The Chronicle-star combined with the Moss Point advertiser., 1946-06-28
No Third Term For Bilbo
IAN Editoriall

pulleu all Le TICK VI OitiSdl OldIoIyt Ldi q
crowd of Jackson county voters for two and one-half hours
and during the course of the talk made his usual prepos-
ferrous claims to bolster a record as United States Senator
that is CONSPICUOUS only because of its sadness.
This newspaper had acused Bilbo of voting in the
United States Senate to kill price controls and let prices
soar at the cost of the working man. We thought he was
going to deny it, even though his vote is on record. He
didn't deny it, however. He simply told the crowd that the
OPA-the machinery for keeping prices down by law-was
a bad law. He said it was the worse law on the books. And
he said-right there in front of a crowd of spectators, most
of whom had to work hard for a salary-that he left Mis-
sissippi by airpane two weeks ago for Washington be-
cause Il got a message from Oscar Johnson asking me to
go up there and help pull the teeth out of OPA"
Now who is Oscar Johnson. the man whose request
caused the Senator to desert his campaign tor re-elec-
ton and fly to Washington to help kill OPA. Oscar
Johnson happens to be the head of the largest cotton
combine in the state Ia combine partly owned by Brit
ish stockholders) and one of the biggest. richest plant
ers in the Delta. Oscar Johnson Just bought one of the
first 100000 private luxury yachts sold in this coun-
try since the war. What does Oscar Johnson care how
much a h~eavY-duty cotton workshirt or overalls will
cost six months from now to the farmer or the shipYard
worker. Oscar Johnson can afford to buy the first
100000 yacht made and sold since the war. The fact is
on page 2S7 of Fortune magazine-the magazine of the
business communication the month of June.
Senator Bilbo talked on for going on three hours about
what a great friend of the farmer he was, and what a
great friend of the working man. The Senator declared he
was for everybody-who could cast a vote. He told us
price control was bad for uS-and so we are expected to
believe it. I'm the friend of you working boys, he said.
Think that over, voters of Jackson county. Is living
going to get easier on the amount of money you make? Are
your hard-earned dollars buying more and more groceries,
gasoline, cigarettes furniture? Or is your money buying less
and less as the weeks go ov? We all know the answer
and the result lies at the door of this friend of the working
man" and other members of the Senate who voted to kill
OPA against the overwhelming wishes of the people they
misrepresent.
The rest of his talk was so per cent of preposterous
nonsense-much of it made up of fantastic and ridiculous
claims, and 90 per cent of viscious, dangerous and cruel
agitation of the race question.
First let's take some of the legislation to which Sena-
tor Bnbo laid claim.
He talked of the ~Tombigbee canal, certainly a fine
project and one any Senator from Mississippi, Alabama
or Tennessee would be a fool to oppose, and from the way
he talked you would have thought he was personally en-
gagged in the digging of it. He told us the old story of cotton
seed oil, how once it was thrown away and is now used
for valuable products. He told us the story of corn flakes
and that Old Gold cigarettes now use apple honey made
from damaged apples. He told us of penicillin and how the
ability of his" regional research laboratories to mass
produce it during the war saved the lives of countless
American soldiers.
This last aroused our curiosity and we wondered about
his regional research laboratories.
From the way he talked, one would have thought that
Senator Bilbo not only built these beautiful and useful
research Laboratories, but had personally supervised their
experiments. AS a result we teIegraphed the Associated
Press at Washington to give us information as to who in
PRODUCED in the House and Senate the bill responsible for
the establishment of these laboratories throughout the
country and we quote the following telegram in reply:
REGIONAL agriculture research laboratories au-
thorized under Agricultural Adjustment Act of 1898.
introduced by Former Rep. Marvin Jones tDemocratl
Texas. Companion bill introduced in Senate by former
Senators Pope Democratl. Iowa; and George Nc
Gill Democratl. Kansas. 1t was the House Bill which
became law"
The publics memory is some times short and this
was eight years ago, but the record-black ink on white
-paper-endures, and this record shows that Bilbo, despite
his preposterous claims made throughout the state, not
only had nothing to do with the introduction of the bill
responsible for the establishment of the laboratories. but
that also the bill originating in the House of Representa-
tves and NOT in the Senate, was responsible.
AS for the agitation of the race question, it is both
cruel and dangerous. The negroes of Mississippi are on the
whole Woodworking, simple, humble people. They have
worked side by side among us here for two centuries. They
are as familiar to us as our pine trees. AS long as we
provide the leadership of honorable and just white men, we
have nothing to fear from the Negro. Let us get this mad
ness of race hatred out of our heads and hearts. Facts
have been grossly misrepresented. and Senator Bilbo tells
us that the Negro intends to go en- masse to the polls. Facts
are, shown by an Associated Press poll of the states
registration, that approximately 5000 Negroes are regis
tered in the state, and approximately 100000 voters will
cast their ballots in Tuesdays primary.
We have heard Bilbo supporters saying from time
to time during this campaign that this fellow or that fell
low has been saying Il never voted for Bilbo in my life but
I'm going to vote for him now because there is a crisis
Good readers, Bilbo has been using this political trick for
most of his forty years in public life. There is no crisis
threatening Mississippi that Bilbo is needed to solve. There
is no problem facing our State that another qualified man
could not solve better. Bilbo has solved nothing of major
import during his long career. We think great numbers
of former Bilbo voters have learned his, and will vote
auaipef a tksrJ term, - election laxy