Race issue plank put in platform
Program also calls for ‘peace forces’
By Dean W. Dittmer, United Press staff writer
Chicago, Illinois –
A 1,200-word platform calling for an international alliance of nations “with power to employ armed forces when necessary” to preserve peace, and a mandate to Congress to exert its full powers to protect the right of minorities “to live, develop and vote equally with all citizens” was approved by the Democratic National Convention last night.
The racial equality plank, approved by the Platform and Resolutions Committee over the opposition of Southern states, declared:
We believe that racial and religious minorities have the right to live, develop and vote equally with all citizens and share the rights that are guaranteed by our Constitution. Congress should exert its constitutional powers to protect those rights.
The foreign policy plank pledged this country to join “with the other United Nations in the establishment of an international organization based on the principle of the sovereign equality of all peace-loving states… for the prevention of aggression and the maintenance of international peace and security.”
To enforce the peace, “the nations would maintain adequate forces to meet the needs of preventing war and of making impossible the preparation for war,” and “with power to employ armed forces when necessary to prevent aggression and preserve peace.”
Other planks include:
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Maintenance of an international court for the settlement of disputes between nations.
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Support of the Atlantic Charter and the Four Freedoms and the principles enunciated therein.
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Opening of Palestine to Jewish immigration and for “a free and democratic Jewish commonwealth.”
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Legislation to assure equal pay for equal work for women, and a recommendation for submission of a constitutional amendment on equal rights for women.
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Federal legislation to assure stability of production, employment, prices and distribution in the bituminous coal industry.
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Federal aid to education administered by the states.
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Endorsement of President Roosevelt’s use of water in arid land states for irrigation.
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Non-discriminatory transportation charges and a request for early correction of inequities.
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Enactment of legislation giving fullest self-government to Alaska, Hawaii and Puerto Rico, and the eventual statehood of Alaska and Hawaii; and extension of the right of suffrage to residents of the Districts of Columbia.
Post-war program
For post-war programs, the committee recommended:
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Full benefits to servicemen and women with special consideration for disabled, to assure employment and economic security.
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Price guarantees and crop insurance to farmers; parity for agriculture with labor and industry, promotion of success of small independent farmers, aid to home-ownership of family-sized farms, and extension of rural electrification and broader domestic and foreign markets for agricultural products.
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Adequate compensation for workers during demobilization.
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Enactment of additional humanitarian, labor, social and farm legislation as may be needed and repeal of “any law enacted in recent years which has failed to accomplish its purpose.”
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Promotion of small business, and earliest possible release of business from wartime controls.
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Simplification of tax structure and reduction or repeal of wartime taxes as soon as possible.
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Encouragement of risk capital new enterprise and development of natural resources in the West and other parts of the country and reopening of Western gold and saver mines “as soon as manpower is available.”
Race issue raised
Also declaring for a free and untrammeled press, the committee expressed its belief “in the world right of all men to write, send and publish news at uniform communication rates and without interference by governmental or private monopoly and that right should be protected by treaty.”
At the Platform Committee meeting, Southern Democrats, led by former Texas Governor Dan Moody, sought to bring a minority report on the racial equality plank before the convention, but the plan was thwarted when only eight of the necessary 12 states signed the minority report. States signing the report were Texas, Tennessee, Arkansas, Virginia, Mississippi, Louisiana, Alabama and South Carolina.
The group sought to add to the committee language a clause reserving the authority to determine “qualifications of their voters and to regulate their public schools and attendance therein” solely in the states “in the absence of a constitutional amendment ceding such powers to the federal government.”