Two lives were lost and great property damage was done within the last few days in Beaumont, Texas, allegedly because of a ‘criminal attack’ by a Negro upon a white woman, which attack medical examination has proved to be unfounded. The real causes of the work stoppage and of the loss of lives and property appears at this writing to be due to subversive forces among white shipbuilders who deliberately provoked the riot to prevent Negroes from helping to produce the goods which are necessary to win the war. Now comes the lynching Wednesday night at Marianna, Florida, of Cellon Harrison whose conviction on the charge of murder of a white man had twice been reversed by the Florida Court. Those who are familiar with the situation in the South do not need to be reminded that when there are such reversals by a southern court there is certainly grave doubt as to the guilt of a Negro. Opponents of federal anti- lynching legislation have for years asserted that the states themselves would do the job of preventing lynching and punishing lynchers. The record demonstrates that these promises have not been kept. In view, therefore, of the immediacy of the situation it is imperative that the Congress act without fail to add the strong arm of the federal government to those of the several states to stop this tide of mob violence at once before it causes us either to lose the war or to proving it at the cost of the lives of Americans. Walter White (NAACP secretary) to Friendly Congressmen, 6/18/43, NAACP Papers on Microfilm

============================= You are the only person in all the world I ever heard of who doubts my position on any Southern question, especially the anti- poll tax and anti-lynching bill. I did not speak during the last filibuster because it did not last long. I was ready to occupy the floor during the filibuster as long as the leader on that subject, Senator Tom Connally of Texas, indicated that he wanted me to speak. The Southern Senators selected Senator Connally several years ago to be our leader in fighting any anti-poll tax or anti-lynching bill, or any other bill which came before the Senate and which was a sectional bill directed at the South. I made a long speech when the last anti-lynching bill was before the Senate. I was there days and nights, voting with the Southern Democrats on all questions that arose during that filibuster and especially in the efforts to apply the cloture rule. I seriously doubt whether I should undertake to convince you about my position. I think your attitude is so absurd and so unreasonable that I should not try to convince you, in view of my well- known attitude, not only throughout Alabama, but in the Senate of the United States, on the subject about which you write. I you want any further information I suggest that you write Senator Tom Connally. Sen. John H. Bankhead to Knox Gilmore, 7/7/43, Tom Connally Papers ============================= The Secretary requested that the Board consider urging each of the Association’s branches to appoint a committee to call on senators and congressmen while they are at home during the recess of Congress, to

discuss seriously the devastation done to agencies which directly or indirectly benefit the Negro and to insist that when these senators and congressmen return to Washington they change their attitudes and votes. The Secretary stated that in order to make such action by the branches effective the National Office will immediately prepare a detailed memorandum for the branches which will be accompanied by a record of the votes of each member of the Senate and House. It was the consensus of opinion of the Board that the National Office request the branches to interview their senators and congressmen in accordance with the suggestion made by the Secretary. NAACP Board Meeting Minutes, 7/12/43, NAACP Papers on Microfilm ============================= As you know, I have had a Constitutional amendment pending before the Committee since the early days of the controversy. This amendment offers the opponents of the poll tax a sure, certain and, I believe, speedy method of gaining the reform they desire. There can be no ‘substantial argument’ against the effectiveness of a Constitutional amendment, and since there are only eight states in the Union which cling to the poll tax, it is difficult to believe that there would be any delay in procuring its enactment. In any event, it ought to be tried. May I not add the suggestion that of all organizations the American Civil Liberties Union should support the Constitutional amendment approach. It is the Constitution which protects civil liberties against waves of passion. It is the Constitution which is the most effective guardian of minority rights. If you write this reform into the Constitution the task will have been done. If you are

content only to follow the road of statutory procedure then you create the precedent whereby a majority in the Congress can override other civil liberties and state rights which are now protected by the Constitution. Sen. Joseph C. O’Mahoney to Arthur Garfield Hays, 11/13/43, Joseph C. O’Mahoney Papers ============================= A good deal of the propaganda for the poll tax repeal by statute emanates from the group of radical thinkers in New York City who really want to abolish all states rights and who are not much concerned about the way it is accomplished. They represent also the urban leaders who appear to have no comprehension of the problems of the rest of the country. One of the sad things about the defeat of the League of Nations was that some of the real friends of world peace contributed to the defeat by condemning Woodrow Wilson because he did not go as far as they thought he should go. Leon Henderson in this administration was representative of the same sort of leadership. The group that heads up the American Labor Party in New York, for example, seems to have no comprehension that there is a point of view outside of New York City which is really more representative of the real American. The strength of the New Deal lay in the union of the city workers and the small farmers. The policies which were laid down by Harry Hopkins and Leon Henderson have split these two groups asunder. We are losing the farm vote because the Office of Price Administration policy was to roll the price back on the farmer, and we have lost a good part of the labor vote because of the

failure to recognize the justice of some of the labor demands. The coal problem, for example, could have been settled by Ickes last May, but Hopkins and Henderson were strong enough to prevent him from having authority. Finally he was given authority, but the settlement of the strike did not come until the day after the election. Kentucky was lost as a result. It could have been saved if it had not been for the shortsightedness of the New York group. Now the membership of the House is so close, with two Democratic vacancies about to be filled, that of Congressman Lewis from Denver and Congressman McGranery from Pennsylvania, that it is quite possible that the Democrats before the next election will have so slight a margin that they will have to depend upon independents to retain control. The unfortunate fact is that the President today is in exactly the same position in which Hoover found himself from 1929 to 1932. He can not command a certain majority in Congress. It is my conviction that the most important thing now is for the President to get his congressional leaders together and come to an understanding with them with respect to a domestic policy. That is why I said the other day that we ought to fall back to a new line and try to hold there. What I had in mind was that we should recognize the feelings of organized workers like the coal miners and the railroad workers, who felt that they were being unjustly treated, and the feelings of the farmers, who likewise have thought that the OPA has been following an anti-agriculture policy. If the President is going to carry through the war program and the terribly important program of peace, he has got to have a Congressional majority.

