Byrnes's Boil

South Carolina's Governor Jimmy Byrnes, who has a low boiling point when he believes federal action against race discrimination threatens states' rights, boiled over last week.

The aging (74), onetime Democratic New Deal stalwart (who broke with the national party to support Ike last year) was nettled by a new clause in contracts between the Government and banks which make Government-guaranteed farm price-support loans. The clause would require these banks to hire employees without race discrimination. Egged on by bankers, Byrnes telephoned President Eisenhower in Denver. Said Byrnes: "I talked with the President ... he does not want departments of the Government to usurp the powers of Congress or by executive fiat to interfere with the business practices of citizens when there is no law authorizing such action."

Next day the Administration backtracked by withdrawing the non-discrimination clause first written into the bank contracts last May. Said Commodity Credit Corporation President John H. Davis: ". . . inclusion of the clause is unnecessary . . . employment of [bank] personnel is not a real factor in performing these lending functions, and there is no conceivable need for the operation of such a clause in this field." Said Walter White, spokesman for the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People: a "humiliating capitulation."

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