6 THI DAILY COMPA

Mrs. ethune Backs Adlai, Sparkman Dear Editor: The citizens of Florida, like those all over the South and throughout the nation, have a crucial decision to make on I election day in November. Many of my friends have asked for | my opinion of the two presidential candidates. When they | asked, my mind could not help but revert back to the 1930s | when President Roosevelt called me to Washington to help in | the National Youth Administration. I can recall the hundreds of thousands of Negro and white youth—frustrated, depressed, and Mrs. Bethune, Noted shaken loose from their economic and social moorings by economic Negro Leader i depression and disaster. I can re­ Dr. Mary McLeod Bethune is < call how the various programs of founder and president emeritus ( the NYA served to get many of of Bethune-Cookman College, s them back on the track and lift Daytona Beach, Fla. She also j their hopes again for the future. founded the National Council of 1 This was but one part of what Negro Women. By appointment * came to be known as the “New of President Roosevelt, she was S Deal” program which served to lift director of the National Advisory 1 the horizons for Negroes and whites Committee of the National > all over the Southland, as well as Youth Administration. During > in the rest of the country. the war, she was a special con­ When they have asked me about sultant to the Secretary of War candidates, I have naturally on officer candidates for the thought of Harry Truman and how WAC. he has placed the prestige of the presidency of the cropper’s oblivion to candidacy for openly and vigorously behind equal the Vice Presidency of the United and constitutional rights for all States. He has shown concern for citizens without regard to their and supported the economic ad­ race. I think of the ringing U. S. Supreme Court decisions and the vances of the poor people in the President’s exposition of the role South and in the North as well— of race in international affairs. black and white alike. He knows His “Fail- Deal” program has served they will rise together or stick in to keep open the door of real hope the mud together. to all the little people. I happen to know that years Now that the beloved Franklin ago, when he was President of the Roosevelt is gone and Harry Tru­ Chamber of Commerce in his man is not a candidate, which home town of Huntsville, Ala­ road do we take? bama, it was his influence that I have been watching and listen­ brought the first Negro into the ing carefully to the candidates to Chamber of Commerce in that see where we might safely rest our town. I know, too, that future and that of our children. I when Tuskegee Institute faced have had hopes that the nomina­ financial difficulty and feared, at tion of General Eisenhower her­ that time, to go to the State Legis­ alded a new Republican Party lature for funds because of the worthy to invite Negroes back to fear of interference with their cur­ the house of Abraham Lincoln and riculum, it was Theodore Roosevelt. But in this and Lister Hill who helped to see I have suffered sharp disappoint­ to it that Tuskegee got its appro­ ment. The General has compro­ priations without strings. mised on basic issues, indulged in So, I know John Sparkman as I purely political maneuvers, played knew and as I know with out - and - out reactionaries Lyndon Johnson of , young and seemed, like many other poli­ Russell Long of Louisiana and ticians, willing to do almost any­ of . I thing to win. have seen this new, younger, and On the other hand, I have progressive leadership shaking off watched and listened closely to the shackles of tradition to build Governor Stevenson. He has kept a new South. They and their kind his promise to “talk sense to the have helped me build my school American people.” He has pre­ and my life. I know and trust sented the issues in a statesman­ them. I, therefore, ask you to like, honest, courageous and in­ march with me behind Adlai Ste­ telligent manner. His views em­ venson and John Sparkman on brace the best of Thomas Jeffer­ election day. son, , Franklin MARY McLEOD BETHUNE, Roosevelt and Harry Truman, He Daytona Beach, Fla. has shown keen recognition of the role of race in world affairs. We heard Governor Stevenson Urges Vote For talk civil rights at Richmond in the heart of the Confederacy and at Stevenson, Lamont the same time reveal a deep sen­ Dear 'Editor: sitivity to the complex issues in­ Mr. Marcantonio’s articles on volved, showing an understanding the Stevenson-Hallinan debate in­ of the South — its history and dicate either extreme naivete on its traditions—and the high hopes his part, the inability to be ob­ of both whites and Negroes alike. jective in his analysis or else an The General, however, unlike his intentional distortion of fact. He predecessor in the Union Army, re­ absolutely presents no sound basis treated at Richmond; he didn’t for his conclusions that there is no even mention the subject of civil difference between Eisenhower and rights. Instead, he refuses to rec­ Stevenson—for not only are the ognize that the Federal Govern­ positions of the two candidates far ment is the responsible force for apart on major Issues, but they are the protection and enforcement of obviously so. rights guaranteed in the Federal According to Mr. Marcantonio Constitution to all people, white “there can be no difference be­ and black, alike. tween candidates on any issue be­ I have decided, therefore, to cause they both hold the same march behind Adlai Stevenson and position on the issue of war.” John Sparkman as I did behind Agreed that war or peace is the Franklin Roosevelt and Jack Gar­ crucial issue in this campaign. ner, and Harry Truman and Alben However, both candidates hardly Barkley. “hold the same position.” We know and do not fear John The Eisenhower-Dulles-(China Sparkman. His heart is sound, and Lobby)-Nixon platform still holds his sympathies deep. I have seen out hope for a Nationalist China,- him fight his way up from a share- has denounced the Yalta agree-