Sen. Joseph C. O’Mahoney to R.R. Rose, 12/13/43, Joseph C. O’Mahoney Papers ============================= On Friday the Senate acted to kill the Fair Employment Practices Committee, by adopting an amendment to the Independent Offices Appropriations Bill denying the committee any appropriation. I not only voted to adopt the amendment and deny the appropriation, but also helped to line up the vote for the adoption of the amendment. The Fair Employment Practices Committee was never authorized by Congress and Congress never intended the establishment of such a committee. The committee has aggravated situations and irritated people. It has done harm and should be abolished. Sen. Lister Hill to J.A. Streyer, 3/27/44, Lister Hill Papers ============================= The old poll tax is going to be pushed on us again next week. I certainly dread to go through with this fight again, but we have no alternative. These professional reformers from the outside are determined to run the Southern States as they think they should be operated, and a surprising number of our own people seem to be willing to turn it over to them. I am afraid that these agitators, both within our State and without, will eventually cause us serious difficulties that are altogether unnecessary. Sen. Richard B. Russell to Mother, 5/5/44, Richard B. Russell Papers ============================= Under the Constitution, thirty-six state legislatures must approve a constitutional

amendment. It took fourteen months to get the Woman Suffrage Amendment approved by the necessary number of legislatures; twelve months to get the Prohibition Amendment approved; and ten months to get it repealed. Only eight of the forty-eight state legislatures are scheduled to meet this year. Thus it is manifest that the Constitutional Amendment to Abolish the Poll Tax proposed by thirty-three Republican senators will safely get that party by the November, 1944, elections without embarrassment to them on getting action by the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November. I doubt very much that Negro voters will be blind to the manifest political motivation of the move or forget the Republican performance on cloture on the Anti-Poll Tax filibuster or the weasel words of the leading Republican candidate for the Presidency. Report of Secretary, June 1944 Board Meeting, NAACP Papers on Microfilm ============================= With further reference to the NAACP, I have just received the NAACP bulletin for June 1944. I assume that you also have it. You will notice the tables purporting to tell how Congress voted on major legislation and implying that a minus sign is a vote against the negro. This exact technique is taken directly from that of the Communists and the New Republic. It assumes without any justification that a vote on certain legislation is against the negro because it happened to be at variance with the position of the NAACP. Take, for instance, the Federal Aid to Education bill. Conceivably a small fraction of the total appropriation of three hundred million dollars might have assisted negro education in the South. The issue on

nine-tenths of the money, however, had nothing to do with the negro. The bill, primarily, was in the tent of the teachers throughout the United States to reach into the Federal Treasury for part of their salaries. The bill did not remove discrimination against negro education in the South, or assure more than a very minor improvement. So also in the case of the Federal Vote bill. The interest of the colored voter was very minor. All the Southern states had removed their poll tax requirements for soldiers and the question was primarily whether the Administration should march all the soldiers to the Polls under conditions which would assure a victory for Roosevelt. The principal proponents of the bill from a legislative standpoint were the CIO and the Communists. It is perfectly clear to me that Walter White is cooperating 100% with the left wing organizations in and has fortified his right to speak for the negro in America in any question in which the New Deal is involved. Sen. Robert A. Taft to Harry E. Davis, 8/4/44, Robert A. Taft Papers ============================= Recommend that more Jamaican workers be sent to Arizona to pick cotton as need for labor is critical, but that the War Food Administration exercise more care in selecting workers, and that they be informed as to what to expect here in the way of housing, type of work and wages. Growers desire to send representative to point of recruitment to help in selection. Thousands of dollars have been spent by growers in preparing camps for Jamaicans.

Sen. Carl T. Hayden to Philip G. Burton, 10/10/44, Carl T. Hayden Papers ============================= [I hope] it will prove possible to keep enough ‘wet’ Mexicans on the job in California and Arizona to take care of the fall harvest. Don A. Gustin to C.B. Moore, 11/3/44, Carl T. Hayden Papers ============================= Fair Employment Practices are an important part of the realization of the American principle of equality of opportunity. Taxes which are collected without discrimination in favor of or against taxpayers because of their race, color or creed should be expended without such discrimination. I believe that the Fair Employment Practices established by Executive Order in the expenditure of Federal funds during the war and which have thus stood the test of experience should now be enacted into permanent law. Sen. Harold H. Burton Statement, 6/13/45, Harold H. Burton Papers ============================= The House had to use a bulldozer to get the anti-poll tax bill out of the Judiciary Committee, where it had been bottled up for months. Then it passed the measure, 251 to 105. The bill now goes to the Senate, where it faces the same opposition that has twice defeated similar House-approved measures. This opposition comes from the South, where seven States still require persons to pay a poll tax before they may vote. The existence of this tax, and the ability of a bare majority of a 27-man

committee to prevent the House, for months, from voting to repeal it, are sad commentaries on our democratic processes. Detroit Free Press, 6/14/45, NAACP Papers on Microfilm ============================= The ineffable Bilbo of Mississippi, who is rarely heard of except as a champion of poll taxes and other vestiges of a feudal South, says ‘we’ll speak as long as we have to in order to prevent passage.’ . . . Anyway, is the Senate this time going to let the Bilboites have their way or will it recall the fact that it has a cloture rule? St. Louis Post-Dispatch, 6/14/45, NAACP Papers on Microfilm ============================= It is quite evident that a simple recital of the truth will no longer stop the lies of Senators Bilbo and Eastland. And, since they hide behind the shield of Congressional immunity, there is no legal redress for the people they have slandered. Yet, if the honor and dignity of the U.S. Senate is to be maintained, something must be done. We realize that we are not your constituents, but we feel that the matter is much larger than the considerations of state boundaries. We have a bright future before us, and we must allow nothing to stand in the way. In the light of the reactions shown by these ‘gentlemen’, it is obvious that some drastic step must be taken. We feel that the open censure of their fellow workers will show them the contempt in which every decent American holds them. We ask you to have nothing to do with them. Do not even offer them the courtesy

of ‘Good morning’. Ignore them as completely as they have ignored the sensitivities of the people they have slandered. Have all the other senators join with you in this silent treatment, so that the effect will be even greater. We realize that this is drastic, but the situation is one which will no longer respond to anything but a drastic measure. As long as men like Bilbo and Eastland disgrace our Senate, we must be prepared for bitter fights to get any program designed to give the ‘little guy’ a break. But, if we can once show that we will no longer tolerate such actions, then we can move ahead. Fred H.M. Turner (NAACP president) to Sen. Richard B. Russell, 7/28/45, Richard B. Russell Papers ============================= Omissions in the legislative program for next fall outlined by Senator Barkley and other Democratic senators in floor speeches August 1 are extremely significant. One of the most significant bills apparently left completely out of the Democratic program is that to establish a permanent Fair Employment Practices Commission. We believe the minimizing of racial discrimination in the difficult reconversion period through some such agency as the FEPC is one of the most important problems facing Congress. Along with other Republican FEPC bill which has been on the Senate calendar for several months be given early consideration next fall. Sens. Joseph H. Ball & Harold Burton press release, 8/7/45, Harold H. Burton Papers =============================

