A Shade of Difference (83 page)

“We haven’t been able to find anyone who’s willing to support you in a filibuster, Senator,” the
Los Angeles
Times
told him. “How about that?”

“How about it? I’ll tell you how about it. Not everybody blabs his intentions to you fellows, that’s how about it. I expect I won’t be the only one talking before we’re through. No, sir, I expect I won’t. Others will be talking, too.”

“Filibustering, Senator?” asked the UPI in a tone of noticeable skepticism.

“They’ll be talking,” Seab Cooley said.

“Actually, Senator,” the
St. Louis Post-Dispatch
informed him. “We don’t think anybody’s going to help you. We think you’re going to get licked and licked badly. It just doesn’t seem to add up to anything else. What’s your comment on that?”

“Young man,” Senator Cooley said, “before you were born, people were counting Seabright B. Cooley out, and he wasn’t out. Yes, sir, they were counting him out and he wasn’t out. So maybe you all are counting him out too soon again. Could be.”

“Could be, Senator,” the P.-D. agreed as the warning bell rang at twelve noon and the Senate prepared to convene. “And again, could not.”

And they turned and hurried off the floor, nodding and joking to one another, their hostility a palpable force he could feel as he stared out upon the chamber and rapped his gavel with a peremptory emphasis to open the session. They didn’t like him and he didn’t like them; and while it was far too late now ever to do anything about it, the weight of their mutual dislike did not make his task easier. The thought crossed his mind, as the Rev. Carney Birch snuffled through his wordy prayer, that life might have been easier had he not fought so hard over the years for the things he believed in. But had he not done so, of course, he would not have been Seab Cooley.

“Mr. President,” Bob Munson said as Carney finished and Senate and galleries settled down to an attentive quiet, “I move that the reading of the
Journal
of yesterday’s proceedings be dispensed with.”

“Without objection, so ordered,” Senator Cooley said. “The morning hour is now in order, and Senators may make such statements or insertions in the Congressional Record as they please, subject to the five-minute rule prevailing during this period.”

“Now, why do you suppose Seab didn’t have somebody demand that the journal be read?” the
Boston
Globe
asked the Louisville
Courier-Journal
in the Press Gallery above. “I
mean, that’s one good way to start a filibuster—”

“Maybe he isn’t going to filibuster,” the
Courier-Journal
said. “It would be just like the old scamp to fool us all.”

“He’s got to filibuster, or be licked,” the Charleston, South Carolina,
News and Courier
pointed out.

“That
would be a tragedy,” the
Dallas
News
remarked, and they all, except the Charleston
News and Courier,
laughed.

“Mr. President,” said Arly Richardson, on his feet with a New York
Times
editorial critical of the rivers and harbors bill with its appropriation for six dams in his state of Arkansas. The “morning hour” was under way.

An hour and forty-seven minutes later, the morning hour having been completed with only seven violations of the five-minute rule—Powell Hanson, speaking seventeen minutes on the need for more grain storage elevators in North Dakota, was the worst offender—Tom August rose and sought recognition from the Chair. It was now occupied by Murfee Andrews of Kentucky, to whom Seab had turned over the gavel half an hour after convening in order that he might resume his regular seat beside the Majority Leader. A silence settled over the galleries. On the floor, crowded with Senators who had hurried through lunch in order to return and be present for this moment, an extra edge of tension could be sensed in the murmured conversations, the behind-the-hand whisperings and over-the-desk exchanges as Senator August began, in his querulous, uncertain way, to call up H. J. Res. 23.

“Mr. President, I believe most Senators are familiar with the gist of this resolution, which was passed by the House yesterday. It apologizes to a distinguished visitor to this country, a leader of Africa who unfortunately got involved in a local controversy in one of our southern states—”

“Mr. President,” Senator Cooley said ominously, “will the distinguished chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee yield? The Senator knows perfectly well that this black busybody injected himself deliberately into our school problems in South Carolina, does he not? No one asked the Emboohoo of Embewley to get involved, Mr. President. He involved himself.”

