Now the Talking Begins

By a vote of 290 to 130, the House of Representatives last week passed a sweeping civil rights bill and sent it to the Senate. The breakdown on the vote was interesting: 152 Democrats and 138 Republicans voted for the measure; 96 Democrats and only 34 Republicans voted against it. In other words, in one of the most lopsidedly Democratic Houses since the days of F.D.R., Republicans were vital to the passage of a bill for which the Democratic Administration means to take full political credit this year.

Tomfoolery. Because of the party-line stance taken by the Republicans under the leadership of Indiana's Charlie Halleck, the bill's diehard Democratic opponents knew they were fighting a lost cause. They therefore spent the last hours of debate engaging in tomfoolery. For example, Virginia's Judge Howard Smith, chairman of the Rules Committee and leader of the Southern Democratic forces, offered an amendment that would ban discrimination by reason of gender as well as race. "This bill is so imperfect," said he, "what harm will this little amendment do?"

"Nothing could be more logical," chimed in New York Republican Katharine St. George, speaking to her male colleagues. "We outlast you. We outlive you. We nag you to death. We want this crumb of equality. And the little word sex won't hurt the bill."

Four other female House members rose to second the idea. But Oregon Democrat Edith Green went and spoiled all the fun. "At the risk of being called an Aunt Jane, if not an Uncle Tom," she said, "let us not add any amendment that would get in the way of our primary objective." Her logic failed to impress the House. It passed the amendment, 168 to 133, to the delight of a woman in the gallery, who shouted, "We made it! We made it! God bless America!" She was promptly ejected.

At the Senate Door. After the final vote, President Johnson praised the House for its action. "Now," he said, "the task is for the Senate. I hope the same spirit of nonpartisanship will prevail there."

Small chance. For one thing, Republican Senate leaders like Illinois' Everett Dirksen have already announced themselves as opposed to the bill's public accommodations section. For another, the bill, when it arrives from the House this week, would ordinarily be sent first to the Senate Judiciary Committee, chaired by Mississippi Democrat James Eastland. If left up to Eastland, the measure would stay in committee forever. Therefore plans have been made to "meet the bill at the Senate door" and, with the help of some complex and unusual parliamentary strategy, bypass Eastland's committee. But not even that will forestall a Democratic filibuster. And if anything is certain, it is that when the bill does come to the floor, its Democratic opponents will try to talk it to death.

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