A negro newspaper in Philadelphia has re- produced a part of a recent editorial in you paper in which you denounce several Southern Representatives and among them was ‘Bilbo’. You stated that the South had ‘an imposing galaxy of intellectually bankrupt demagogues and tub-thumpers’. I am just wondering why you left out the names of Senator Lister Hill and Senator Bankhead because they agree with what I have been doing to protect the white South and the integrity of the white race in this country and to keep this a white man’s country. They just haven’t been articulate but I am sure they will be in the future. Will you please send me a copy of that issue of your paper as this negro newspaper wants me to reply to it and I would like to have a copy of the edition of your paper in which this dastardly attack of yours appeared. Now it is my understanding that the Montgomery Daily Advertiser is owned and edited by white people, notwithstanding that this editorial is indicative of negro infiltration. Kindly send me the copy of your paper to Poplarville, Mississippi, so I can give this matter attention during my vacation. Sen. Theodore G. Bilbo to Editor Montgomery Daily Advertiser, 8/13/45, Lister Hill Papers ============================= Since I have been abused, denounced and flooded with criticism because certain newspapers and radio commentators have deliberately twisted, distorted and misrepresented what I have really said and done in expressing my honest convictions on the floor of the Senate and in writing. . . . If you can find time to read [my] speeches and statements you will readily be

convinced that I have not at any time, in anyway, denounced the Jews, Italians, Poles, Catholics and others as a class, as a nationality or as a denomination. On the other hand, I have definitely stated in every instance that I was only castigating certain individuals regardless of ‘race, creed, color or national origin’ because of their advocacy of what, in my opinion, are the most vicious and un-American Legislative concepts. Also, I have not spared them in expressing my disagreement with any white man or white woman who would sponsor any movement that would integrate the American Negro into the social life of the white people in this country, thereby leading to miscegenation, intermarriage and mongrelization of both the white and black races. With the respect and love that I have for the Caucasian blood that flows not only in my veins but in the veins of Jews, Italians, Poles, and other nationalities of the White race, I would not want to see it contaminated with Negro blood. In fact any decent, self-respecting Negro resents the contamination of his blood with the white man’s blood. My whole effort is a fight against the mongrelization of the two races in America and the social intermingling of the two races can lead only to that. Other wise, the history of thirty thousand years of the human race must be denied. If any white man or white woman in America wants to oppose me or fight me on this issue, I am ready for the conflict. It seems that some people and some papers and organizations do not even believe in the freedom of speech guaranteed by our Constitution, but more and more we Americans are learning to appreciate the value of free speech because more and more we must realize that democratic institutions can survive only if our voice can remain free.

Sen. Theodore G. Bilbo to My Dear Colleague, 9/4/45, Lister Hill Papers =============================

I Jul.¥ 2, 19.36.

IJ.7 dear Oovemor Lehmani

I have yo~m le\te of Jline 10, 19:5&, n1 th ita onoloaecl. ldte• of JUDe 0, ~:58. fl'l)a t.tr. pnl tx 11atbur:c, " with wh1oh thel'f ,.., aJ.eo tranBJ.tted S1.r Hel'ben S.Uel' a le'te:v to lolr; W~ of Jtq ';!!, 19M, ana lta aoOCIIIIpaDJ- " ill8 meao:van4UIII, w1 ~ referenoe to the qu. .. uon of the '-~gJ'aUon of Geaan r1en 1nto tbe Un1hCl statea.

The gea.·hl qu.ution of the atUt\ldtl of American. oonau.l.al' oftlcue in Ge1'111&A7 to the visa e;ppl1oat1one of the groups of perso.ne covered by- 7Qur lette:tt was tou.ohed upon: 1n ao•• deta1l 1n my letter to you of Novaaber 13, 1938, and I e:zpreued to you st that tl!lle mf eal'llllat deslri that aJ.l !)Ons1derat1on and Just1oe shouJ.d contimle to be shown to these 1mm1granta.

Aa regards the ti'IO apeo1tio questions rt\ised in the eno1oaures to your letter, I have consulted the Department ot State Md I ac1 1ntomed that the a1tuat1on 1n .regar<l to the pointe wh1oh have been ra1eed 1s br1eny as follown.

It 1o true that there hae boen an abnomaJ.l7 e;reat inorease 1n the number ot 0e%'S:lan J ewish visa atrolloante at the Aelarl.oan Consulate OeneraJ. at Stuttgart" dur~ reoent mon~ whloh has neoeas1tated ohort deliiJ's 1n the handling of 1nd1v:l.dl.laJ. oaaee. 'l'hie sitUation baa ~en lilet in-, the tollo~ manne:r. The Stuttgart personnel has ver7 recently been increased by the additional <Dplo;r-- ment of two clarlte and by the traneter to that ott1oe ot two B4d1tional consular ott1oere. Furthermore, etteot1ve June let, the previous· d1:v1sion ot duties of the United ~tates Publlo Health surgeon and the 1mm1gro.nt 1napeotor, who are nosigned na teohn1oal advisers in vlaa oaaea, between Stuttgart ond Vienna has been abolished. Tbe tu.ll time ot theee two ottio1ala ia consectuently now g iven to their Stuttgart tlutiee ond 1mm1grnt1on v1eaa nre now being 1esued on all worlt1nc dnYo during eaoh month instead

'i'he Honornbla The Governor ot New York, •'I 1 Al.ban;r. <fff'I:J

··-

!' ' .

-2-

ot onlJ' during a certa1n portion ot each month · ae was the case prior to June let. 'l'bie would ee• to obviate ths nsoess1ty ot ~e up8D41ture ot OoTenaent timda at tble t1me tor the opeD1Dg up of additional oonlallatea 111 OemaD7 as regards the ~aauance ot 1.miDJ.grat1on visas.

As to the aeooDd (\U88t1oD, oollOemJ.ng the_ we~glit ginn by ex.ai~ag otn.oars at t1w Conalate 08Dersl at H~ . to atp.davits ~t support fM& mora distant ral.at1Tes __ aD4 tr1eDda as ooap~ w1:th such attidants trom close relat.1.Tea such aa a hllabend, wife, paran't, son or "s·~~ter, I ~ intomed that the aituat.1.on is aa tollowa.

IntencU Dg ~granta aa:t present aD7 eYidenoe 'the7 deaire, to establish thau adlll1as1billty 1nto 'the Un1'ted · Sta'tlle and to obtain nsae, and the- coniiUls are raqU1red to cona1der caratull.y and Jud1oial.l.7 all endenoe eul:al.ttad. It an applicant will rely UpOn anotber parson tor support, the ~as and al>11~t7 ot that _parson to support the applloant mta't be shown. A pl'OIII.1aa of support mads by a close relat1n . will natura:J..JJ be given mora ·night then one fl'CIII a distant relat1Te upon. \llbom there maY be no legal or moral obligation to support the applicant and whose teellng ot reBpOnaib111ty toward the ~plic~t w1U not ord.1na1'1ly be aa great aa ln. the case ot a close relative . Consequent]7, wh.U.e the pl'OII.1ee 11ade b7 a father to support his child, or by a child to support h1s father, may be readily accepted,. suoh a pl'OIIIisa mads by a distant relative may be sl.lbJ ect to queat1on1ag as to the probab111t:r ot 1.ts be1ag kept. The Departl:lent ot State bolda that 1n such oases the consular ~ Qft1oar 1:1117 properly talta 1nto oons1.derat1on the past condlaa;t:, toward _ the applicant, ot the person pl'OIII1s1ng h1a eupport na __ 1nd1oat1ng a reoogn1t1on ot reapon~b111ty and_1ntereat, audl , as prenoua oontr1but1ona to support and prertoue assoo1at1.oas and l:ntereat 1n the weltare ot the applicant, aiid reqUire an e:zp~t1on ot the reasons tor undertald.ng the applicant' a aupp~_rt. A ta'90rable deo1s1.on 1s reached wh'n the preponde;rance ot e~deno_e 11'\lppQrts a ooncl!Jelon that the parson proal~ the appl1~ant.• s support 1'11ll be likely 'to take steps to prevent the appl1cen11 troll bec01111ng a publlo charge. All. consular _ ott1cera operate under o1roular instruot1ona from the-·Departtlent ot State vh1Qh have been issued along the 11ne's ind1ca10ed.

