Nation: NIXON, THE NEGRO AND THE BUDGET

DURING the campaign it was obvious enough, and the standard joke of reporters covering Nixon crowds was: "Five dollars for the first Negro." In November it was even clearer; fewer than 15% of the nation's black voters cast their ballots for the Republican ticket. It is doubtful that the figure would be much higher today.

After three months in office, the Nixon Administration cannot claim much success in gaining the confidence of the nation's 23 million Negroes or that of other minorities with similar problems. "I really don't think Mr. Nixon is sensitive to the problems of black people and poor people," says Ralph Abernathy,Martin Luther King's successor as head of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. "Blacks regard him as a President who is concerned only with the welfare of the rich and" the affluent."Liberals in Congress, who generally have been chary in their criticism of Nixon so far, are now finding the Administration's inaction—and some of its action—on race and poverty an increasingly inviting target.

Lack of Coordination. In some respects the Government has been trying hard, and it is ironic that in an Administration that prides itself on efficiency and coordination one of the main roadblocks to better understanding with blacks is inefficiency and lack of coordination. No one has yet decided how the Administration should treat comprehensively the problem of the Negro. Sometimes, in fact, the Administration seems to be suffering from a mild case of schizophrenia.

The good side is clearly visible. Last week the Administration scraped together $200 million in special aid to help rebuild areas damaged by riots. Despite fears that John Mitchell, the seemingly conservative Attorney General, would go slow on civil rights, he has moved the Justice Department vigorously into new areas. Last February the department went to court to force Houston to push integration more effectively in the South's biggest school district; last month it filed suit in Chicago to stop real estate operators from selling property at higher rates to Negroes than to whites.

Last week it brought an action against Cannon Mills, a giant textile maker, that, if successful, will provide two important precedents against discrimination. The first would ensure that blacks have equal access to company-owned housing; the second would do away with separate seniority lists for whites and blacks, a basic factor in employment discrimination in the South.

The other side, unfortunately, is often more obvious and disheartening. John Volpe, the Secretary of Transportation, has told highway builders that they no longer have to meet federal antidiscrimination standards when bidding on contracts. There would be time to comply, he said, when hiring for new construction actually started. Further, he added gratuitously, the anti-discrimination requirements were not "carved in granite." The N.A.A.C.P. charged that Volpe had made "a spineless capitulation" to the road builders.