Senator Robert Byrd of West
Virginia is chairman of a sub-
committee of the American sen-
ate whichdealsdirectly with some
of the urban problems of Wash-
ington and with the District of
Columbia. He is the son and in-
herior of the Senate seat and
political machine of the late

Senator H. Byrd. According to

Senator Robert Byrd of West

Virginia.

U.S. News and World Report,
Robert Byrd “lived amid poverty
as a youth.” This is probably
true as the Byrd family are
wealthy landowners in West Vir-
ginia and young Robert probab-
ly lived “amid” a great deal of
poverty his family was respon-
sible for.

On July 17, Senator Byrd spoke
on the ghetto and the problems
of poverty in the United States.
We are reprinting excerpts of his
speech to give Tribune readers
a glimpse of American reaction
and the mentality of a large sec-
tion of the men who enact and
enforce the laws in that country.

* * *

“We hear the usual excuses
for the riots. They are the same
excuses. that were trotted out in

the wake of the Watts riot. The
ghettos are blamed; yet, people
of all races have lived in ghet-
tos in the past, but they have
not rioted.

“Poverty is blamed for the
riots; yet poverty-stricken
whites outnumber poverty-
stricken Negroes in Ameri-
ca, but they are not rioting.
Moreover, there are millions of
poor but upstanding Negro citi-
zens who deplore violence and
disorder and who do not sub-
scribe to riots.

“If living in poverty reposes
in one a duty or a right to riot,
then Abraham Lincoln would
have been the Stokely Car-
michael of his day.”

* * *
NEGROES DEMAND RIGHT
TO PLUNDER AND BURN

“Discrimination, we hear, is
back of the riots; yet millions
of lowly immigrants have come
to this country, immigrants who
could not even speak the Eng-
lish language and who were thus
placed at an additional great
disadvantage. The Lebanese, the
Germans, the Italians, the Poles,
the Greeks, the Jews, and
others—they too were disrimi-
nated against, but they did not
react .with violence in the
streets.

“They also lived in ghettos,
but they kept their ghettos
clean. Their ghettos did not be-
come slums.

“The immigrants reacted to
the discrimination against them
in a totally different way. When
they could not find work, they
created it by setting up their
own little shops. Their ghettos
did not become slums. They be-
came homes where they gave
thanks for what they had earn-
ed. These immigrants did not
believe that they had a right to
demand handouts . . . to plun-
der or to burn or to destroy or
kill.”

A voice of American reaction

AH FOR THE GOOD OLD
DEPRESSION

“The depression of the 1930s.
Poverty was everywhere. It was
everyone’s companion. Yet,
West Virginians, whether white
of Negro, did not riot. They
were law-abiding citizens, as
they are today. One may ex-
plain, ‘But there were no large
urban ghettos.’ True. But there
was poverty—grinding poverty.
That was before the days of col-
lective bargaining, Social Secur-
ity and welfare checks, or even
unemployment compensation.

“Yet .those people did not
burn and plunder and loot and
engage in mass anarchy. They
believed in an orderly society.
And even though they were
poor, most of them, Negro and
white, were not willing to leave
their floors unscrubbed or ‘a
step unrepaired. Of course, there
were no plumbing fixtures to
worry about.: Many of those
poor people . . . took pride in
their surroundings. Their floors
were clean, their yards were
clean.

* * *

SLUMS—WHAT SLUMS?

“Eradicate the slums, we are
told, and this will prevent riots.
Yet, Watts was not a slum.
Slums are not built. They deve-
lop as a result of the careless
living of people — people who
throw their trash in the hall-
ways and on the stairways, into
the yards and onto the streets.
If people are irresponsible and
dirty in their way of living, and
have no desire to put forth the
effort to improve their surround-
ings, then we will have slums
with slovenly people residing in
them. 2

“For years I lived in the coal-
mining communities of West
Virginia. I recall here and there
they planted a flower or a piece
of shrubbery.”

POOR BUT PROUD

“So, Mr. President, people
may be poor and yet consider-
ate of others. They may live in
poverty and yet take pride in

‘their humble surroundings. Pov-

erty neither provides a license
for laziness nor for lawlessness.

“We can take the people out
of the slums, but we cannot
take the slums out of the peo-
ple. Wherever some people go,
the ratholes will follow. Where-
ever some people go, the slums
will follow. All the housing, and
all the welfare programs con-
ceivable, will not stop the riots
or do away with the slums. Peo-
ple first have to clean up inside
themselves. They must stop
tearing off the wallpaper, break-
ing the windows, ripping up the
bannisters and the stairs, and
destroying the plumbing fix-
tures of rented properties be-
fore they can’ properly take
care of their own. The rats will
not be kept away as long as the
garbage is tossed into the yard
instead of into the garbage can.”

* * *
WATCH YOUR STEP

“They will be largely judged
by their conduct. If they con-
duct themselves in an orderly
way, they will not have to wor-
ry about police brutality. If they
obey the laws, the laws will
protect them. But a government
of laws cannot tolerate disres-
pect for, and violation of, its
laws. To do so would herald the
first evidence of society’s de-
cay.

“We cannot stand idly by and
tolerate the shameful rape of
demecracy in our republic.
Those who choose to step out-
side the law must be punished.
And those who insist upon force
must be met with a greater
force. Mobs must not be per-
mitted to prevail .. .”

Quote

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Sperwort

$24 BILLION FOR THE
WAR IN VIETNAM

$5.3 BILLION FOR
AID ABROAD,
PEACE CORPS ETC.

$1.1 BILLION FOR
PUBLIC HEALTH

$4.2 BILLION FOR
RELIEF FOR THE NEEDY

$469 MILLION FOR
REBUILDING CITIES
AND URBAN RENEWAL

$2 BILLION FOR
FEDERAL AND
PUBLIC SCHOOLS

é B

$347 MILLION FOR
SCHOOL LUNCHES AND
MILK PROGRAM

algmed in the nee oe

AT HOME

$1.9 BILLION FOR THE
WAR ON POVERTY

$295 MILLION FOR
THE SKILLED JOB
RETRAINING —