10925

Executive Order 10925, creating a new committee on discrimination in government jobs and among government contractors is a significant document. Important in its own right, it gives strong sanctions that can be applied to an offending company, permitting outright concellation of contracts. But perhaps more important, the order represents the Administration's first move in the realm of civil rights. Given the temper of a Congress with which Kennedy has had to compromise on last year's compromises, executive orders pushing hard on the limits of existing laws are about the only kind of immediate civil rights action his Administration will take. Thus, 10925 will provide on indication whether Kennedy meant what he said in the campaign.

On its face, an order setting up a committee is not the most exciting thing in the world, and the fact that this new body replaces two old and torpid committees that accomplished very little should serve as a warning. Eisenhower's Committee on Governmental Policy and his Contract Committee (chaired by former Vice-President Nixon) were examples of what usually comes of relying on executive orders in such matters. And Lyndon Johnson's statement that the new committee will appeal to "decency and good will" in preventing job discrimination sounds all too familiar, to say the least.

If the new committee is to be effective, it will have to work with the Justice Department to enforce compliance to its rules with injunctions. And Secretary of Labor Goldberg will have to use more than decency and good will if he is to convince building trades unions to end their discriminatory practices. Kennedy has set up machinery which he is absolutely free to use, unhampered by Congress. If the new committee is as ineffective as the old ones, the blame will fall squarely on his shoulders, and voters will be justified in concluding that his civil rights talk was just talk.