Color Line

To the Chateau Frontenac, a U.S. physician named Dr. George Dows Cannon wired ahead for $12-a-day accommodations. He did not mention that he and his wife were Negroes. When they showed up, they were given a fine room overlooking the St. Lawrence. For three days they had no trouble. Then, as they waited for a table in the hotel's main dining room, a headwaiter told them: "We cannot serve you. ..."

Assistant Manager George Jessup explained that he had acted at the request of white American guests. "You know what it's all about," he said, "you're from the States." Thereupon Dr. Cannon hired a lawyer. In court he won an injunction that opened the Chateau's dining room to him again. Then he filed suit for $900 damages. Trial was set for September.

Quebeckers, who as members of the French Canadian minority have a nodding acquaintance with intolerance, applauded Dr. Cannon. Many phoned the Cannons, or stopped them on the streets, to insist that what had happened did not reflect local feeling. A waiter in the hotel whispered to them: "I'm damned glad you won!" Said V Action Catholique: "The case . . . should be brought before the highest courts in the country."

The embarrassed management of the hotel had been chiefly guilty of spineless judgment. The hotel had never before drawn a color line. In the past such notable Negroes as Singer Marian Anderson and Actor Paul Robeson have lodged and dined in public there.

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