National Affairs: An Eloquent Answer

When he was campaigning for President, Dwight Eisenhower was asked whether he would appoint Negroes to important positions in the Government. He said he would, whenever he found a man qualified for the job available. Last week he found a man eminently qualified, and made him the first Negro ever appointed to a sub-Cabinet position in the U.S. The appointee: Chicago Attorney J. (for nothing) Ernest Wilkins, 60, who will be Assistant Secretary of Labor for International Affairs, representing the U.S. at international labor conferences.

The son of a Missouri Baptist preacher, sturdy, bulb-nosed Ernest Wilkins became a brilliant mathematician and a Phi Beta Kappa at the University of Illinois, wrote a thesis on algebraic numbers theory before he graduated in 1918. After serving overseas in World War I, he worked his way through the University of Chicago's law school, became a prosperous lawyer, was president of the Cook County Bar Association in 1941-42. One of the leading U.S. laymen in the Methodist Church, Republican Wilkins has been serving as vice chairman of the presidential committee seeking to eliminate racial discrimination in plants with Government contracts.

Wilkins and his wife, who is recording secretary of the Women's Division of Christian Service, a Methodist organization, have three remarkable sons:

¶ J. Ernest Jr., 30, who entered the University of Chicago at 13, got his bachelor of science degree at 16, a Ph.D. in mathematical physics at 19, worked on the wartime atomic-bomb project, is now an industrial scientist at White Plains, N.Y.

¶ John Robinson, 28, who got his bachelor of arts degree from the University of Wisconsin at 18, graduated from the Harvard Law School at 21 after serving on the Harvard Law Review, is now a lawyer in the U.S. Department of Justice.

¶Julian Byrd, 27, who entered the University of Wisconsin at 14, graduated with a bachelor of arts degree at 17, spent 20 months in the military service, graduated from the Harvard Law School in 1949, is now his father's law partner.

Philosophizing on his appointment last week, Wilkins said: "I consider this an honor not to Wilkins individually but to my race in general. I think that this is an answer more eloquent than anything I could say to those who say that the American Government is not fair to all of its citizens."