Evening star., 1936-06-25
END HELD THREAT
.- TO SOCIAL SYSTEM
"Bourbons" Fear Repeal to
Jeopardize 0ne-Party
Control.
BY JAY G. HAYDEN.


PHILADELPHIA. June IS (NAN.A).
Unless the machine presided over by
James A. Farley slips cog, the Demo-
cratic National Convention today will
abrogate its century-old two-thirds
rule and with it also will 60, to great
extent, the Bourbon democracy Of the
old South which, through 100 years,
has exercised a great influence in the
partys affairs.
The Bourbons fought savegely
against this change before the Rules
Committee and they will repeat this
performance on the floor Of the con-
vention, but they know defeat is in
evitable and they are resigned to 1t
because, even in their own States,
their control Is none too sure. Their
delegations are sprinkled thickly with
the pay roll boys of the New Deal,
who speak for the masses of unem-
ployed workers and tenant farmers
whereas the Bourbons speak for the
classes.
To the Bourbons, who are lineal de-
scendants Of the slave holders Of pre-
Civil War days, the two-thirdS rule is
synonymous with States rights. States
: rights, in their eyes, is the backbone
of the one-party political system and
this, in its turn, is essential If the
economic feudalism which traditionally
: has existed in the South. is to continue.
Fear Danger to Social System.
The Southern philosophy has been
that anything which tended to divide
the white voters of their States in ma
tional affairs was destructive of this
social system, and that is what the
New Deal has done. 1t has benefited
directly the Negroes and the poor
white share croppers and set the latter
politically in opposition to the planters
and other property owners.
Adjustment of the thirds rule.
as the old-school Southerners see it,
Is just another step in this same di-
rection. The effect Of this action, they
believe, will be, first, to put the North
eastern industrial States, from which
most Of the measures of economic and
social reform have emanated, in the
saddle, and second, it threatens the
Southern unity of action in national
affairs, which is requisite to contin-
@uance of the one-party system. Above
all it is feared that it will accentuate
a the race issue
I. The Southern speakers against abro-
CATION of the tWo-thirds rule-Gov.
: James B. Alfred of Texas, Gov. Bibb
Graves of Alabama and Representa-
tive Edward E. Cox of Georgia-dealt
gingerly with the social and economic
phases, but no one familiar with the
Southern situation could doubt that
these were in their minds. They did
stress what Representative Cox termed
the transfer of power in the Demo-
cratic party from the center of area
to the center of population" which,
he said, abrogation of the two-thirds
rule would bring about. They pleaded
with the West to stand with the
South against domination of the party
by the industrial East
u See Penalty for Regularity.
J. Representative Cox declared that an
effect of the change would be that
PENNSYLVANIA, which consistently has
been Republican in national elections,
would exercise more authority in the
: Democratic party than half a dozen
States of the South, which have been
as uniformly Democratic; that it
would penalize the South for its party
regularity. The next STEP after abro-
CATION of the two-thirds rule, he said
further, would be attempts by the
Northern majority to interfere with
the suffrage laws of the South, by
which, of course, he meant interfer-
ence with the Southern laws which
prevent the Negroes from voting.
Gov. Alfred declared that the pro-
posed change in the rule would deliver
! the Democratic party completely into
the control of the financial interests
sof the East, by making it possible for
seven or eight of the big industrial
States to nominate the candidates ard
dictate the platform.
. The same feeling which has caused
many of the Southern Senators and
4, W Ddlh az lColdCAAG
Roosevelt's social and economic re-
forms is very much in evidence in
the Southern delegations at this con-
svention. If the Southern Representa-
'tives here held the power to nullify
the New Deal they probably would do
so, but they know they are a hope
less minority in the convention, and
also, many of them are frankly doubt
full as to whether theirs is the view
of majority of the voters of their
States. Roosevelt has a powerful
hold on the rank and file of voters in
the South, as was evidenced by the
overwhelming defeat of the attempt
Of Gov. Eugene Talmadge of Georgia
to name delegation opposed to him.
Resistance Is Passive.
1t is because they know that any
open fight against Roosevelt's policies
would split wide open the Democratic
party in their State that Senators Car
ter Glass and Harry F. Byrd of Vir-