I bel:ioye that the Department ot Stats and its consular ott1oers abroad are oont~nulng to l!llllte every ettort to carry out the 1.mmigrat1on duties placed upon thea in a considerate

. . . .. , . ..

\ I

•

-3-. - .... tina.·. humane manner. The,. are '1aw•ilg cons1derablj more 1mm1grat1on visas to ~erman Je1r1.eh applloants at the preilant time than was . ·the . case l.aat f8&r . or- l.n recent previous ~ear~.

. . I 111.sh to as~ · :rou o~ m7 SJDrPathet1o 1nt~rest 1n the

ques~n whl.ch ;rou have brought to m7 attent1om. and o~ m7· . appreciation ot ,-our aot1om1n bJ.1JJg1ng thaaa matters to m7 · atttmt1on. . . . . · · · .

• • • • • • • • • • • .. 0

. . TerT. s'!'"~lT youre, . '

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•

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• ~1t·"~ . , NOT OFFICIAL t411't.CI'I1' H . LIHM AH

o ...... ..... ..

The President, The V.bite House , Washington, D. C.

My dear Mr . President,

ALBANY

June 15th, 1936

You will recall that some months ago I wrote to you enlisting your good offices in reducing to a minimum the dllticulties of obtai.ning visas in Germany for emigration to the Ollited States of those Vlould-be emigrants who are enti tled, by rea son of good character and other circumstances, to admission . At that time you advised me that you bad taken the matter up with the Department or State and tha t difficulties would be reduced to a minimum in c ases of people worthy or admission to our country .

I am sending you herewith correspondence jus t received !rom Ur . Felix Warburg to ;vhich is a letter atta ched from Sir Herbert Samuel which you will find self-explanatory .

I am certain that , as in the past, every effort will be made to make possible the obtaining of visas for those who, in the opinion of our authorities , will make wo:r thy citizens of the United States.

With kind personal regards, I am

enclosure. '

Verysini~~

J •

.MEMORANDUM

It is the opinion of the Depertment of State

that it would not be appropriate for the President

to support an appeal for assistance for one parti-

cular class of refugees or for refugees from one

particular country. The President has, in the

past, carefully retrained from taking such action

in behalf or any single interested group.

In view of these circumstances it is believed

that Dr. Fosdick should be advised not to make the

request which he contemplated making and that the

situation should be explained to him or Mr. Picket,

preferably by telephone rather than by lett er .

Warm Springs , Ga., Novembe r 26 , 1938 .

lmdORANDtm FOR

THE UNDKRSECRSTARY OF STATE

Will you send me by r eturn

pouch any information the State Department

has in reg a rd to possible places for

Jewish col onizat ion in any part of the world?

I do not want any extens ive m~orandum

just what you happen to have on hand . I

will r eturn it to you at opoe afte r l ooking

at it .

F . D. R.

SEE 20 for f irst copy

/ //

76 -e-

For your intormationa

---,/ ; J. ehower o.f the .. wae dr opped on t~ downtOirll

streets ot Los J.ngeles by airplane at noon

Monday, J.pril 4th .

Helene F. Glaeer 4463 W. 4th St. Los J.ngelee, Cal.

---------------------------

JEWS! JEWS! Jews Everywhere! -

The Roosevelt Administration is Loaded with Jews - 12 =Million White American Worlcers Jobless

·OVER 1/4 MIWON EUROPEAN JEWS ARE NOW COMING TO UNITED STATES TO THROW WHITE AMERICAN WORKERS OUT OF JOBS

Benjamin Fnnklin Said: "Jews are a menace to this country if permitted entnnce And Should Be Ex- duded."

Samuel Roth S~d: "We Jews are a people of vultures, living on the labor of the rest of the world."

The Jewish Talmud Says: "Jews are human beings, Gentiles are not human beings, but beasts.'' (Baba Me.zia, 114, &.)

Samuel Roth Says: "WE JEWS, who come to the Nations, PRETENDING to escape PER S E C U-

.·. TION, are reaDy the MOST DEADLY PERSECUTORS OF MEN.''

Communism is Jewish -OUT WITH JEWS!! LET WHITE PEOPLE RUN THIS COUNTRY AS THEY DID BEFORE THE JEWISH INVASION

Wake up! Wake up! Wake up! Wake upl Get in touch with your nearest .Anti-Communist Organlaation

The n..-s or ·-.C' ,lll:lt tel M.t• f'r011 Go1'W&t11 hu

doep.J.y JhockeJ ?tJ.l-lle O'J1.nlon tn thC" 0:\lt,,.j S tClLea. :;.uch

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lith,_ Vi\: .. L0 ~.ti.ni"li "'- t-.!"j;t.-t..fll llC"lUr O f

1.h~ ai•.u.a~lo~ 1n c~ 1 .. ~.j the .;,reretA.ry or b\.'1t8 t.O

or-sor our 1Cl~IU1or 1n f!~rll"l '..O rot.•U'!\ «Lt. on: • ror ro:::JOrt

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P.'::B I !:E ::T OF T :E U:I I TE D STH ES=

.,, P!1CS l u E:!T YOU r. ::£ GOI : I ~ TOO F t. ~ . YOU SeW TO FO i. G~ T T" •\T c.:::U i il:: /,l.; :::·. I Cfl:! G'.:II TIL ES . :.J ILL IOi!S O F T" ~:.; fi .• E CO I.:PL. E T~ LY

U:I':E!.:: J :C:CAUS .: U:111 : L': TO S P:i. K OV E:i OUr: J E'.': I S'! CO:lT .. OLL.: !l

.O::VO LUT !Oil 0!~ 1\: l I !.JP _f, C ';.!2 :JT I F YOU CO.! lT I ::u.: ;', '.: J,TSPi.~' FO'

