RACES: New Orleans Sacrifice

The back hair of many a New Orleans citizen bristled, fortnight ago, when the Times-Picayune reported that their Mayor T. Semmes Walmsley had lunched in Washington with Oscar De Priest, Negro Congressman. Last week Mayor Walmsley, home from the capital, announced: "As I am just as passionate an adherent to the cause of white supremacy as it is possible for any human being to be, I hasten to give the true facts to my people in New Orleans."

After a flood-control hearing, he said, he had been invited to luncheon in a private dining room of the Senate restaurant. Guest of honor was that famed flood-controller, Mayor William Hale ("Big Bill") Thompson of Chicago. To the great astonishment and mortification of the Louisiana delegation, also present was Mayor Thompson's good black friend, white-wooled Congressman De Priest. The Louisianians decided to "sacrifice their personal feelings and remain—in the face of all [Mayor Thompson et al.] have done for New Orleans and Louisiana."

Concluded Mayor Walmsley : "Suffice it to say that I would never have accepted the invitation had I known he [De Priest] would be there."