Box 17, Folder 1, Document 1

Garner-Howard Smith-Harry Byrd-John
McClellan congressional Democrats; and
the Allen Treadway*-Robert Taft-Charles
Halleck congressional Republicans.”

These are not mere party wings, claims
Burns; their differences are institutional
and ideological. The power fulcrum of
the presidential parties is the national
convention, where they dominate rank-
and-file delegates. “The Robert Tafts and
the Lyndon Johnsons usually do not win
at Chicago or Philadelphia.” The Elec-
toral College compels the presidential par-
ties to “cater to the urban masses and
their liberal dogmas.” For leadership, they
draw from the ranks of big-city lawyers,
Eastern financial executives, academicians
(Republican examples: Elihu Root, Hen-
ry Stimson, John Foster Dulles, Douglas
Dillon). These parties are generally in-
ternationalist, favor activist government,
are concerned with broad “way-of-life”
issues. nts

The congressional parties, on the other
hand, use their control of legislative ma-
chinery to block the presidential parties.
They draw their leadership from the
small towns, concentrate mainly on bread-
and-butter economic issues. Many Con-
gressmen are from districts with little
competition (Burns contends that a mere
125 of the 435 House districts are even
reasonably competitive), gain powerful
seniority advantages over Congressmen
from swing districts who ideologically in-
cline toward the presidential parties.
Among Democrats cited by Burns as
presidential party members: New York's
Emanuel Celler, Rhode Island’s John
Fogarty, California’s Chet Holifield;
among Republicans: New Jersey’s Sena-
tor Clifford Case and New York's Senator
Jacob Javits. John Kennedy, says Burns,
shifted to the presidential party while
still in the Senate.

Tantalizing Question. The resulting
deadlock, writes Burns, can and should
be broken—by helping the presidential
parties swallow their congressional coun-
terparts. To bring this about, he urges
elimination of the seniority system in
Congress, reapportionment of gerryman-
dered districts,f uniform election laws
for the Senate, House and presidency,
mass dues-paying memberships for the
parties. “It is better that a lot of people
give a little money than that a few give
a lot.”

The rewards for such reorganization
of the parties, Burns argues, would be

% Treadway was a conservative Republican
from western Massachusetts mountain country
who secved 32 years in the House of Represent-
atives (1913-44), 25 of them on the Ways and
Means Committee. Burns cites him as an ex-
ample of congressional Republicans from non-
competitive districts, similar to many Southern
Democrats.

+ Columnist Roscoe Drummond contends that
present malapportionment works to the dis-
advantage of Republicans: Republican candi-
dates for the House won 48% of the nationwide
congressional vote in November but captured
only 40% of the seats. The G.O.P., he claims,
won one seat for every 137,000 of its votes, the
Democrats one for each 100,000 of theirs.

22

immense. “The great task of the presi-
dential party is to forge a new majority
organized down to the wards and _ pre-
cincts, towns and villages and effective
in Congress as well as in the executive
branch. Whether this task will be ac-
complished by the presidential Democrats
under John F. Kennedy, or by the presi-
dential Republicans under someone like
Rockefeller, is one of the tantalizing ques-
tions of the future.”

Tantalizing it certainly is. But is it
realistic? After all, one of Burns’s fa-
vorites, Franklin Roosevelt, tried hard
to swallow up the Democratic congres-
sional party—and got bloodied up in
the attempt.



ATLANTA’S WALL

THE SOUTH
Divided City

It was in Berlin that the tragic and
dramatic lesson of what happens to a di-
vided city came home to me, and if I
could make you see it as I saw it, you
would share with me my feeling that At-
lanta must not be a city divided.

In his inaugural speech last year, At-
lanta’s Mayor Ivan Allen Jr. thus warned
his fellow citizens of the effects of the
Berlin Wall, which he had recently viewed.
But last week Atlanta itself was divided
by a pair of 2-ft.-10-in.-high steel-and-
wood barricades set up by the city to
prevent Negroes from moving into a white
neighborhood.

Atlanta’s white-Negro _ relationships
have long been considered among the best
in the South. But the city’s 200,960 Ne-
groes (39.9% of the population) are hard
pressed for living room. They live on
24.6% of the total land zoned for resi-
dential purposes, are largely confined to a
black belt running northwest to south-
east through the heart of the city. In this
belt, one of the best districts is Collier
Heights, in northwest Atlanta. The main
trouble with Collier Heights is that it is

tantalizingly close to a white neighbor-
hood called Cascade Heights, where homes
range from $20,000 to a few at $50,000.

Block-Busting. Both Negroes and
whites acted badly in the events that led
up to the barrier between Collier Heights
and Cascade Heights. Negro real estate
brokers used block-busting techniques to
try to buy homes in the Peyton-Utoy sub-
division of Cascade Heights. They falsely
told white residents that their neighbors
had put their homes up for sale and con-
spicuously drove Negro clients through
the area on Sunday to frighten white
owners. A white real estate man threat-
ened to sell his home and some lots to
Negroes in order to get a higher price
from white buyers in the area; he actual-
ly ended up signing contracts with both a
white owners’ group and a Negro. Since



WAYNE WILSON, LEVITON-ATLANTA
Mayor ALLEN
A lesson unlearned.

July, it has been impossible to sell a house
in Peyton-Utoy to a white buyer, and
white owners were panicked by the threat
to their property values.

Virgil Copeland, president of the South-
west Citizens Association, a group of
homeowners in Cascade Heights, finally
went to Mayor Allen and suggested clos-
ing off two roads that run between the
Negro and white areas to prevent en-
croachments by Negroes and act as a psy-
chological stimulant to white buyers. Al-
len called in Negro leaders to discuss the
possibility of erecting barriers. In return,
the city would rezone 250 acres for Negro
residential use. Understandably, the Ne-
groes protested.

Into Court. Mayor Allen turned the
matter over to the board of aldermen,
which voted to erect the barriers. At 7
the following morning, workmen were on
Peyton and Harlan roads driving I beams
into the pavement. The Negroes of Atlan-
ta, represented by a new All-Citizens
Committee composed of most Negro or-
ganizations in the city, refused to deal
with the city until the barriers come
down. Negroes have lost one suit in court
to have the barriers torn down, but a fur-
ther test is pending before superior court
in Atlanta. Last week the board of alder-
men considered a resolution to remove
the barriers—and voted it down ro to 3.

TIME, JANUARY 18, 1963