AMERICA TODAY MR RUSK’S DAUGHTER AND THE TAXI-DRIVERS

Press, Volume CVII, Issue 31500, 14 October 1967, Page 12

AMERICA TODAY MR RUSK’S DAUGHTER AND THE TAXI-DRIVERS

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Joe Roglay,

U.S. Editor of The “Financial Timei," London.)

l*»V jut ni/juif, v vj irir rinunciui nmei, LaOnOOn.J [Reprinted from the “Financial Timea," by arrangement.) Nothing is easier than to say what is wrong in America today. The Congress, the city slums, and the war are all apparently running out of the President’s control. It is not so easy, although no less important, to define one of the most hopeful aspects of contemporary American society: the attitude of its leaders towards the Negroes.

The most dramatie recent Illustration of this was the marriage of the daughter oi tiie Secretary of State, Mi Dean Rusk, to a Negro, Mi Guy Smith. “What a ting tc do to her fadder,” thos« mirrors of society, the New York taxi drivers, were say Ing, "My goil would never de a ting like dat” Calm At The Top

Yet at the very top of society, where Mr Rusk sits, the news was received with calm and, on the part of the father of the bride, no little dignity. A widely reported offer to President Johnson to resign should the marriage prove politically embarrassing was noted by Bast Coast Is. “How can we attack him for Vietnam now when we have seen his attitude on race?” they asked. Like everyone. else, the liberals have recognised that the worst taboo of racial mythology-'has been broken: He did indeed allow hie daughter to marry one.' ' Nor te the Rusk marriage the only example. Just a few weeks ago Mr Thurgood Marshall, formerly the leading counsel for the National Association for the Advancement of the Coloured People, became an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court when the Senate confirmed his appointment by President Johnson. The Supreme Court te one of the pinnacles of public service in the United States. There have been only 100 men on its bench in all its history. Nine-tenths of these have been the descendants of settlers born in the British Isles. Some of the southern European ethnic groups have yet to see one of their own on the Supreme bench. It te not always easy for non-Americans to appreciate the status of the Supreme Court. It te the guardian and moulder of the Constitution. Only one American has been both President and Chief Justice of the United States (though not simultaneously): William Howard Taft Mr Taft held the Chief Justiceship to be the higher honour. Folklore Of Politics Appointments to the Supreme Court are peculiarly in the gift of the President and, by long tradition, the choices have been very personal to 'him. It is part of the folklore of politics in the United States that you can tell more about a President’s real beliefs and principles by his Supreme Court appointment* than by any of his other actions. On this test Mr Johnson has done remarkably well to appoint Mr Marshall. But the President’s appointments outside the Supreme Court have also shown him to be, in this respect at least, a most liberal President of the United States. Some weeks ago he announced the appointment of Mr Walter E. Washington as the first Negro “mayor” of the capital. The word "mayor” is the title conferred by the President but in fact it is incorrect, since Mr Washington will not have the considerable powers exercised by elected msyors In most large American cities. Instead he will. be Commissioner of a city whose governors are Presidential appointees, not elected representatives, and whose finances are still tightly and directly controlled by Congress. Mr Johnson has been able to change this situation, but only a little. The majority of Washington's residents are Negroes, and Congress has consistently refused the city self-government But Mr Johnson managed to arrange the passage of a tidying-up law that will give Mr

Washington more scope for the exercise of responsibility than his white predecessors. Last Thursday he went further. He named a majority of Negroes to sit on the newly appointed city council for Washington. Thus the capital city of the United States te officially managed by Negroes—provided only that the Senate confirms Mr Johnson's appointments.

Pressure On Landlords AU these actions could be dismissed as what the militant Negroes call "tokenism” —a single appointment here, and another there do not make a revolution in society. But the campaign by the Defence Secretary, Mr Robert McNamara,' to force landlords within a given distance of military bases to open their housing to Negro servicemen is not tokenism, nor are the frequent renewals of departmental efforts to tie government contracts to Negro employment rates. These all remain, however, mere hopeful signs. The millenium has not arrived simply because of Miss Rusk’s marriage or Mr Washington’s new job. The decay of the city centre slums will take more than a decade to repair and more than a Vietnam war budget to meet the cost. Even mdre frustratingly, the necessary improvement in the quality of Negro education (where rural and alum children are taught by poorly qualified black or racially biased white teachers) will take years to accomplish. And when all is done the result will only be to give Negroes an equal start, not to guarantee that white neighbours will welcome them with open arms or that the nature of society will suddenly be transformed. No Strong Voice These depressing facts remain true. It is also still true that in this summer of riots and looting no strong voice of leadership has come forth, least of all from Mr Johnson. There 1s no denying that the prosecution of the war In South-East Asia is sapping the drive and energy required for meeting the social upheaval at home. Such things must be recognised as, indeed, they are every day. But It la unfair, as well as unhelpful, not to recognise that fundamentally the

American establishment is sympathetic to Negro aspirations. The examples given here are not isolated: most of the big names at the top are demonstrably on the side of progress for black Americans. This is more than a straw to cling to.