Nation: Black and White

BLACK AND WHITE, but no longer read all over, is the latest edition of the U.S. Government’s bestselling pamphlet Infant Care. Since 1914, when the first edition appeared, more than 48 million copies of Infant Care have been distributed, many millions of them by Congressmen, who get up to 500 free copies a month and send them to new parents in their districts. This year integration caught up with Infant Care.

In a new edition of the pamphlet, the Department of Health, Education and Welfare, departing from what had been the custom, included illustrations showing Negro parents and babies. Several Southern Congressmen quickly canceled orders for the integrated edition. Explained Georgia’s Representative John W. Davis: “I’m just afraid that in view of the current state of high feelings it might rub a few nerves the wrong way.”