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When I first read your account [July 9] of Senator Bilbo's filibuster against the FEPC [Fair Employment Practices Commission] I was furious, then sick with disgust to think that after so many fine young men of all faiths and races have died to defeat fascism and preserve individual freedom, a U.S. Senator should openly make such vile statements in the U.S. Senate.
In the Army, "conduct unbecoming an officer and a gentleman," or disgracing one's uniform are court-martial offenses. Apparently the Senate would benefit by a similar regulation.
Few people ever see Congress in action or read the Congressional Record. You are doing us a great service by bringing us the actual words of our Congressmen. This is real news, and, to my knowledge, at least, Bilbo's remarks were not quoted in any of the local papers, though Eastland's tirade was.
(MRS.) MARION REILLY
Arlington, Va.
Sirs:
Commenting on the effort of one of our Senators to kill a bill that neither good taste nor common sense should ever have allowed to come up, there are some matters, halitosis for example, that need not be publicly discussed. But if they must be dragged out, I, for one, am glad that there are men like Senator Bilbo and his junior colleague who have the guts to put the kibosh on them, even if one of them is, as you say, "jug-eared and sawed-off."
R. E. BRENNEMAN Glendale, Calif.
Sirs: Whether by accident or design, your juxtaposition of the three articles concerning the [FEPC] filibusterers, Vicksburg, and the Marshall Islanders was a masterful presentation of the crisis that confronts America in her aspirations towards world leadership.
Throughout the world there are many thou sands who, like the Marshall Islanders, are looking to the U.S. and the magnificent ideals which have become symbolical of American leadership. But will they continue to feel that way when they learn about Senators Bilbo and Eastland? What a tragic paradox it is for this hate-weary planet that one of its mightiest nations, the one presumably destined to lead it into a new era of peaceful cooperation, is unable to heal its own festering wounds of hate and distrust of more than 80 years' duration.
ROBERT E. FULLILOVE JR. New Orleans
Sirs:
What variety of goons elected Theodore Bilbo to the U.S. Senate? This country stinks to high heaven with prejudice and intolerance and loudmouthed Senators.
No Negro, I am nonetheless for them all the way, and it is time we realized that they are no different from any other race in their capabilities and intelligence, if given the opportunity to develop both.
Senator Bilbo sits on a "black cloud" spitting down on Negroes, Jews, Catholics and Communists. What kind of people live in Mississippi, anyway? It is time some Americans opened their small, tight minds. . . .
(MRS.) CAROL WHITNEY Westborough, Mass.
Undersigned Airsicker
Sirs: