Robert G. Spivack of the New York Post asked the President, "Mr. President, with regards to the situation in Alabama, how do you feel about Negroes being brought to trial for refusing to ride the Montgomery buses?"

The President replied:

"Well, you are asking me, I think, to be more of a lawyer than I certainly am.

"But, as I understand it, there is a state law about boycotts, and it is under that kind of thing that these people are being brought to trial.

"I think that the statement I made last week on this whole subject represents the views that I now, all the views I now have to make; and I do believe that it is incumbent on all the South to show some progress. That is what the Supreme Court asked for. And they turned it over to local district courts.

"I believe that we should not stagnate but again I plead for understanding, for really sympathetic consideration of a problem that is far larger, both in its emotional and even in its physical aspects that most of us realize."

(The New York Post has two staff artists covering the Montgomery boycott trials. They are drawing courtroom pictures for publication in the New York newspaper.)

In other press questioning:

J. Anthony Lewis, New York Times - "Mr. President, do you have any plans to mobilize religious or other leaders of the South to your point of view of moderation and progress, on the segregation?"

A - "Well . . .That is one thing that Billy Graham teaches not only abroad, he teaches it among ourselves and, frankly, I believe that the pulpits do have a very great responsibility here.

"This is a very tough one, and people have to search their own hearts if we are going to get a decent answer and keep going ahead.

"Now, let's don't try to think of this as a tremendous fight that is going to separate Americans and get ourselves into a nasty mess.

"Let's try to think of it of how can we make progress and keep it going and not stop it. Now that, I believe, the pulpits can help on."

Edward P. Morgan, American Broadcasting Co. - "Mr. President, a number of prominent Southern conservative Democrats, supported you actively in 1952, and many of these since have indicated their defiance of the Supreme Court's decision on segregation.

In view of what you said just a moment ago, would you accept such support in '56?"

A - I don't believe they expressed their defiance. I believe they expressed their belief that it was in error, and they have talked about using legal means to circumvent or to get it, whatever the expression they have used.

I do not believe that anyone, the ones that I know, have used the words “defy the Supreme Court,” because when we carry the point, when we carry this to the ultimate, rember that the Constitution, as interpreted by the Supreme Court, is our basic law.

The one thing is, though, the basic law appears to change as I pointed out last week. It was one thing in 1896, and it is a very greatly different thing now.

O, there are emotions, very deep emotions, connected with this problem. Consequently, these people, they have, of course, their free choice as to what they want to do. As far as I am concerned, I am for moderation, but I am for progress; that is exactly what I am for in this thing.