Bob Considine’s On the Line Tribune Sept 27-57 General Speaks Out in Dixie: Obey Law - Nothing to Fear LITTLE ROCK, Sept. 26 - If you were a puzzled white student registered and present in Central High School, here in this troubled town on the day the nine Negro kids were forcibly integrated, you would have heard a general speak as few military men have before him. Mr. Considine He was a 47-year-old two star officer named Edwin A. Walker … West Point ‘31 … Aleutians … Italy … France … Germany … Korea. He trained Rangers in how to break a neck. This day he tried to train children in how to save necks, including perhaps their own. “The Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States,” he began, while the Negro students neared the school, “guarantees to all citizens the equal protection of the laws. “Since the adoption of this amendment, many states have provided separate schools for their children on the basis of color. The laws establishing such schools have, however, been challenged in the courts; and about three years ago the Supreme Court of the United States determined that such laws are contrary to the provisions of the Fourteenth Amendment and consequently invalid. “THIS DECISION by the highest court in the land is, of course, an authoritative interpretation of our Constitution, is binding on all citizens and government officers, both state and federal, and may not, under our law, be changed except by an amendment to the Constitution.” He measured his audience as he might a regiment. “During the past few weeks, as you are well aware, the situation in Little Rock has been such as to prevent the entrance of a few students into your high school. Therefore, to see that the laws of the land be faithfully executed, the President has found it necessary to call the National Guard of Arkansas into the federal service and has directed that this force and such other armed forces as may be made available be used to enforce the orders of the court. As an officer of the United States Army, I have been chosen to command these forces and to execute the President’s orders.” He said there was nothing to fear from his soldiers, but left the strong impression that he would not and could not tolerate interference with what he had been charged with doing. Walker’s great contribution, the future may show, is that he embodies discipline, typifies the conformist to such a degree that his example could conceivably become epidemic, even in a region that generally wants integration as little as the rock of the same name.