I share the profound anxiety of my fellow Americans of the Jewish faith regarding the reports that reach this country that the British government is planning the stoppage of Jewish immigration into Palestine. I realize how deeply such an action would shatter the hopes of the Jewish people the world over, and imperil the lives of many in Central and Eastern Europe who are bearing their intolerable burdens because of their belief that they will find comfort and security in the Jewish homeland. . . . [A] group of my associates in the Senate are planning with me to see President Roosevelt to discuss the situation with him. We recognize, of course, that the President has on frequent occasions expressed his great interest in the Jewish upbuilding program in Palestine. We know that the present developments in Palestine are followed by him with deep concern, particularly because he initiated the Evian Conference which resulted in the formation of an Intergovernmental Committee for the placement of a maximum number of the refugees who have been made homeless by the cruelest oppression known in history. Senator Robert F. Wagner press release, 10/11/38, in Volume 2, Part 2, 76th Congress, Box 121, BB Series, Robert F. Wagner Papers =============================== Under the mandate Palestine ceased to be solely a Jewish enterprise or a purely British undertaking. America and the whole world has a stake in this great experiment in purposeful nation building. Wagner to Meet the President, October 21, [1938], in Volume 2, Part 2, 76th Congress, Box 121, BB Series, Robert F. Wagner Papers

=============================== Mrs. Gruberg has some relatives who are among the many unfortunates in Germany. Recently she learned that they had been sent to a concentration camp. You are of course familiar with the plight of these poor people who happen to be of Jewish birth and who for no known reason are being made to suffer. Rubin Gruberg to Lister Hill, May 20, 1939, in File 4, Box 161, Lister Hill Papers ===============================

MEMORNUXJM

Eu Kr. Moffat.

I ntt.ended tho meeting of tho Pree1dont 1 e Advisory co-1tt.e on Pollt1oal Retug .. a 1n llr. 'fqlor ' e offtoe at New York on 'fbureday , Se ptember 14, 1939. Thoro wae the usual general d!ooueeion but three viewpoints eeemed to o.merge , ae follow•:

(l) The •profeseionale" such ae llr. Jamee G. McDonald and Jlr, George Warren, the Secretary, rteh to continue to develop the settlement projeote euoh ae British Guiana and the Dominican Re public and produced cone1derable evidence to justify the continuation.

{2) Tho moderato Jewieh leaders euob ae Mr . Baerwald and llr. Lewis Straua felt that in v1ew of the outbreak or war eettlement proJeote should be hold in abe1anoe. Mr. Straus contended for this group that one of three th1nge would happen: (a) Germany would win the -r; {b) there would be a draw; ( o) the All1ee would win the war. He ea1d that in the event of the realhation or (a) or (b) the refuge e problem would aeeume euoh enormous proportion& that a fre sh approach would have to be made. In the event ot (o) there would be no refugee pro blem and in fact the majority of Jewe now located in other oountri e e would w1eh to re turn to Germany, He eald that t h1 e wae no time in

whlob

- 2-

wh i ob to •alte or oont.1nue w1 th settlement plana . He

approved ot the White Houee meeting ae marking the oon-

tinu1 t,y ot the work and demonstrating to the Ge rmane and

&leo to the retugeee that it had not been abandoned. He

did n o t beli eve, howeve r , that 1t eho~d attempt t o tormulate

program• and partioularlT eho~d not go 1nto t.he matter ot

eettleaent.

(3) The Z1oniete oonstituted the third group and

thelr epokeeman wae Rabbi 11'18e. Tbe Rabbi made a l ong

speech to the etteot that many t hous ands ot Jewe 1nt.ereete d

1n Palestine would be resentful 1r the President did not

take thie opportunity to raise the Palestine 1eeue with

the member o r the British Oovern~~ent, Lord Winterton, wh o

was moat notori ously ant1-Jewieh , pro-Arab and ant1 - Zioni et .

He eald that the Pre s i dent had indicated more than onoe

that he wae eympathe t1c w1 th the work 1n Palestine and it

he pe.eeed up thie opportun1t,y to apeak d1reotly on the

eubjeot to a member o r the Bri tieh Government there llllgbt

be the moat unhappy re peroueeione. Rabbi Wi ee dittered

radically with Jlr. Straue and eald t hat the Jews would no t

wish to return to Germany even 1n the event or a defea t

ot that Power. The majority or them wo~d wieb to go to

Palestine and the o t bere would t or the t lae being reaain

where they have eetabl1ehe d themeelvee. Rabbi W1se

remarked

-3-

remarked that it waa rutile to talk about 18ttle•nt

proj a ote euob aa Guiana and the Doainioan Republi c whe n

Paleetine, under t he arrangeaent with the Britieb, oould

a bsorb 75, 000 people in rive yeare in a developed country,

at ve r,y l ittle ooe t .

There wae no a&reeaent between the three group e , and

they han de cided to eet Up a eubooamittee which w1U try

to iron out the dirrerenc e e .

Ever yone agreed , however, that it e ettleae nt pr oj eote

W8re to continue there would have to b e some degree or

go•ernme ntal t1nancing. In ot her worde the challenge or

the British proposals at the Jul.T meeting or t he Intel'-

governmental Couittee would ba•e to be me t. It was relt

that a recommendat ion to this errect ehould be made to

the Pre sident and the Department or State and that the

Government should begin immediately t o etudy ways and

means or making contribution i n thia aenae .

There was , moreover , agreement regarding the present

e xtent or the problem. It waa belieYed that a great

maey or the retugeee in refuge oountrha would be abeorbed

into war activities but th1e would leave their dependent •

without vis ible means or support . As t ar aa t he privata

organizations could ascertain there had been no let up on

the

- "'-

the demanda tor admieaion to the Onited States ainoe the

out.break ot hoat1lit1ea and in addition the pressure waa

already makina i taelt tel t trom Poland.

There wae some dieouaaion ot the machinery ot the

Committee. It was bel ieved that the permanent office

oou.ld not be maintained 1n 8113 Western European country

during the period ot oontlict. The conaeneua waa tbat

it ahou.ld be eetablUhed in Wash1naton pending its return

to London. There waa a d1v1eion ot opinion regardlna the

advieabili ty or asking Lord Winterton to remain as

Chairman. Some Celt that it waa wiaer to keep him on

ae a figurehead, t h ereby obviating the neceaaity or

cbooeina a aucceeaor. Othara relt that t h ia wae a

propitious moment to get rid ot him and to tind a

eucoeeeor who would show greater enthueiaem tor the

work •

.Ul agreed that Monaieur van zeeland would make the

moat ettective contribution to the work in the months

i11111ed1atel¥ ahead and that be should be in vi ted to a it

in at the White House meeting.

