Mail to Senators Favors Rights Bill

Reports that Senate mail has been running badly against the Civil Rights Bill are somewhat exaggerated, according to Washington sources.

Mail from Massachusetts residents to Sen. Leverett Saltonstall (R.Mass.) has been running four to one in favor of the bill, an assistant in his office reported yesterday, but last summer the ratio was as high as 50-1. Mail to Saltonstall's office from other states, however, has been "99% against the bill," according to the side. Most of these out-of-state letters are from California and the South.

A recent release from the Commission on Religion and Race of the United Presbyterian Church estimated "that Senate mail is currently running 10 and 20 to 1 against the Civil Rights Bill."

John Stewart, legislative assistant to Sen. Hubert Humphrey (D-Minn), floor manager for the bill, said yesterday that organizations supporting the bill "naturally tended to be pessimistic" about mail ratios.

He added that such figures varied widely from week to week, depending on which side was "getting geared up when." "These deluges," he said, "just don't happen."

He said that Humphrey's mail from Minnesota was also running about four to one in favor of the bill. Humphrey, too, has been getting mail against the bill from other states, particularly the South, the Mountain States, the South-west, and southern California.

Stewart said that his mail, although quite heavily against the bill up until a week or so ago, was now "beginning to even out."

In addition to the mail in favor of the bill, Saltonstall's office has also received "a great number of petitions." One contained over 500 signatures, and several more which arrived yesterday have not yet been tabulated.

According to Saltonstall's assistant, Saltonstall's mail has been somewhat more favorable to the bill than that of some other senators. Reportedly, many are finding that their mail divided fairly evenly.

Keating's Mail Favorable

According to Saltonstall's assistant, mail to Sen. Kenneth Keating (R.N.Y.) was about even until recently, but is now running four or five to one in favor of the bill.

Richard E. Mumma, chaplain to Presbyterian students at Harvard and social education and action chairman of the Presbytery of Boston, has sent a memorandum to Boston-area Presbyterian ministers urging support of the rights bill.