The state race code
It seems that this week's crisis is another loyalty oath-type of controversy that threatens to impair all of our civil liberties. This is the case of the practice of the State of Kansas requiring that the race of all state employees be indicated on the payroll sheets.
Apparently Gov. Avery issued the directive requiring the race code at the request of the Kansas Civil Rights Commission, which desired information as to the effectiveness of its fair employment practices program relating to state offices. If an employee refuses to indicate his race on his payroll card, he is threatened with loss of pay until the directive is complied with.
THE KU AD HOC faculty committee on the race code protested the directive last spring, and received an announcement from Chancellor Wescoe that it would be rescinded, and that all racial information connected with individual names would be destroyed.
So now it is learned that the race code directive has not been rescinded, mainly at the request of the Civil Rights Commission. The ad hoc committee has re-formed, written Gov. Avery and demanded the rescinding of this directive on the grounds that it is "coercive and probably illegal," and informing the governor that he is the state's chief executive, not the Civil Rights Commission.
As in the loyalty oath suit, we find it impossible to disagree with the principle involved. Without doubt, the racial code requirement infringes upon personal rights of freedom from circumstances judged "with regard to race, color or creed." just as the loyalty oath statute restricts free thought, at least in theory. Both carry
a penalty of either non-employment or withholding of pay for refusal to comply.
BUT THERE ARE better arguments against the loyalty oath. It does not accomplish its original purpose; it would not deter any serious subversive; and not only is it a requirement for employment, but one who refuses to sign it stands charged with a felony. It is a product of a Red Scare era of our history, and cannot possibly accomplish its goal without some sort of security-clearance procedure added to it.
What we cannot understand about the race code protest is why, seemingly in the interest of civil rights, the ad hoc committee seeks to take an instrument of the state Civil Rights Commission (presumably an organization dedicated to the promotion of civil rights for all, unless it has been secretly infiltrated by segregationists) and ram it down its throat.
THE COMMITTEE DEMANDS that the information pertaining to race be kept only in statistical form, without names. We would like to know an easier way to compile these statistics than to have them indicated on the state payroll sheets, all in one place, for all to see. Perhaps conduct a census of all state employees? Or better yet, go through every application for employment and check everyone's picture. (Unless, of course, they are protesting the taking of pictures, too.)
We wonder if there isn't some less sensational way to protest such a minor issue, such as getting together with the Civil Rights Commission and hashing it out. We think there are enough significant issues within the civil rights movement to be dealt with seriously without seeking windmills to joust. — Jack Harrington
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Daily Kansan
editorial page Monday, November 7, 1966
2
Brain drain
There is no doubt that American living standards have become a magnet attracting scholars, scientists and professionals from all over the world.
In a report given recently by the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO), the organization states that the work of the Alliance for Progress, the initial 10-year-old program designed by John F. Kennedy to help Latin America, has not gone too far because talented and highly trained Latin Americans are "rushing to the greener pastures of North America."
This PAHO report describes how the pull of U.S. wealth and opportunity is depriving Latin America of some of its most able and vitally needed citizens.
The report points out that:
- 3,000 university-educated Latin Americans have migrated permanently to the United States.
- About 300 physicians emigrate yearly from Latin American countries to the United States, "a number equal to the annual output of three U.S. medical schools."
- Besides Cuba, the two countries hardest hit are Argentina and Colombia, which are losing 100-1,000 professional and technical workers a year.
- Latin American engineers also comprise a large part of this professional exodus.
The effect, of course, is devastating, especially in Colombia, where the gross national product is only a third of Argentina's and where the need for talented people is great. The countries hit by this emigration are Ecuador, Chile, Bolivia and Venezuela. Of these countries only one per cent of the native students who come to the United States in search of professional education return to their respective countries upon completion of their studies for fear they might not find a job suitable to their skills.
The PAHO report dramatically points out probable reasons for the apparent failure of the Alliance for Progress. What the report does not state is that organizations such as the Alliance, Gulf Oil, Standard Oil and many others designed to aid foreign countries are the cause of the Latin American professional exodus.
These U.S. private and government-financed programs could serve as a magnet attracting Latin American professionals to their own land, utilizing the natives' talents. Instead these American organizations offer them stiff competition by hiring their own staffs—staffs paid in American dollars and who lead the "rich American" lives in the foreign nation, making their neighbors south of the Rio Grande more conscious of economic inferiority in which they are submerged.
To most people in the United States it seems unfair that they and their government should be disliked throughout Latin America. What information they have, of course, is what they read in the press, and these publications tell them that they keep pouring millions into neighboring lands.
What Americans seldom, if ever, hear about, is just how and under what conditions these "aided people" are helped.
American foreign aid to Latin America could easily prove itself more effective and welcomed, if it would use Latin American professional and technical skills, instead of offering Latin Americans stiff competition, thus showing them the road for their exodus toward the North.
By NORMA C. ROMANO