The Dayton forum. [volume] (Dayton, Ohio) 1913-1949, 1938-01-21
CONTINUING HE FIGHT
AGAINST The SOUTHS
'UNRECONSrRUCTED REBELS


and Republicans, is professional
knife-wielder against wages and
hours legislation, Supreme Court re-
form and against all progressive leg
isIation in behalf of the people.
Glass is an example of those re-
actionary Southern Democratic Off
Gals who still refuse to accept the
18th, 18th, and 18th amendments as
the law Of the land and who seek
to hold the Negro people in a steel
wise of super-oppression.
UnhoIy Alliance
And what is the Herald Tribune
which gloats over "unreconstructed
rebel" Glass? It is the same paper
which is leading the fascist-minded
attack on the New Deal, attacks
which frequently shade into lynch
melting editorials against President
Roosevelt.
There is new "unholy alliance
between the reactionary Southern
Democratic indnstrialists and land
lords on the one hand, and the Re-
publican Tories in the North on the
other. And it bears the seeds Of
fascism against the American peo-
pie. 1t is an alliance of the Wall
Street industrialists with the South
ern lynch officials. The Republican
Party, once the party Of progress and
Negro rights, is now party of the
reactionary Hooyers and Vanden-
bergs, allied with the reactionaries
in the Democratic Party.
On the other hand there are pro
gressives in both parties progress
sives who are backing the fight for
wages and hours legislation, Su--
preme Court reform, for the anti
lynching bill and other peoples leg
islation. These are the progressives
who, allied with the rock-bottom
foundation Of labor, are supporting
the New Deal and pushing ahead to
an American Peoples Front-a ma
tional Farmer-Labor Party.
Progressive Spirit
These are the democratic forces
carrying forward the torch of pro-
gress, which fickered in the South
curing the Reconstruction period.
The spirit OF the progressive South
is also beginning to burn brightly
again. This was shown in the recent
defeat Of the Negro-hating anti
| labor ex-senator Heflin, again in ths
| voice Of the New South which favors
an anti-lynehing bill, in the progress
sive Texas Congressman, Maurl
Maverick. The solid .unreconstruct
ed" South which the President inn
piled in his remarks is not SO solid
today.
The fight for the constitutional
rights of the Negro people in the
South and for progress and de-
mocracy in the South and in the ma
TONS the continuation of that fight
which was begun by the Civil War
! and which brought limited fruits Of
victory in the Reconstruction period
Example of Unity
1t was Lincoln-not the "unre-
constructed rebels in the South
who symbolized the traditions Of
progressive America through the
Emancipation Proclamation and
through the enactment of the 18th
18th, and 18th Amendments.
And in the mutual anti--slaverS
cooperation between Lincoln and ths
great Negro AboIitionist, Frederick
Douglass, we have the historic ex-
ample of the unity of the Negro peo-
pie with the forces of progress fol
| the sorely needed preservation ant
! and extension of democracy in tht
South today
| The President must extend hi
/ fight not only against the "con-
| demned minority of Wall Stree
but also against their "unrecon-
| structed rebel allies in the Souti
if the people are to be victorious.