Mayors of Southern Cities to Meet on Checking Bombing of Synagogues

The mayors and police officials of Jacksonville, Miami, Nashville and Birmingham–the four cities where synagogues and Jewish centers were bombed in recent weeks–will attend a conference on Saturday at Jacksonville to discuss measures aimed at checking further terror, it was revealed here today. It was also revealed that the U.S. Attorney General had refused to send a Federal attorney to aid and advise the conference.

The refusal of the Attorney General provoked sharp criticism here today on the part of six Southern Senators who differ with the opinion of the Department of Justice that the matter of the bombings should be handled locally by the states. The Southern Senators insist that Federal assistance in the apprehension of the terrorists must be given.

The Southern Senators are angered over the turnabout in the traditional “states’ rights” controversy taken by the Federal authorities. One Senator, declining to be quoted, said the national administration dispatched an “airborne army” to Little Rock, Ark., but when called on by local citizens for intervention against the synagogue conspiracy has refused even to send a Federal adviser. The Senators feel that a conspiracy crossing state lines provides Attorney General William P. Rogers with justification to intercede.

The six Senators who made known their views to the Department of Justice are Senators Smathers and Holland of Florida; Kefauver and Gore of Tennessee, and Hill and Sparkman of Alabama. They forwarded requests from mayors of the four cities for Federal help in determining if a conspiracy existed involving the crossing of state lines. A question also has been raised by the Southerners as to whether the bombings do not constitute a violation of the constitutional guarantee of freedom of religion.