MR. McGEE. Mr. Spivak with a question for Vice President Nixon.
MR. SPIVAK. Mr. Vice President, you have accused Senator Kennedy of avoiding the civil rights issue when he has been in the South and he has accused you of the same thing.
With both North and South listening and watching, would you sum up your own intentions in the field of civil rights if you become President?
MR. NIXON. My intentions in the field of civil rights have been spelled out in the Republican platform. I think we have to make progress first in the field of employment and there we would give statutory authority to the Committee on Government Contracts, which is an effective way of getting real progress made in this area, since about one out of every four jobs is held by and is allotted by people who have Government contracts.
Certainly I think all of us agree that when anybody has a Government contract, certainly the money that is spent under that contract ought to be disbursed equally without regard to the race or creed or color of the individual who is to be employed.
Second, in the field of schools, we believe that there should be provisions whereby the Federal Government would give assistance to those districts who do want to integrate their schools. That of course was rejected as was the Government contracts provision by the special session of the Congress into--which Mr. Kennedy was quite active.
And then, as far as other areas are concerned, I think that we have to look to Presidential leadership.
Now, when I speak of Presidential leadership, I refer, for example, to our attitude on the sit-in strikes. Here we have a situation which causes all of us concern, causes us concern because of the denial of the rights of people to the equality which we think belongs to everybody.
I have talked to Negro mothers. I have heard them explain, try to explain how they tell their children how they can go into a store and buy a loaf of bread, but then can't go into that store and sit at the counter and get a Coca Cola. This is wrong and we have to do something about it.
So, under the circumstances, what do we do? Well, what we do is what the Attorney General of the United States did under the direction of the President: Call in the owners of chainstores and get them to take action.
Now, there are other places where the Executive can lead, but let me just sum up by saying this: Why do I talk every time I'm in the South on civil rights?
Not because I am preaching to the people of the South, because this isn't just a southern problem; it's a northern problem and a western problem, it's a problem for all of us. I do it because it's the responsibility of leadership. I do it because we have to solve this problem together.
I do it right at this time particularly because when we have Khrushchev in this country, a man who has enslaved millions, a man who has slaughtered thousands, we cannot continue to have a situation where he can point the finger at the United States of America and say that we are denying rights to our citizens; and so I say both the candidates and both the vice presidential candidates, I would hope, as well, including Senator Johnson, should talk on this issue at every opportunity.
MR. McGEE. Senator Kennedy.
MR. KENNEDY. Well, Mr. Nixon hasn't discussed the two basic questions: What is going to be done and what will be his policy on implementing the Supreme Court decision of 1954? Giving aid to schools technically that are trying to carry out the decision is not the great question. Secondly, what's he going to do to provide fair employment? He's been the head of the Committee on Government Contracts that's carried out two cases, both in the District of Columbia. He has not indicated his support of an attempt to provide fair employment practices around the country, so that everyone can get a job regardless of their race or color. Nor has he indicated that he will support Title III, which would give the Attorney General additional powers to protect Constitutional rights.
These are the great questions. Equality of education in schools. About 2 percent of our population of white people is illiterate; 10 per cent of our colored population. Sixty to seventy percent of our colored children do not finish high school.
These are the questions and these areas that the North and South, East and West are entitled to know what will be the leadership of the President in these areas to provide equality of opportunity for employment, equality of opportunity in the field of housing, which could be done on all Federal supported housing by a stroke of the President's pen.
What will be done to provide equality of education in all sections of the United States? Those are the questions to which the President must establish a moral tone and moral leadership. And I can assure you that if I'm elected President we will do so.
MR. McGEE. Mr. Levy with a question for Senator Kennedy.
MR. LEVY. Senator, on the same subject, in the past you have emphasized the President's responsibility as a moral leader as well as an executive on civil rights questions.
What specifically might the next President do in the event of an occurrence such as Little Rock or the lunch-counter sit-ins? From the standpoint of--
MR. KENNEDY. Let me say that I think that the President operates in a number of different areas. First, as a legislative leader, and as I just said I believe that the passage of the so-called Title III which gives the Attorney General the power to protect constitutional rights in those cases where it's not possible for the person involved to bring the suit. Secondly, as an executive leader. There have been only six cases brought by this Attorney General under the voting bill passed in 1957 and the voting bill passed in 1960. The right to vote is basic.
I do not believe that this Administration has implemented those bills which represent the will of the majority of the Congress on two occasions with vigor.
Thirdly, I don't believe that the Government Contracts Division is operated with vigor. Everyone who does business with the Government should have the opportunity to make sure that they do not practice discrimination in their hiring, and that's in all sections of the United States.
And then fourthly, as a moral leader. There is a very strong moral basis for this concept of equality before the law. Not only equality before the law, but also equality of opportunity. We are in a very difficult time. We need all the talent we can get. We sit on a conspicuous stage. We are a goldfish bowl before the world. We have to practice what we preach. We set a very high standard for ourselves.
The Communists do not. They set a low standard of materialism. We preach in the Declaration of Independence and in the Constitution, in the statements of our greatest leaders, we preach very high standards; and if we're not going to be charged before the world with hypocrisy, we have to meet those standards.
I believe the President of the United States should indicate that.
Now, lastly, I believe in the case of Little Rock. I would have hoped that the President of the United States would have been possible for him to indicate it clearly that the Supreme Court decision was going to be carried out. I would have hoped that it would have been possible to use marshals to do so, but evidently under the handling of the case it was not. I would hope an incident like that would not happen.
I think if the President is responsible, if he consults with those involved, if he makes it clear that the Supreme Court decision is going to be carried out in a way that the Supreme Court planned, with deliberate speed, then in my judgment, providing he's behind action, I believe we can make progress. Now, the present administration, the President has said, never indicated what he thought of the 1954 decision.
Unless the President speaks then, of course the country doesn't speak and Franklin Roosevelt said the Presidency of the United States is above all a place of moral leadership and I believe on this great moral issue he should speak out and give his views clearly.
MR. McGEE. Mr. Vice President.
MR. NIXON. Senator Kennedy has expressed some hopes in this field, hopes which I think all Americans would share who want some progr--some progress in this area. But let's look at the performance. When he selected his vice Presidential running mate, he selected a man who had voted against most of these proposals and a man who opposes them at the present time.
Let me look also at what I did. I selected a man who stands with me in this field and who will talk with me and work with me on it.
Now, the Senator referred to the Committee on Government Contracts. And yet that very committee of which I am chairman has been handicapped by the fact that we have not had adequate funds, we have not had adequate powers, we haven't had an adequate staff.
Now, in the special session of Congress and also in the session that preceded it, the Democratic Congress, in which there's a 2-to-1 Democratic majority, was asked by the President to give us the funds and give us the power to do a job and they did nothing at all and in the special session in which Senator Kennedy was calling the signals along with Senator Johnson, they turned it down and he himself voted against giving us the powers, despite the fact that the bill had already been considered before, that had already had hearings on and the Congress already knew what it had before it.
All that I can say is this: What we need here are not just high hopes; what we need is action, and in the field of Executive leadership, I can say that I believe it's essential that the President of the United States not only set the tone but he also must lead. He must act as he talks.