“In any event, Mr. President,” Tom August said nervously, “the fact remains that the M’Bulu of Mbuele was involved, with consequences, widely publicized, that we all know about. This episode, plus other—er—unfortunate aspects of his visit to this country, caused great criticism and hostility toward the United States at the United Nations, where our policy is based upon friendly relations with the so-called uncommitted nations.” (“So-called is right,” Johnny DeWilton of Vermont whispered to Blair Sykes of Texas, who laughed.) “Senators are aware that a resolution is pending before the General Assembly, offered by the Ambassador of Panama, to give immediate independence to the M’Bulu’s country of Gorotoland. This resolution now has attached to it an amendment demanding a United Nations investigation of racial practices in the United States, carrying with it the threat of expulsion of the United States from the United Nations if those practices are not changed. Several days ago the General Assembly voted a one-week delay in consideration of that proposition, on the plea offered by a member of our UN delegation, the Honorable Cullee Hamilton, Congressman from California, that the Congress would pass his resolution here present.

“This resolution, as the Senate is aware, carries with it not only suitable indemnities to the M’Bulu and his country for any indignities he may have suffered but also a pledge by the Congress that the United States will move with increased speed to assure equal treatment to her Negro citizens.

“That, in essence, is the issue here. The resolution was passed by the House yesterday by a vote of 219 to 214. It was approved by the Foreign Relations Committee of the Senate this morning by a vote of 8 to 4. The rule states that such a resolution must lie over a day before it can be brought up for debate, but, Mr. President, because it is very late in the session and Senators are anxious to adjourn and return to their homes, and because of the vital nature of this issue (“And because of the General Assembly’s one-week ultimatum,” the
Detroit
News and Times
said dryly in the Press Gallery above) I now ask unanimous consent that the rules be suspended to permit immediate consideration of H. J. Res. 23.”

There was a whispering and a stirring over the floor as he concluded, and into it the senior Senator from Massachusetts, John Able Winthrop, rose and spoke in his dry, clipped way.

“Mr. President, reserving the right to object, I should like to comment briefly on what the distinguished Senator from Minnesota has just said. I am one of the four who voted against this resolution in committee this morning, because I do not believe in the United States humbling herself in the pursuit of some willful will-o’-the-wisp known as world opinion. I do not think this resolution will secure that opinion; nor do I think it will for one minute slow down those whose consistent policy is to besmirch and attack this country.

“It seems to me we can give goodies to the M’Bulu of Mbuele through other channels of the government, if we feel he must have them, and as for what we do for our own Negroes, that is our business, I submit to the Senate. I am proud of our record in recent decades and I think it is going forward with ever-increasing speed. I don’t think we should put ourselves in the position of being pressured into a phony position just to appease the United Nations.”

“It isn’t appeasing the United Nations, Mr. President,” Tom August said doggedly; “it is a matter of showing respect for world opinion—”

“I’ll show respect for world opinion when world opinion shows itself worthy of respect and not before, I will say to my distinguished chairman. In any event, I don’t see why we should rush this along, even if Senators are weary and worn and ready to take off for the boondocks. We can stay another twenty-four hours, if that’s the regular order. I object to the unanimous consent request to suspend the rules, Mr. President.”

“Mr. President,” Bob Munson said, “I
move
that the rules be suspended and the Senate begin immediate consideration of H. J. Res. 23.”

There was an immediate show of hands across the floor, and Murfee Andrews in the Chair said, “Evidently a sufficient number agree. The Clerk will call the roll.”

“And still no big fireworks from Seab,” the
Denver
Post
said in a puzzled voice. “Don’t tell me there isn’t going to be any fight.”

“Maybe saving his strength for the main issue,” the New Orleans
Times-Picayune
suggested.

Whatever it was, there came no sign of protest save a loud “No!” from the President Pro Tempore as the clerk called the roll and the Senate voted 49-46 (“Too damned close,” Bob Munson murmured to Stanley Danta of Connecticut, the Majority Whip, and Stanley nodded) to suspend the rules and begin immediate consideration of the Hamilton Resolution.

