Republicans Want Action By Congress On Rioting

Press, Volume CVII, Issue 31440, 5 August 1967, Page 15

Republicans Want Action By Congress On Rioting

(N.Z.P.A.-Reuter—Copyright) WASHINGTON, August 4. Republican leaders in Congress said yesterday that a state of near anarchy existed in the United States and called for swift and decisive punishment of those inciting rioting, burning, pillaging and murder.

There could be no compromise with crime and no reward for those who rioted and destroyed, said the Senate Republican leader, Senator Everett Dicksen, in a statement supported by the House Republican leader, Mr Gerald Ford.

Senator Dirksen said President Johnson’s creation of a Riot Investigation Commission was not nearly enough. Congress must act promptly to determine the causes and provide the solutions, he said. Neither Republican leader personally criticised President Johnson, but Mr Ford said he believed there was an element of politics in the way the Administration had handled the Detroit riots. Johnson’s Defence

Meanwhile, President Johnson yesterday rejected charges by the Michigan Governor, Mr George Romney, a Republican, that he played politics with the Detroit riots last week.

Speaking to reporters, President Johnson defended his decision to pause and gather all the facts before ordering 4800 Federal paratroops to the ravaged city on July 24. President Johnson said the Constitution made it clear that the nation’s founding fathers did not want a President to start throwing troops all round the country. City-wide curfews were enforced again yesterday in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and Providence, Rhode Island, the country’s two latest major racial trouble spots. The riot toll in Milwaukee after four nights of sniping, looting and arson, stood at four dead, 100 injured, 541 arrested and an estimated $200,000 damage. Some authorities feared a long spell of racial trouble because of disputes between civil rights leaders and city officials on how to meet Negro complaints. A major grievance of the Negroes is that many trade union jobs are closed to them. Youth Shot

The latest riot victim was an 18-year-old youth shot to death by police on Wednesday night after allegedly looting a store.

In Providence, a 9 p.m. to 6 a.m. curfew, designed to

keep Negro and white youths off the streets, remained in force again last night after relative quiet on Wednesday night. A second successive night of violence hit the predominantly Negro community of Wyandanch, Long Island, 35 miles from New York City, as gangs of youths threw stones and bottles at police and set cars on fire.

In Detroit, Michigan, Governor Romney spoke optimis-

tically about withdrawing all 7000 National Guardsmen from the city by early next week if peace continued to prevail. The last of nearly 5000 Federal troops used during the riot left Detroit on Wednesday after law and order was declared restored. The week-long Detroit riots, which started on July 23, resulted in 41 deaths and $5OO million damage. In Detroit yesterday, prom-

ising that “the rule of the jungle will not prevail,” the United States Vice-President, Mr Hubert Humphrey, said that America must be willing to pay the price for a “Marshall Plan” for its impoverished rural and urban areas, United Press International reported. He proposed that all 50 states should consider the formation of councils for civil peace at state and metropolitan levels to "prevent violence, to gain community cooperation and hear the voices of those who have gone unheard.” He said he believed the nation would “make it through” the city riot crisis in which, he stressed, the American dream was being tested while the whole world watched.