Tuesday, March 10, 1964 University Daily Kansan
Page 9
Committee Helping Negroes Find Jobs
5432
WASHINGTON—(UPI)A federal committee devoted to opening up more job opportunities for Negroes and other minority groups is getting a big helping hand from the White House.
President Johnson already has addressed three groups of industrialists and businessmen to encourage them to sign "Plans for Progress" and end every aspect of racial bias in their firms.
And Johnson still serves as chairman of the President's Committee on Equal Employment Opportunity—a post he was assigned while vice president by the late John F. Kennedy.
"HE STILL TAKES an interest and makes decisions." Hobart Taylor, Jr., executive vice chairman of the committee who formerly was a special assistant to Johnson, told UPI. "The President is very much concerned with our work. I think he gives us a little priority."
The committee was charged by Kennedy with policing discrimination in employment under federal contracts as well as within the government itself. It has the power to order cancellation of a contract but has yet to use this authority.
"We've come close to it several times," Taylor said in an interview. "I've called people in here and told them their contracts would be cancelled or not renewed if they failed to comply. They always have taken corrective action."
COMPLIANCE WITH THE NON-discrimination ban in every federal contract is being pressed as vigorously as ever, Taylor said, with 150 compliance reports being processed each week.
But he prefers to emphasize the voluntary actions taken by business to promote opportunity for Negroes.
He said he formed an advisory council of business leaders to help carry out the program when he became convinced greater results could be obtained from private initiative.
PARTLY AS A result, 141 companies with 7 million employees have now signed the "Plans for Progress" and another 30 or so are expected to do so soon.
Officials of American Airlines have told other businessmen that their employees were relieved to see Negroes take jobs as reservations clerks and flight attendants.
Hiring Negroes without discrimination is now viewed as good business by many firms which would have resisted any federal directive in this field a year or so ago, Taylor believes.
"They were gratified to have the change made without the indignity of public pressure," said George Spater, executive vice president of American. "We have found 'Plans for Progress' is an acceptable vehicle for accomplishing gracefully something that sooner or later must be done."
TAYLOR IS INTERESTED in surveying the ranks of Negro college graduates to demonstrate the talent pool available to employers seeking qualified members of minority groups.
Official Bulletin
TODAY
Catholic Mass. 5 p.m., St. Lawrence Chapel, 1910 Stratford Rd.
Inquiry Forum, 7 p.m. St. Lawrence
Center, 1915 Strattford, Rd.
Center, 1915 Stratford Rd.
Inquirer Class, 7:30 p.m., Canterbury
Holland
Inter-Varsity Christian Fellowship,
7:30 p.m., 306 Kansas Union. "Powerful
Beginnings; Acts 1, 2"—Rev. George
Darby.
Western Civ Discussion, 9 p.m., St.
Lawrence Center.
Episcopal Holy Communion, 9:30 p.m.
Danforth.
He said he is hopeful some of the nation's better colleges, such as those in the Big Ten Conference, will enter into informal alliances with Negro institutions to try to raise their teaching standards.
TOMORROW
Catholic Masses, 6:45 a.m., 5 p.m., St.
Lawrence Chapel.
Lake Class.
Inquirer Class, 3:45 p.m., Canterbury
Bury
But he also is concerned about raising the standards of Negro schools that suffered under segregated systems of education.
El Ateneo reunirá el miercoles a las 4:30 en 1 Fraser. Un estudiante de K.U. hablaria de sus expertencias en el programa en Costa Rice."<br>está invitado.
Lenten Bible Vigil, 7 p.m., St. Lawrence, Chanel
*imurey Topics.* 7:30 p.m. St. Lawrence
"HELL"-by an eyewitness almost.
ASC-SUA Current Events Speech, 8
p.m. Hoch, Vance Packard.
One of the few critics of the president's committee has been Herbert Hill, an official of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). He termed its work "impotent" so far as southern textile mills were concerned.