The vote concluded and duly announced by the Chair, now occupied by Verne Cramer of South Dakota so that Murfee Andrew could go out in the ornate Reception Room and receive a group of constituents from Kentucky, the tension abruptly heightened. It was observed that the First Lady had come into the Family Gallery, accompanied by the wife of the Secretary of State, the wife of the Majority Leader, the British Ambassadress, and the French Ambassadress; in the Diplomatic Gallery, wearing her usual brightly flowered dress and floppy hat, the Ambassadress of Panama came in alone and took a seat in the front row. There were immediate gesturings and beckonings and silently mouthed commands, and after a moment Patsy Labaiya left her seat in the Diplomatic Gallery and went around to join the Presidential group in the front row of the Family Gallery. Many little smiles and waves and intimate signs of greeting were tossed back and forth between its members and various members of the Senate, and in the public galleries tourists and other visitors were suitably thrilled by this atmosphere of Very Important Friends foregathered for a Very Important Occasion. The Majority Leader secured the floor and began to speak in measured and thoughtful tones.

“Mr. President, I find myself in what is possibly a rather unique position as regards this resolution, in that I am for it for what many of its friends would probably consider the wrong reasons. Thus, Mr. President, I am not for it because I think the United States owes any apologies to one whose credentials are not of the best, either as a friend to this country or as a genuine friend to liberty in his native continent. I think I probably find myself in full agreement with the Senator from South Carolina concerning the episodes that have prompted all this furor.

“I also am not prepared to humble the United States or myself before a world opinion which in the first place is amorphous and indefinable, and in the second has shown itself in recent years capricious, arbitrary, and unfair in its judgments of this country and of many others whose principal crime seems to be the possession of white skin.

“I do not think white skin is automatically evil, Mr. President, any more than I think black skin is automatically noble. White skin has its errors to answer for to history, and black skin is rapidly building up a matching list of its own to keep white skin company. If we are to start matching error for error, I do not think that much of the past imperialism of the white race is any worse than the present irresponsible misuse of newfound freedom by much of the black race. Human nature is not improved automatically by a switch in pigmentation from one controlling group to another, Mr. President; it is improved by standards of education and integrity and forbearance and human decency, which many of these newly independent peoples do not yet have. Until they do, it would more become them, as they joyfully murder and mistreat one another, to keep silent about the shortcomings of the white man. In any event, I do not think the white man should apologize unduly for what he has done in the past, when in the overwhelming portion of the former colonial areas he is doing his best to make amends and assist in bringing a freedom perhaps too big for many of its recipients to handle.”

“Well, well,” the New York
Daily News
murmured to the Seattle
Times.
“Our friend doesn’t sound so very liberal on this one.” “Damned equivocator!” offered the
New York
Post
. “You can never tell where he stands on anything.”

“But, Mr. President, all of that, to my mind, is beside the point to the central issue posed in this resolution; and that, as I see it, is the integrity—the
personal
integrity, you might say, if a whole nation can be said to have such a thing—of the United States of America.” He paused and looked about at his attentively listening colleagues, the crowded galleries, the scribbling occupants of the Press Gallery, above the Chair.

“In my mind, Mr. President, as I think in the minds of most of us everywhere in this land, there is a concept of the country that I like to believe in; a concept, if you will, of what America is, of what she was intended to be, of what, God granting her strength and continued existence, she can become. Matched against that, Mr. President, I do not need the headline-hunting antics of a freebooter from Africa to tell me what my country ought to do. I know what she ought to do. As far as I am concerned, we do not need Terence Ajkaje, nor do we need the United Nations, to lecture us on the subject or to scourge us along the way.

“The United States, as a government and a people, should do all it can, as speedily as it can, to bring full equality to all its citizens of whatever color, not because somebody
demands
that it should, but simply because
it should.
Simply because it is part of the purpose of the United States. Simply because a nation founded on principles of equality and justice and dedicated to them must, unless it is to betray itself and so ultimately go down, strive to make those principles the daily foundation of its national life.