Eu:Pell:AB

From the information given me by officials of the State Department, it appears that the only available transportation for immigrants coming to the United States is by commercial steamer and the only port of embarkation seems to be Lisbon, Portugal. The officials of the State Department further advise that the American relief ships now in the war zone are for the evacuation of American citizens and it would be impossible to obtain passage aboard one of them for an immigrant coming to this country because each ship is overcrowded with Americans returning to the United States. Lister Hill to Isadore Weil, July 29, 1940, File 6, Box 161, Lister Hill Papers =============================== If the visas are procurable, (and I think they are, after you take the matter in your hands, because you can accomplish anything, I think), instruct the Consulate at Stuttgart to communicate with Selma Gunzberger and Helene Baum at Camp De Gurs, Basses Pyrenees, because I think the German Government hurried them off without notice, and the Consulate at Stuttgart, I think, does not know their address. We have a cable from my nieces in France, asking for money for sustenance. We don’t know how to go about it. We are willing to send them money. This is a groundhog case. It is urgent, and if I ever wanted your assistance, I want it in this case. Isadore Weil to Lister Hill, November 8, 1940, File 6, Box 161, Lister Hill Papers =============================== I certainly am distressed to learn that your nieces have been removed to a concentration camp and again assure you if there is any

possible way in which I can help you procure immigration visas for them, I will be glad to do so. Lister Hill to Isadore Weil, November 13, 1940, File 6, Box 161, Lister Hill Papers =============================== I want you to know that I have personally contacted the Secretary of State with reference to these two cases. As you know, however, the American Consul at Stuttgart advised us that Mrs. Gunzburger is registered under the nonpreference German quota and that her position is 20,155, and that it is not expected her name will be reached before 1943. As you know, Mrs. Baum is in a little more favorable position. As you state, the State Department is completely swamped with matters of this kind. The State Department here in Washington does not attempt to interfere in granting visas as this is left entirely in the hands of the American Consuls abroad, as these Consuls have full authority to act on visa applications. Be this as it may, I want you to know I am right in touch with the Secretary of State and I will leave nothing undone to get favorable action as soon as possible. Lister Hill to Isadore Weil, November 22, 1940, File 6, Box 161, Lister Hill Papers =============================== The immigration law provides that before an immigration visa may be issued in a case of this kind it is necessary that some relative or friend who is an American citizen, and lives in this country, must agree to care for the immigrant and prevent his becoming a public charge in the event such financial aid should be needed. It is also necessary that the person who agrees to do this must

submit to the American Consul documents showing that the is financially able to bear the expense should it become necessary and that he is a respected citizen of the United States. Lister Hill to Ed. Leigh McMillan, June 4, 1940, in File 1, Box 161, Lister Hill Papers =============================== Since I wrote to you last an unfortunate thing happened to Mrs. Baum. She died at the concentration camp, from exposure and probably hunger, and now I only ask that you confine your good offices to Mrs. Gunzburger in a effort to get her a visa. Lister Hill to Isadore Weil, May 6, 1941, File 6, Box 161, Lister Hill Papers =============================== I am cooperating in the effort now being made to revive, reorganize and strengthen the American Palestine Committee, formed in 1932 with the approval and endorsement of the then President and Vice-President of the United States. As expressed in the annexed memorandum, this nonpartisan Committee is intended to lend moral support to the Zionist cause and encourage the settlement of large numbers of Jewish refugees in the Jewish National Home. When fully organized, the Committee will include many leaders in every walk of American life, public and private. Twenty- six members of the Senate, including the Majority and Minority Leaders, have already signified their approval and adherence. We would be happy to have you join in this important undertaking, by adding your signature to those appended to the memorandum and returning it to my office at your earliest opportunity.

Senator Robert F. Wagner to W.J. Bulow, 2/5/41, in Folder 10, Box 1, PA Series, Robert F. Wagner Papers ===============================

Replying to yours of the 20th, you are doing a great work in endeavoring to keep up the morale of the Jewish refugees and also in your endeavor to unify the efforts of the American Jews for the proper care of their brethren in distress. I congratulate you on it most highly. In doing this extra war work however, remember that the main effort is now for the United States to win the war as quickly as possible. Senator Harry S. Truman to William Rosenwald, 4/24/42, in “Jews,” Box 71, S/V Files, Harry S. Truman Papers =============================== I am sure that everything that can be done is being done to relieve this shocking situation by providing the means for these people to go to places of refuge. However, as you will readily realize, with most of the world at war it is a very difficult thing to accomplish, and the results, as compared with the need, are pitifully small. Senator Harry S. Truman to M/M Arthur Karbank, 3/4/43, in “Jews,” Box 71, S/V Files, Harry S. Truman Papers =============================== The receipt is acknowledged fo your letter of March 3rd, 1943 enclosing a telegram in regard to the possibility of immediate action by this country which would enable Jews to leave occupied Europe. The unhappy plight of these unfortunate people has received and is receiving the earnest and sympathetic attention of the American Government. I assure you that all possible measures to alleviate their condition are being given full consideration. Naturally such measures must be considered in the light of their relation ot the war and what is possible in the war situation. Assistance is now being

extended by various agencies to those refugees who have managed to escape from occupied Europe to neutral countries. The problems presented in connection with any proposal to rescue those still in countries under German control remain to be solved. It is apparent that the known attitude of the German Government makes any completely satisfactory solution of these problems under war conditions virtually impossible. It is noted that the telegram refers to the reported offer of the Rumanian Government to permit the departure, upon certain conditions, of seventy thousand Jewish people. This story is without foundation. It originated from an unofficial non-Rumanian resident of Bucharest who was visiting Istanbul. The probable actual source is the German propaganda machine which is always ready to use the miseries of the people of occupied Europe in order to attempt to create confusion and doubt within the United Nations. There is enclosed a copy of a press release issued by the Department of State on March 3, 1943 which sets forth the measures taken by the Government of the United States in order to relieve the distress of the people of occupied Europe. Sumner Welles to Senator Robert F. Wagner, 3/10/43, in Folder 23, Box 2, PA Series, Robert F. Wagner Papers =============================== There was another reason for my hesitation [in signing the American Palestine Committee resolution]. I have approved of the American adherence to the Balfour Declaration and, although this action was taken before I was a Congressman, I have publicly joined the reaffirmations of that policy since I was in Congress. I have always considered the failure of the British to carry out the Balfour Declaration as a shameful part of their history. On the other

hand, I have doubted the wisdom of rubbing this in, when we are trying to get together to work with the British and fight a victorious war, and I felt that emphasizing the National Jewish Home idea at this time would encourage Anti-Semitism in this country and elsewhere. These are the reasons for my hesitation in approving the recent public declaration. This hesitation has been overcome, however, by prominent Jewish friends of mine, some of them not Zionists, who feel a reaffirmation of this policy at this time will do enough good to overbalance the harmful effects I have mentioned. In the years that lie ahead, it is going to be increasingly difficult for any racial or religious group to demand special international treatment as a separate group, and at the same time demand full acceptance of its people as Nationals in other countries. The world has suffered terribly because of Germans, Japanese and communists, who claimed the full rights of citizenship in other countries, and at the same time maintained their allegiance to their “home land.” I do not wish to be a part of any movement which will encourage this feeling among Jews. It is with the understanding that the American Palestine Committee has no such purpose in mind that I continue as a member, and place my name on the recent declaration. John M. Vorys (MC-Ohio) to American Palestine Committee, 1/18/43, in Folder 23, Box 2, PA Series, Robert F. Wagner Papers ===============================

