Evening star., 1938-01-22
A Puzzled South.

A Puzzled South.
The South, which once dominated
Democratic policies and the Democratic
party, Is puzzled-not to say "peeved"
An impression is growing that the North
and the West have "ganged up" against
1t. Certain Southern legislators are look
Ing the situation over with anything but
pleasure.
They feel that an effort is being made,
through the proposed wages-and hours
oill to stif1e the industries which they
have been able to build up in the last
quarter century. Because the South has
had the advantage Of cheaper labor costs,
1t has taken from the North and East
very considerable part of the textile in
dustry. The lumber industry of the
Northwest also has begun to feel the
pinch of Southern competition more and
more in recent years, because of the same
kind of wage differential.
The ten States of the so-called Demo-
cratic solid South" have twenty Sena-
tors, and the five border States, Ken
lucky, Tennessee. Maryland, Oklahoma
and West Virginia, have ten more. But
they account for only thirty of the sew
enty-six Democratic members of the
Senate today. This means that the
North and West have forty-six Demo-
Gratis in the upper house. 1t is very
clear that under these circumstances,
the South can no longer be called the
dominating force in the Democratic
party in the Senate. The same is true
in the House.
Under these circumstances, the power
OF Southern Democrats to fight off sue
cessfully and permanently the economic
measures which the Northern and Wes-
tern Democrats seek to enact into law
and impose upon the South has become
attenuated almost to the vanishing point.
1t is true that in the special session of
Congress last December, the wages-and-
hours bill was halted and sent back to
committee. That, however, was due not
only to Southern opposition-which was
not complete-but also to the opposition
Of some of the Republicans to this par
ticular legislation and to the fact that
the American Federation of Labor was
not pleased with the bill, although the
Committee for Industrial Organization
gave its blessing to the measure.
The attack by the administration forces
in support of new wages land hours bill
has already been Indicated It will be
resumed as soon as possible. With this
measure In the ofang, the Southern DEM
ocrats in the Senate have been again
aroused by the effort of their Demo-
cratic colleagues of the North and West
to force upon them the anti-lynching bill,
measure they consider directed particu-
larly at the Southland a bid for the
Negro vote in the great industrial cities of
the North and the West.
The Southerners in Congress could
more easily reconcile themselves to these
attacks upon their interests if they came
from the Republican party They do not
relish the idea that they are being pressed
to the wall by members of their own
party. The feeling of resentment which
is smoldering in the hearts of Southern
Democrats in Congress has spread, 1t is
reported, to many of the people in South
ern States. They are becoming vocal and
holding meetings to discuss the situation,
There is no slightest doubt that Demo-
Gratis, as well as Republicans, from the
North and West, are pressing to wipe out
the advantage which the South has had
in the matter of industrial expansion,
through the lower wages and the lower
costs of living in that region. The South,
which has been fighting its way from the
depths which followed the Civil War, does
not relish this new attack.
1t may be that wages-and- hours law
will be drawn that will, for the present
at least, give the South the continued
benefit of differentials in pay and hours.
Presumably some such assurance has
been conveyed to Southern Governors
who have announced themselves for the
principle of wages-and-hours bill But
Southern Democrats in Congress see this
as merely an entering wedge-which
eventually will overcome all advantages
which their section of the country now
possesses.