National Affairs: Emphasis on Action

In the fine print of almost every contract between the U.S. Government and a private business, these words appear: "The contractor agrees not to discriminate against any employee or applicant for employment because of race, creed, color or national origin." Last week Dwight Eisenhower by executive order established a 15-man Government Contract Committee designed to give these fine-sounding words practical effect.

Ike's committee superseded a similar committee set up by Harry Truman in 1951. The Truman committee's chief accomplishment was the publication of a report showing that the nondiscrimination clause in Government contracts was almost a dead letter, largely because federal agencies made little attempt to enforce it. What Ike wanted from his committee was action. To emphasize that fact, he appointed Vice President Richard Nixon to head the new body and gave him a blue-ribbon group with which to work. Among the members: J. Ernest Wilkins, Chicago Negro attorney, who is to be vice chairman; C.I.O. President Walter Reuther; A.F.L. President George Meany; Fred Lazarus, president of Federated Department Stores, Inc.; and Mrs. Helen Rogers Reid, board chairman of the New York Herald Tribune.

In fiscal 1954, the Federal Government will probably let some $39 billion worth of contracts to private companies. If the GCC succeeds in getting the nondiscrimination clause enforced in any substantial percentage of these contracts, it will be the greatest single blow ever struck against race bias in U.S. business.