Appreciate very much your ltr of the 7th, and I am familiar with the resolution to which you referred. It is one which affects the foreign relations program between Great Britain, the United States, and the Middle East. My sympathy of course is with the Jewish people, but I am of the opinion a resolution such as this should be very circumspectly handled until we know just exactly where we are going and why. With the difficulty looming up between Russia and Poland, and the Balkan States and Russia, and with Great Britain and Russia absolutely necessary to us in financing the war I don’t want to throw any bricks to upset the apple cart, although when the right time comes I am willing to help make the fight for a jewish homeland in Palestine. Senator Harry S. Truman to A.M. Levin, 2/16/44, in “Jews,” Box 71, S/V Files, Harry S. Truman Papers =============================== As Americans and members of the Jewish community of St. Louis we urge you to support resolution #247, presented to the Senate of the United States by the Honorable Senators Robert F. Wagner and Robert A. Taft, calling for unlimited Jewish immigration into Palestine and for the ultimate establishment of a Jewish commonwealth there. We are vitally interested in the passage of this resolution because it will afford an opportunity for thousands of homeless and destitute Jews to establish a free and happy life for themselves and their families and will also make it possible for millions of homeless and stateless Jews to form a commonwealth in Palestine and take their proper place among the family of nations.

A.M. Levin to Senator Harry S. Truman, 2/7/44, in “Jews,” Box 71, S/V Files, Harry S. Truman Papers =============================== I have your telegram of February 4th urging my support of House Resolution 418 favoring the establishment of permanent homeland for Jewish people in Palestine. I assure you that if this resolution is reported out by the committee having jurisdiction over it and comes up for consideration on the floor of the House I shall be glad to give it very careful study and to remember your endorsement of it. Rep. John J. Sparkman to J.W. Morgan, February 5, 1944, in “Jews,” Box 38, John J. Sparkman Papers =============================== I am in complete sympathy with the objectives which the Jews seek to accomplish in the establishment of a homeland in Palestine. It must be remembered, however, that the British government has the mandate there from the League of Nations. Any change in the policy enunciated in the British White Paper must come from that government. The U.S. Constitution gives primary responsibility for the conduct of our relations with foreign governments to the Executive. I shall be glad to give support to S. Res. 247, providing that the Secretary of State and the Secretary of War approve its passage and assure the Foreign Relations Committee that adoption of the resolution will not endanger our military operations. Senator Robert M. La Follette Jr. to Ruth Adams, February 18, 1944, in “S. Res. 247, Wagner Resolution, Jews,” Box C309, Robert M. La Follette Jr. Papers, Manuscript

Division, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. =============================== In the event you do not already have the information, I am writing to tell you that on Monday of this week, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee decided to postpone this resolution indefinitely. I was against the Committee’s action and am sorry to have to give you this information. However, I thought you would like to know what happened. Robert M. La Follette Jr. to Nathan I. Biller, December 13, 1944, in “Jews—Wagner Resolution, S. Res. 247,” Box C309, Robert M. La Follette Jr. Papers, Manuscript Division, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. =============================== During the past six years our country has been imperiled as never before through vicious assault by the concentrated forces of tyranny, hatred and intolerance. I have exerted my every energy to fight these forces of evil. I have actively supported every measure to prepare, strengthen and defend our country. I am convinced that the most pressing problem now facing civilization is to prevent future wars—that all mankind may realize its right to an everlasting peace. My reelection to the United States Senate will give me the opportunity to continue my fight for these humanitarian objectives. Senator Scott W. Lucas to Dear Friend, October 31, 1944, in “Jewish Letter,” Box 93, Scott W. Lucas Papers, Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library, Springfield, Illinois.

=============================== In view of the discussions of world organization which are now going on, and the early determination of boundary lines and the status of various peoples and nations throughout the world, it is highly important that the objectives of the traditional American policy on the question of Palestine be realized. We are, therefore, signing a letter to be sent to the President of the United States form members of the House of Representatives, setting forth our convictions on the question of Palestine. Promises that have been made to the Jewish people must, in all fairness, be kept, especially in view of the tragedy that has befallen the Jews in Europe. Those who remain must be given an opportunity for rehabilitation of their own lives, and have guaranteed the ultimate security of their people by opening Palestine to Jewish immigration so as to pave the way for the establishment of a free and democratic Jewish Commonwealth. The sentiment of the House ahs been overwhelmingly expressed in the past, but we feel that reiteration at this time of crisis is both urgent and necessary. Will you join us in this appeal to the President to take immediate effective action? Reps. John W. McCormack and Joseph W. Martin Jr. to My Dear Colleague, n.d., in Folder 2, Box 1, PA Series, Robert F. Wagner Papers =============================== A Hitler edict has pledged the destruction of all the Jews of Europe. About two millions have already been wantonly slaughtered. The voice of conscience and humanity calls to leaders of American public opinion to express their sympathy in practical terms; to assure the Jews of Europe still living that the

hope of re-creating their lives in a free, democratic Jewish National Home will be realized with our support. . . . [T]he resettlement of the Jews in Palestine is no longer a doubtful experiment but a convincing reality. The Jewish National Home has made a truly inspiring record in peacetime pioneering and development, in saving hundreds of thousands of refugees from Nazi terror, and in contributing valuable manpower and economic support to the United Nations’ war effort. . . . [T]he need for the Jewish National Home—for many hundreds of thousands, indeed millions, of uprooted Jews—will be far more pressing on the termination of the present war than at any previous time. Wagner letter of invitation to join American Palestine Committee, n.d., in Folder 2, Box 1, PA Series, Robert F. Wagner Papers =============================== The American Christian Palestine Committee, expressing wide spread Christian conviction, believes that every effort must be made now to fulfill the international promises made to the Jews concerning their national homeland in Palestine. The Nazi regime in the course of its monstrous campaign of systematic murder and torture has almost annihilated the Jewish communities of Europe and for millions of Jews, the end of the war in Europe comes too late. Horrible disclosures concerning the Buchenwald and other prison and concentration camps has shocked the civilized world. Hitler waged his war against the helpless Jews of Europe with a barbarity and determination which we in this country have just begun fully to realize. Now we must do all we can to insure justice to the remnant of European Jewry and make impossible a repetition of this tragedy. Therefore, we are asking the members of