TAYLOR REPLIED THAT more than 90 per cent of the complaints filed by Hill have resulted in corrective action. The NAACP file 39 per cent of the complaints received by the committee in nearly two and one-half years of operation.
President Johnson said last Jan. 16 that 15 per cent of the new workers hired by the "Progress" companies were Negroes. That is about three times as many as they formerly employed, he said.
Episcopal Evening Prayer, 9:30 p.m.
Danforth.
He said no one should be hired merely because he is a Negro. But he pleaded with business leaders to drop artificial standards of race or religion in selecting employees. "You set the example," Johnson told them. "The example you set is followed down the line to many small enterprises in this nation. . . . So let us be sure that it is the most human leadership."
The tour will include visits to the Eisenhower museum and library, and the old Eisenhower home, Barry Farmer, Wichia junior and publicity chairman, said.
An Industrial Tour to Abilene will be sponsored by People-to-People on March 14.
P-t-P Sponsors Industrial Tour
This tour is of special interest to People-to-People because General Eisenhower is its honorary national chairman.
After visiting the Eisenhower museum the group will spend some time at "Old Abilene Town."
A bus will leave for Saturday's tour at 8:00 a.m. from the Kansas Union, is scheduled to return late that afternoon. Students are required to provide their own lunch.
Students may sign up in the People-to-People office in the Kansas Union for the tour.
Gangland Slayer Free After 23 Years
TRENTON, N.J. — (UPI) — "The Bug" gets out today.
Charles Workman, serving a life sentence for the bloody gangland slaying of prohibition-era policy kingpin Dutch Schultz, was expected to walk out of state prison on parole after 23 years behind bars.
Prison officials said his wife Catherine, would meet him at the penitentiary's gate and take him to their home in the Flushing section of New York City.
They do not know what his future plans are. He is now 54 and a grandfather.
Charlie the Bug, was convicted in 1941, nearly six years after Schultz and three of his underworld cronies were gunned down in a Newark restaurant.
An investigation of Murder Inc
by William O'Dwyer, then Kings County, N.Y. prosecutor, led to Workman's arrest.
Schultz, known as the beer baron of the Bronx in the 1920's and later as head of the policy rackett syndicate, was sitting in the Palace Chop House having dinner on Oct. 23, 1935. With him were Otto Biederman, Abe (Leo Frank) Landau and Lou (Lulu) Rosencranz.
Schultz had before him a record of a month's policy receipts totaling $827,253.54 and was studying them over dinner.
Accounts of the wild scene that followed vary.
A bartender said Schultz was in the washroom when a "big guy" came in and opened fire. Schultz's three henchmen returned the fire. When the Dutchman rushed from
the washroom to join the battle he was cut down.
Biederman and Rosencranz were mortally wounded and Landau was shot dead on the sidewalk outside where he followed the gunman.
Charlie the Bug, who pleaded no defense, was convicted mainly on the testimony of two former Murder Inc. Members, Abe (Kid Twist) Reles and Albert Tannenbaum.
Workman will be on parole for the rest of his life. He will have to report regularly to a New York parole officer.
At Rahway, Warden Warren Pinto said, he was "respected by the other inmates and even the guards." State prison Warden Howard Yeager said "I don't remember ever seeing a disciplinary report on him."
The Classical Film Series
presents
Joan of the Angels
an outstanding film from Poland (English subtitles)
- * * *
Wednesday, March 11
Dyche Auditorium (this week only)
7:00 p.m. — Admission $.60
Advance single admission tickets Now on sale at Kansas Union
VANCE PACKARD to speak
Vance Packard, social critic & author (Hidden Persuaders, Waste Makers, Status Seekers, Pyramid Climbers), will speak on "What's Happening to the American Character?" March 11 Hoch Auditorium 8 p.m. Sponsored by SUA & ASC
Reception for Mr. Packard in the Jayhawk Room of the Union following the speech