Fruits of Fire

"The only way we can get anybody to listen to us is to start a riot," said one Los Angeles Negro. "As long as we lie down we are going to get kicked." Said another resident of Watts, the Negro ghetto where the Los Angeles riot erupted: "Whitey will have to help us now." Last week Whitey was doing just that. In Washington, President Johnson dispatched to Los Angeles a "task force," headed by Deputy Attorney General Ramsey Clark, to inaugurate a crash program of federal help for the 45-sq.-mi., riot-torn area.

"We cannot let the actions of three or four thousand rioters stay our compassion for the hundreds of thousands of people--of every race and color--who neither participated in nor condoned the riots," the President said at a White House ceremony. "Many suffered at the hands of the rioters. Many are in need of help. There are citizens whose businesses have been destroyed and must be rebuilt."

Accent on Youth. Under a ten-point program to be implemented by federal agencies, Clark's team will see that Watts gets: 1) make-work projects to reduce unemployment; 2) stepped-up youth training programs; 3) centers to care for dependent children and to teach skills to needy mothers; 4) a small business development center; 5) increased health services, with emphasis on youth; 6) a back-to-school campaign; 7) more surplus foods; 8) surplus Government property, such as clothing; 9) more neighborhood facilities, such as playgrounds; 10) faster construction of low-income housing.

The federal drive is in addition to Los Angeles' long-stalled anti-poverty program, which another presidential envoy, Under Secretary of Commerce LeRoy Collins, finally unsnarled last week. Mayor Sam Yorty and private groups, deadlocked for months over control of the program, agreed to a 25-member anti-poverty board, composed of seven members from poverty areas, six from private agencies, and twelve from local government institutions. The compromise unstoppered $20 million in federal anti-poverty money that had been held up by Washington, and much of it will be funneled into the Watts district.

Pitching In. Meanwhile, Governor Pat Brown's special commission to probe the cause of the riots, headed by former CIA Director John McCone, held its first meeting, decided to submit its report by Dec. 1. Addressing the commission, Governor Brown said: "The fate not only of Los Angeles but of other cities in California and the nation may well depend on your findings."

Scores of citizens and organizations also pitched in to help the shattered slum. Items:

> With some 4,000 persons charged with offenses during the riots, and courts arraigning an average of 300 per day, Los Angeles area bar associations offered their members as court-appointed counsel for indigent defendants.

> The American Federation of Teachers, holding it annual convention in Los Angeles, sent a delegation to the city board of education with a recommended program of "crash schooling" for the riot area.

> The Southern California-Nevada Council of Churches organized an emergency commission on church and race "to mobilize the full resources of the churches to meet the present crisis" in Watts.

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