No unified effort has developed, but individual legislators are busy on plans they think might work. One House member, Rep. N. S. Hare, of Monroe County, said he has several" ideas but he decline to discuss them in detail.

More immediate action may come meanwhile from state and local authorities based on their authority to regulate public utilities and the use of the streets.

In Montgomery, where the bus segregation test case originated, city officials have promised to seek "every legal means" of enforcing all segregation laws despite the Supreme Court decree. But if the city Commission has anything definite in mind, it hasn't been made public.

On the state level, President Jack Owen of the Public Service Commission which administers state segregation laws, commented, "It looks like we can go under our rulemaking power" to keep white and Negro passengers seated separately.

Without mentioning racial differences, Owen said the PSC might be able to enforce seating arrangements "to prevent violence, keep down disorder."

That suggestion came, too, from Rep. Hare, who speculated that the Legislature might "authorize" bus drivers to seat their riders "for the convenience of the passengers," especially on crowded buses.

Hare conceded that any action taken "voluntarily" by a transit company to segregate passengers might invite damage suits under federal civil rights laws, but be said the Legislature could offer some protection.

The south Alabama legislator, who helped draft the present "Freedom of Choice" law aimed at preserving school segregation, said he has one bill already written that might "solve part of the problem" on bus lines.

It would allow women passengers to occupy an entire seat and refuse to share it with another rider, without mention of race or segregation. Thus a woman could prevent another passenger of either race from sitting next to her.

"That would benefit Negroes as well as white people," Hare reasoned. "Bus drivers frequently get complaints from women about men of their same race annoying them. This plan would give the drivers a way to stop that."

However, the Monroeville attorney said he hasn't received "too much favorable reaction" since he first announced the plan several weeks ago and that he isn't sure he will go though with it.

ENGELHARDT READY

Sen. Sam Engelhardt of Macon County said he has "25 or 30 segregation bills in process of drafting, but they don't all deal with buses. He declined to elaborate.

Engelhardt said "about the best idea I've heard" is the suggestion from Congressman Winstead (D-Miss) that individuals might pool their resources and buy their own buses, or form cooperatives to haul only members.

Another legislator, Sen. Vaughan Hill Robison of Montgomery, said "If anything can be done (by the Legislature) to preserve segregation on the buses, I am sure it will be." At any rate, he said "some research ought to be done."

Rep. Virgis Ashworth of Bibb County said he, too, plans to give "a great deal of thought" to the segregation problem before the Legislature meets.

Like Engelhardt, he said he thought there is merit in the bus co-op idea.