Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1944-10-10

to be made Governor Of Tennessee
The name Of the Senator's man wa,
Dossett. The name of the news
paperman was Butler. The election
in Tennessee was 10 days off. Ok
K. D. had 1t in the ba-ag.
THE customary cut roses on tn,
bedside table were fresh and up.
right, but the men in the room werl
stricken. As soon as Butler saw
them, he quashed his own clipper.
ness. The bottom, he knew quickly
had dropped out of paradise. One
man just stared out the window
Another dug with his broad toe al
the green carpet. A third kneaded
clammy fingers and chewed his syn
thetic teeth.
Humid Awfulness."
There was a heavy humid awful
ness in the room. Old X. D. him
self, in wrinkled collapse ir
his chair, plainly was going down
for the third time in the Slough of
Despond. His never-quite- clean
crows wing of hair was ruffled from
distraught finger-combing and a
little frost of dandruff sprinkled
the lapels of his broadcloth, but
this by itself was not extraordinary
1.-THE fateful yellow message hung
In the old mans fingers.
Boss Crump had jumped, after
all and without warning, not to
Dossett, but to the other fellow.
THE election was over. The cleo
ton for Governor among the 3,O00,-
600 people of Tennessee was over
three weeks before election day."
The book is called Democracy
Begins at Home" The author is
Jennings Perry, editor Of the Nash
vile Tennessean. 1t is the story OF
the fight to date against the poll
tax In the State Of Tennessee, q
very thrilling fight, not yet fin
ished
Defeated for the time being by an
astounding decision of the State Su-
preme Court, which in effect denied
the right Of the Legislature to re-
peal its own acts, crusaders against
the tax have transferred the battle
to the United States Senate.
They already have won the battle
in the House, where Federal legis-
lation to abolish the poll tax has
been passed twice by overwhelming
votes. In the Senate they have been
defeated thus far by filibusters, or
sitdown strikes, as the author calls
this Senate parliamentary tech
nique. Sufficient votes to pass the
legislation are available in the Sen
ate once the sitdown strike is broken.
Mr.. Perry provides a racy, excit-
Ing narrative of the struggle to end
one-man rule in his home state. Ed
Crump, Memphis boss, Is naturally
the villain of the piece and the
author doesn't spare him, although
you detect a sort of sneaking admir-
alton for the boss as contrasted with
the puppets, among whom are listed
the Governor and the two United
States Senators. On the other hand
Mr.. Perry does not leave the reader
with the illusion that elimination Of
the Memphis political master woulc
end Tennessee's political blues. II II
were not Mr.. Crump, 1t would be
somebody else, the poll tax making
machine organization. and machine
control OF politics inevitable, in hi
opinion.
A useful accomplishment of the
book Is the debunking of the white
supremacy issue. The absurdity OF
the fear of Negro domination is
made very clear in the case of Ten
nessee. The Negroes form only 16
per cent Of Tennessee's population
and they vote. They vote, that Is, II
they pay the poll tax-or, as Is fire.
quentfy the case, both as to Negroes
and whites, if they permit the
organization to pay the poll tax for
them.
One success achieved during the
present crusade has been the elm
nation Of county poll taxes, as dis
tinct from State poll taxes. One
county, maintaining this tax in the
name Of white supremacy, was