◆ SpookStack

..- Right wing... 18 Yes. I don’t believe it, That guy's all right. ‘Rushinsky. ... FBI.... Rushinsky. ... FBI.... Here, Mr. Jackson, I’ve picked out the best ten men in the plant. I had to take three out of ulcérite, though it’s hard to spare them. Rushinsky . . . Jim, I’ve been intending to speak to you about him. There's a lot of talk going around, The FBI cleared him. Yes, but cleared him of what? We ' don’t even know. They must have had some reason for being suspicious. Where does he stand in the union? Suppose he was planted. Isn’t that just where he would go? I know. I had a little hesitancy about this transfer. Then don’t make it. The Duodenal Corporation of ‘America can’t afford to take chances on national security, - Is Product X any more secret than ulcerite? ; That's just what I was coming to. If we can’t trust a man enough to transfer him, we can’t trust him where he is. I want you to get rid of Rushin- sky. Not for disloyalty, of course. And give him a good letter. We don’t want to hurt him, - Sorry, Mr. Rushinsky, no openings. Sorry, Rushinsky, you don’t quite fit our needs, - .. Yes, they say you're a good man. But why-did they let you out? . To put it plainly, Rushinsky, Old "Man Jackson wouldn't fire a competent man unless he had some teason. Did the FBI ever investigate you? Sorry, Rushinsky. Sorry, Rushinsky. Come right in, Mr. Rushinsky. .. . Just fill out this application while I fix up your card... . Ivan Rushinsky, born in Brooklyn, son ef Ivan Rushin- sky; born in Brooklyn, and Maggie O'Doyle, born in Australia... . Here's your card, Comrade Rushinsky. You can go right to work, va . "NEW REPUBLIC SLOWLY CRUMBLING LEVEES | Facing currents set up by the New Deal and the war, the Old South uses old fears and the “cold war” fo fight civil rights for Negroes Tiovcnout THE SOUTH today, in every background, the emergence of a large class of serious-looking, neatly dressed, intelligent Negroes has be- come increasingly apparent. Southern Negroes have eaten better food and lived a freer life during the wat. A whole generation of Negro children has grown up in improved economic ciscumstances, The slovenly dress that not so many years back was the frequent result of wages of $2.50 or $3 a week for a woman cook, $1 a day for a laborer, has become a rare sight in the places where the average Southern white person sees the average Southern Negro. - The familiar rags and hand-me- downs, the scuffed, unlaced ‘shoes, the improvised hats—these and many other significant details have largely vanished from the scene. The flagrant gaps between the races in matters of dress, health, social attitudes and eco- nomic opportunity have somewhat nar- towed, During the war many whites were frightened by this growing economic emancipation, and they managed to convince themselves that it was some sort of spontaneous Negro upheaval. But now that the war is over, the aver- age white person, it seems.to me, un- consciously approves the results. At the same time, the old, popular assump-' tions about Negro inferiority have less evidence to rest on. And as a conse- quence, I believe that Southern whites, if left to their individual thinking and initiative, would accept without much excitement the extension of the rights of American citizenship to Negroes. Yet no group that holds great po- litical and economic advantages is tnt A Southerner by birth, Thomas Saneton, for- mer AP staff member, Nieman Fellow and New Republic editor, is now living in Missis- sippi. likely ta sit by doing nothing while fundamental reforms are worked which are certain to challenge their control. The Southern influential classes are brilliant and ruthless at this business, and they have a repertory of methods that have been perfected through acen- - tury of intensive use. Their achievement in maintaining their position genera- tion after generation_is something of a political miracle. Eighty-five years after the Emancipation Proclamation, for example, Southern Negroes have still to achieve all of the basic political and economic rights, except release from actual slavery. Today the Southern _. leadership has set itself the task of trying to turn back the clock on: the Negro’s wartime and New Deal de- velopment, ~~ The dead past. What is missing in Southern thinking generally—and per- haps it is missing in thinking all over the world—is an awareness of the ex- traordinary naturé of the age we live in. It is: possible today to discover in speeches in Southern legislatures, ot even on the floor of Congress, basic ideas about race, economics, education, _ law courts, penology, etc., that can be found almost word for word in the speeches of John C. Calhoun and other politicians who fought out these primi- tive battles of American politics a hun- dred years ago. In the current session of the Missis- sippi legislature, for. example, a bill to tevise a 140-yeat-old blue law in order to permit movies to be shown on Sun- days between one and six in the after- noon was defeated. Not long ago a: bill to ‘abolish the lash in the state penitentiary was defeated. The lash statute describes. in detail how a pris- oner is to be whipped—laid over a table in such and such a manner, whipped with a six-foot strap of such by Thomas Sancion -7 ETT ofr fe i H . “ . TPT Re eee enema ty ANT Naren snare pre arenes MOL Lon Rt mest Ry SR, TR plage