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THE NEW YORK SUNDA \i, SEPTEMBER- 4,--196~.- ARTHU R HAYS SULZBERGER \j I Chairm an of t hc BoarcL .....,·. . Published every day by The N ew Yol'k Times :C01npan11 '1 j1 ARTHUR OCHS SULZBERGER President and Publish er 0 .ADOLPH S. OCHS, Publisher 1896-1935 : HARDIKG F. BANCROFT, E r.ccutivc Vic s Presicleitt ANDREW FISHER, V-ic a P-rcs idcnt MONROE GREEN, V·i co President IVAN VEIT, V·icc P resident FRANCIS A. cox, Secretary-Treasurer 0 YrL E . DRYFOO S, Publisher :1961-1963 ,, 0 TORN ER CATLEDGE, E x ecutive Edito·r JOHN B, OAKES, Edit orialPageEditol' ...,,. ' 0 LESTER MARKEL, Associate Editor JAMES RESTON, .Associat_e Editor ( .- ·==;===================;:;;;;;;;:::===============--143.215.248.55 A comprehensive stabte placing the legal authority '""he Lessons o-.c Chicago and moral sanction of the Federal Government behind the principle of open occupancy is essential. As matters now stand, many landlords and real estate agents in Chicago and elsewhere are still asserting the "right"-morally indefensible though it is- to dis·criminate ;;.gainst Negroes in the sale or rental of prop! . In t is · -~ect, t!:.~ :-.,:, ·si g question is back on the level where t he scho1.. . .:_(;;::, gregation issue was a decade ago when Souther.1 st.;,t"'S were still proclaiming the -illusory doctrine of "massive resistance." But in housing as in. education, the qt:.e tim1 to be asked is not if or when but only how is deseg egation to be accomplishe . Senator Dirksen, refusing to be drawn into the practical in:plications of his negative stand, has re,peatedly asserted constit utional scruples. Yet. 1-.e raised no constitutional objections when t he Sen;,.., recently approved a bill to enable t he Federal National Mortgage Association, a mixed Governmentpriva te corporation, to buy more than $4 billion worth of housing mortgages. Many of these mortgages are on houses in the very suburbs which Negroes are t ryin;;; to enter. _ he ,,fi llingnes·s of Chicago real estate brokers · to brea tLeir industry's solid front against open occup;;.ncy was crucial in making possible the agreement in Chicago. Other such shifts are sure to come. But Senator Dirksen and his fellow lawmakers have it within their power to give this inevitable ·development t heir constructive support and thus make · it easier and more orderly. That is the path of sound conservatism. ~ l If. Senator Everett Dirksen has any doubt about the ur,;ent need for a Federal fair housing law, he has only to visit hi s home state of Illinois. Chicago and its suburbs have been the scene of marches and countermarches by Negroes and whites on the housing .I issue. After Negro demonstrations brought an agreement to promote open occupancy in housing, white landlords picketed in protest. With another march scheduled for Cicero today, fresh explosions of community bitterness on both sides are feared. What is happening in and around Chic, _.:} could occur in any metropolitan a rea in ~h e ·o ntry. In Dayton, Ohio, there has been rioting wLch only the National Guard could quell and which a • .:ise from the endemic unrest in that city's Negro ghetto. Tightly segregated · neighborhoods are not guarantors of peace ; on t he cont r ary, t hey breed conflict. The fact is that racial discrimination in housing is as f undamental an injustice as Jim Crow public facilities or barriers to voting. The nation has long evaded this hard problem ; many people would prefer to keep on evading it, but events make it plain that evasion is no longer possible. Nor should it be. The question before Senator Dirksen and his Republican colleagues- who will determine the fate o_ the open·housing section of the civil rights bill w: ich the Senate begins considering Tt.resday- is not whether to take up the housing issue at this time. The demonstrations in the stree ts have already placed it on t he nation's agenda . The real question is whether it h; going to be settled lawfully and responsibly in the halls of Congress or irregularly and perhaps violently in the streets by rival displays of pressure and intimidation1..'....- - ~ ~ - , - - - - ~- ~ - - ~ , : . . . . , - -· --~ - : .. , .. ~ i ,,! . I .·~. �