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In 1935, Walter White was able to get the ear of Franklin Roosevelt. Secretary Marvin Mclntyre refused him an appointment with the President, but the President's Negro Valet Irvin H. McDuffie† who sometimes leaves notes on his employer's pillow and tactfully gets unofficial callers in through the White House kitchen, was able to arrange a private meeting. What effect Walter White's address to the President may have had Washington last week was not sure.
Paper Victory. As Walter White sat peering curiously down at the Senate from his gallery seat, he had already won a paper victory. He claimed, and neutral observers were disposed to accept his estimate, 73 votes for his bill in the turbulent chamber below. But these were promissory notes, useless until a final roll call forced collection. And just as there were Representatives willing to bring the Administration's Wages-&-Hours Bill out of an obstructive rules committee but unwilling to vote for it when they got the chance, so too there were Senators last week willing to vote for an anti-lynching bill but unwilling to take the forcible measures necessary to bring it to a vote.
On paper the 73 supporters of the Anti-Lynching Bill controlled nine more votes than the two-thirds required to invoke cloture and end the filibuster, but the filibuster nevertheless went on. Alert Walter White made increasingly anxious trips downstairs to confer with Senators in the reception room. One of his departures from the gallery was noted by Jimmy Byrnes with sotto voce sarcasm: "Barkley can't do anything without talking to that nigger first."
The odds in favor of the White-Wagner-Van Nuys Anti-Lynching Bill decreased steadily last week, for time works with a filibuster. One serious blow was the refusal of Republican Leader Charles McNary, a master of minority strategy, to vote for night sessions or cloture so long as he could hamstring the Barkley leadership by refusing to do so. Another blow was the warning by oldtime Liberal George Norris that a prolonged, bitter filibuster in the face of important legislation might be too high a price even for an anti-lynching bill. Said he: "Perhaps this is not the time to open wounds that may not heal." A reporter asked Tom Connally whether he still thought he and his friends could talk until Christmas. The old Texan snorted: "Why not?"
*With a circulation of 160,000 per month. *Other reasons: murder, miscegenation, "incendiary language," jilting a girl, being too prosperous, giving evidence against a white man, "introducing smallpox," talking back to a white man.
†Wife Elizabeth McDuffie, longtime Roosevelt cook, was three weeks ago hired by publicity-wise Selznick International Pictures to act in their forthcoming Gone With The Wind.