The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1928-11-10

he carried Boston, New Bedford and
the textile mill towns on the basis
of the deep discomfort growing out
of the textile depression. Analysis
shows that in fourteen big indus
trial cities Smith got 3,420,0O0 votes
and Hoover only 3,375,000 votes.
New Class Relations in the Solid
South.
One of the most remarkable fea-
lures of the election is the breaking
up of the solid south. For the first
time since the civil war the repub-
lican party carried Florida, Virginia,
Texas and North Carolina, and also
received large vote in the other
southern states. The solid south had
hitherto been under the reign of a
virtual one-party system. The plan
tation owners fear of the Negro
masses had kept the democratic
party, as the undisputed political
ruler of the south, in power for the
past two generations. 1t is very
superficial, shallow Interpretation
to explain the breakine-up of the
solid south by the outburst of re-
ligious prejudices, by the mobiliza-
ton Of the Protestant Church, the
Ku Klux Khan and the American
Legion, or by the liquor question
alone. One has to dig deeper to
find the class meaning of the break
ing-up of the solid south.
The penetration of the South by
capitalism, the rapid industralizatior
of the Southern States is chiefly re.
sponsible for the new political situa.
ton there. Before the introduction
of manufacturing the Solid South
stood as unit against the capital
istic republican party, which repre-.
sented protective tariff and the lib.
Grafton of the Negro slaves, against
the interests of the plantation own.
ers.
Steel, textile and mining based
on cheap labor and water power
have today become one of the mair
features of the life of the South
Capitalism brought with it new pc.
litical relations.
Three main currents in the class
forces turned against the democratic
party in the South.
The first one was the newly ere.
ated modern industrial bourgeoisie
of the South. These capitalist ele-
ments feel political affinity with
the republican party as the chief po-
litical organization of industrial CAPT
tai.
The second class force which
turned against the democrats in. the
South was the mass discomfort of
the, petty bOurgeoisie, which suffers
under the new capitalist conditions
and which turned the impetus of its
discomfort against the hitherto rul-
ing party of the South and went over
to the republicans. 1t is the irony of
political life that these petty-bour-
geois elements in the south--who
form the most backward section of
the countr yand are under the COM
plete domination of the medieval
forces of the Methodist Church and
the Ku Klux Khan and the American
Legion, and who still think in feudal,
religious terms-made the democra-
tic party responsible for the new
evils of the newly created capitalist
conditions in the South and turned
their support to the republican party,
which is the stronghold of trustified
capitalism.
The third factor is the following:
AL Smith, the candidate of the demo-
cratic party, who rose from the
Sidewalks Of New York." the rep
resentative Of the new" bourgeoisi-
fled Tammany Hall, and his cam
paign manager Raskob, multi-mil-
lionaire chairman of the finance
committee of General Motors, ap.
peared in the eyes of the backward
petty bourgeois masses of the small
Southern towns as the representa-
tives of all the evils Of big city life,
with it's "looseness," liquor, 'sight
life" and ruination of the petty
bourgeoisie by trusts, department