Congress to sign the enclosed letter to President Truman as a current reiteration of our traditional national policy. The party platforms of both Republicans and Democrats affirm their support of the opening of Palestine to unrestricted Jewish immigration and colonization so that in accordance with the full intent and purpose of the Balfour Declaration, Palestine may be constituted as a free and democratic Jewish Commonwealth. Thirty-three states representing 80% of the population of the United States have, through their respective state legislatures approved this policy. The majority of the membership of the Senate and House of Representatives has already gone on record as favoring these objectives. Helen Gahagan Douglas, Howard M. LeSourd, and Carl Hermann Voss (all with the American Christian Palestine Committee) to Members of Congress, n.d., in Folder 3, Box 1, PA Series, Robert F. Wagner Papers ===============================

The attempt to distinguish between “Jews” and “Zionists” made this week by Foreign Secretary Edward Bevins is now authoritatively proven to have been wholly without foundation. A survey by Elmo Roper reveals that 89.75 percent of the American Jews to have an opinion on the subject are united behind the Zionist Program and it is reasonable to believe that the unity is even greater abroad. This fact was determined in a survey of American Jewish opinion conducted among American Jews in City and Country from Coast to Coast, by Mr. Roper for the Hausman Foundation of New York City, a private charitable foundation, in no way connected or affiliated with any other organization. The survey revelations were as follows: For a Jewish state—80.1 percent; Against a Jewish state—10.5 percent; Undecided—9.4 percent. Particularly significant is Mr. Roper’s statement that the decision for or against a Jewish State in Palestine seems to be taken with a high degree of firmness. 77 percent of those who answered had already made up their minds and only 9.4 percent of those interviewed were undecided on the issue. “This shows,” Mr. Roper said [“]that American Jews are aware of the issue and that most of them have made their decision. The survey also includes the significant revelation that the percentage of people in the upper economic brackets are high among Anti-Palestine voters while Pro-Palestine voters are nearly evenly distributed through all economic levels.” Mr. Roper however, points out that “the difference mentioned seemed satisfactory and unimportant in views of the overwhelming majority of pro- Palestine feeling throughout all groups of American Jewry.” An impressive and unusual fact is revealed by the breakdown into geographic areas of Jewish communities, sec, age and economic status. Mr. Roper points out that the proportion of

pro-Palestine and undecided voters remains unchanged throughout all breakdowns. Joint Statement by Senators Robert F. Wagner of New York and Robert A. Taft of Ohio on a Survey made by Elmo Roper of the American Jewish Opinion on a Jewish state in Palestine. [late 1945], in Folder 30, Box 2, PA Series, Robert F. Wagner Papers =============================== The American Christian Palestine Committee is requesting the Senators to sign a letter to President Truman, in which it is urged that immediate steps be taken to open Palestine to Jewish immigration and pave the way for a democratic Jewish Commonwealth. We have considered the reintroduction of the resolution, which we offered in 1943 and 1944, but we have decided that a letter of this kind to the President is better at this time. In the war in Europe, which has happily come to a close, the United Nations had no more vigorous and sacrificing Allies, in proportion to their numbers, than the Jews of Palestine. They gave their lives and their wealth to further the war against Hitler. Now that the peace is in the making, it appears that the Jew again may be made a football of power politics, but this, in the interests of the welfare and freedom of mankind, must not continue. Palestine as a homeland has been promised to the Jews, and they need and deserve it now. We feel that this subject should be brought as forcefully as possible to the attention of the President, and urge our colleagues to sign this joint letter. Senators Robert F. Wagner and Robert A. Taft to Dear Senator, 5/18/45, in Folder 31, Box 2, PA Series, Robert F. Wagner Papers ===============================

I have your letter of December sixth with respect to Senate Joint Resolution No. 112. I believe that the appointment of the Commission will serve a useful purpose, although I do not intend to decrease my efforts to get some additional Jews into Palestine in the meantime. I think that any resolution by the Congress would be more effective after the Commission has made its study. President Harry S. Truman to Senator Robert F. Wagner, 12/10/45, in Folder 32, Box 2, PA Series, Robert F. Wagner Papers =============================== I note the change in the resolution as you have now introduced it and I feel that the change greatly enhances the possibility for favorable action. Referring again to Resolution No. 37 of which I have written to you, I am very anxious that there be Congressional expression along the lines sought in your resolution and that of Senators Tobey and Myers. There are two sentences in the Tobey resolution that I feel would be improved by amendment, and there is a strong feeling on my part that your resolution does not go far enough in that there is no suggestion for immediate action to bridge the clear interim period of suspended authority between the dissolution of the League of Nations and the perfecting of the machinery of a trusteeship system under the United Nations Charter. Because of the fact that these resolutions seek the same objective, I am hopeful that from the tow can come a resolution which is clear in its purpose and comprehensive enough to meet the need. I do not believe that any of the sponsors have pride of authorship to the extent that it should impede the approval of a resolution. I feel that you know me well enough so that you will not consider it presumption on my part when I state that if

I can be of any help in the formulating of the language or factual presentation in connection with the need, I am available at any time. Guy M. Gillette to Robert F. Wagner, November 1, 1945, in Folder 32, Box 2, PA Series, Robert F. Wagner Papers =============================== I am elated that the Committee has recommended admission to Palestine of 100,000 displaced Jews of Europe, as soon as possible, and has repudiated certain key principles of the British White Paper of 1939 concerning Jewish immigration and land purchase. These advances, though delayed far too long, will ameliorate the tragic plight of the Jewish people in Europe to the extent that they are carried out promptly and with firmness. I am grievously disappointed, however, in the Committee’s long-range recommendations as to the political future of Palestine. These latter recommendations appear completely at variance with the overwhelmingly American sentiment for a Jewish Commonwealth in Palestine, as envisaged in the Balfour Declaration and in the Mandate for Palestine, and reaffirmed in two Congressional resolutions, the second adopted as recently as last December. I cannot believe that the American Government and people will acquiesce in such a flagrant disregard of traditional American, democratic and humanitarian policy, long supported by international law and world opinion. Statement of Senator Robert F. Wagner on Report of Anglo-American Committee of Inquiry, April 30, 1946, in Folder 42, Box 3, PA Series, Robert F. Wagner Papers ===============================

Would you be willing to join with me in a visit to President Truman to indicate to him the strength of public opinion in New York State in favor of immediately carrying out his recommendation endorsed also by the Anglo-American Committee of Inquiry on Palestine, to permit entrance into Palestine of 100,000 displaced Jews? I am writing similarly to each member of the New York State Delegation. The delegation from the State of New Jersey recently visited with the President with the same end in view. [Wagner indicated he would go] Rep. Emanuel Celler to Senator Robert F. Wagner, June 3, 1946, in Folder 43, Box 3, PA Series, Robert F. Wagner Papers ===============================

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