Detroit evening times. (Detroit, Mich) 1921-1958, 1944-11-27
POLITICAL.
PARADE
By George
RothwelI Brown

BEFORE the next elections
~ roll around the left-wing
New Deal is going to move in
on the Bourbon South.
Vice President w allace
sounded the keynote Of what Is
coming in the sharp challenge to
southern conservatism he threw
down in the speech he delivered
before the Chicago convention.
Complete equality in employ
ment and wages in the South.
That was the Wallace defiance.
and il took a lot of political
courage for him 10 throw IL
squarely into the teeth of the
white class in the South that
employs cheap Negro labor.
The purpose of this piece OF
analysis is to deal only with the
question of congressional re
FORM" so called, involved in
what the Congress OF Industrial
Organizations and the Political
Action Committee have in mind,
in the forthcoming attempt to
organize southern labor and
raise the standard of purchas-
ing power, regardless of color,
along the lines Of Wallace's
dictum.
A S THE rapidly strengthening
"A northern political power
centering in Go organized labor
attempts to cash in on the last
election in which it 30 thor
oughly d m strated that
power. there will come an inevi-
table showdown with the SOUTH
ern political power as en-
trenched in Congress.
That power is now possessed
by minority party, for that is
what the Democratic party of
Cleveland and Wilson has be-
come under Roosevelt.
This minority party holds
most of the places of real power
in Congress. 1t has been un-
disturbed, because until now it
has been content to use that
power, not TO thwart the left
wing, but to take orders from
the left-wing, thus becoming the
rubber stamp for the real policy
making group of the New Deal,
which exists outside the capitol.
Congress is showing a dis
position to take back the policy
making power from the left
wing bureaucracy, which is all
shades in complexion, from
delicate pink to a bright red.
When this attempt is made
the conflict will be on!
1T IS. of course. an anomaly,
L that. a section of the country
no longer essential to New Deal
control of the government
should possess a dominant
power in Congress.
But the South is no longer
essential to Roosevelt, or any
successor like him, who can hold
together the various groups,
from, Democratic to Communis-
tic, in the industrialized states
having large blocs of electoral
votes.
Roosevelt would have been
elected for a fourth term il the
127 electoral votes of the South
had been cast against him.
Yet the states whose party
has now become minority
party, control Congress through
control of the committees OF
Senate and House.
Southern senators control Is
Of the 33 major committees OF
the Senate, and these Is are the
most important, with the excep-
ton of naval affairs, banking
and currency, education and
labor, and interstate commerce.
TIIIS vast power in Congress
Il is wholly out of proportion
with the, 127 electoral votes Of
the South, and a dwnidling
popular vote. A real reform OF
Congress-and watch the left
wineers attempt 1.-THE South
will oppose with its back to the
well-known wall.
And whose fault will il be,
that this fight for survival will
be forced upon 1t?
It will be the South's own
fault. In II years of subservi-
ency to the New Deal ii has
created a power that is now
strong enough to challenge its