The Chronicle-star combined with the Moss Point advertiser., 1945-11-09
The BiIbo Record

Georgia under the governorship of young
Ellis Arnall, we are impressed by the evil
dence of what an economically handicapped
Southern state can do for itself when it gets
rid of the empty-headed, inefficient, ranting
type of government of which the ~Talmadges,
Tom Watsons and Bilbos are prime examples.
Georgia under Eugene Talmadge was a
political disgrace to the goth Century. The
state was millions of dollars in debt, and
management of departments was carried on
with such fantastic inefficiency that it took
auditors months to find out exactly what
Georgia's financial situation was after Tai
madge left office. Not only that, but even
proud and self-respecting Southerners like
the Georgians had let their legislature vote
this ranting, "one-gallus" politician complete
power over most state departments. And
Georgia was in as sorry a fix as Louisiana
under the Huey Long gang, and Mississippi
under the administration of Bilbo.
And then young Ellis Arnall, Georgia's at
torney general, stepped up to the stump and
began to make sense, and the people of Geor-
gia sent Eugene Talmadge back to the Ku
klux Khan and made Arnall governor. In
the three years that have passed since then
the huge Georgia public debt has been vir-
tually wiped out. The schools system has
been improved ,sthe pardons racket abolished,
and the mess and stencil of the Talmadge
regime pretty well cleaned up. And in the
eyes of the nation today, Georgia has changed
from the land of Tobacco Road" and "Geor-
gia chain gangs" to a hard-hitting progressive
Southern state where reason and human dig
nifty are staging a comeback against the hat
reds and moral corruption of the Talmadge
gang
Ellis Arnalls administration in Geor-
gia has done more for Southern business
prosperity in his own state and In the
entire South than any administration in
modern Southern history. He put a halt
to the practice of selling his state on the
block to absentee ownership from Wall
street. He had The brains and courage
to carry the South's freight rate fight to
the Supreme Court. and win 1t. BY low
ering the shipping rates of southern fac
tories he gave native southern industry
the greatest shot-in-the-a arm 1t has ever
had. and a chance to escape the golden
ring in the nose which SO often has been
held by Northern absentee owners.
Arnall did this without any of the mali
clous, maudl1n and contemplate ranting of
the Talmadge, Bilbo and Huey Long type.
But let us get this one thing straight: this
young Georgia governor is a Southern patriot
ana a good American whose size towers
above the demagogues. To be a friend of the
people takes the ability and the CUTS to create
a progressive program and made it stick for
farmer, for laborer, for business man. To be
a genuine 24-karat friend of the people takes
Hot eh'ai liz dpilty 10 wreck the demo-
cratic procedures of the great Senate of the
United States with a filibuster whose single
purpose is to get reelected and stay fat on
the public payroll.
HAS Iheo. Bilbo ever conceived and COM
pleted one great public issue that was not
based ON hatred, deception. race agitation.
and general chicainery? He has zone less
good for Mississippi and more harm for Mis-
Sissippi, and the South in general, than any
man still In public life. He is cut off the
same bolt of cloth with Eugene Talmadge.
tieians like Ellis Arnall. who. althougR ppoIi-
ticlans, play the game with intelligence and
basic honesty; who are leading their own Sec
ton OF the South to a new day of progress
and stralght-thinking, following the long dry
season of demagogues.