The guardian. [volume] (Boston, Mass.) 1901-1960, 1947-08-30

Miss. It is indeed appalling to
find such individuals in a coun-
try Ike ours in which the very
foundation is liberte, egalite,
fraternite. He passed to the great
beyond as his sumptuouS gray
Cadillac car, the gift of a war
contractor, was still parked out
side the hospital in New orleans
awaiting mis- return. However
Cadillacs, race hatred and cor
ruption do not make character.
This passing closes an episode
which viii be remembered as
symbol of the most offensive
type of political demagogue in
modern history. Yet he was
chosen three times as Senator
from Miss, where more than
half of the citizens are denied
the right to vote because of color
or national origin in defiance of
the U. S. Constitution, the high
est law Of the land.
Although Bilbo was the cham
pion filibusterer of his time and
could talk for hours about the
superiority of "red-blooded An
glo-Saxons' and their divine
right to rule; he was denied his
seat in the U. S. Senate Goth
Congress) due to charges that
he improperly used his high
office for personal gain in deal
ing with war contractors for
which an indictment could have
been brought under Section
6lM-1. Title 10, United States
code, which forbids government
contractors from making contri-
buttons to any political party or
candidate, or to any person for
political purposes, and prohibits
any candidate from soliciting
such contributions from such a
contractor, or at a time when he
is negotiating for a contract or
engaged in performing one.
Although a bipartisan majority
Of the Senate War Investigating
committee found that the evid-
ence clearly indicates that Sen
or Bilbo improperly used his
high office for political gain in
his dealings with war contrac-
tors, and placed the amount Of
such "gratuities or benefits" at
between $57,OS9.O5 and $88,72144,
no effort was made to institute
criminal action.
In view of the fact that sew
eral Senators from the deep
South kept defending Bilbo as a
great champion of states rights
while saying nothing in criticism
of his political, financial and ra-
cial skulduggeries, the Mississip-
plan was enabled to postpone a
showdown On his case, and to
draw his full salary pending a
final decision, as to whether he
might take his seat in the SEN
ate.
This failure to institute pro-
ceedings against Bilbo has never
been adequately explained. When
Representative May of Kentucky
was found to be criminally in
volved with war contractors, he
was indicted, brought to trial
and convicted. SO was Mayor
Curley OF Boston CONVICTED when
found guilty Of defrauding the
mails.
Another report charged Bilbo
with the intimidation and coer-
| cion of colored voters in Miss;
quoting him as urging, all red
blooded Anglo-Saxins" to use
every possible means" to keep
colored citizens of the state from
voting. This is well known fact
which has existed for many years
in all of the deep southern
states. For example in the State
Of Mississippi alone colored citi-
zens comprise about fifty per
cent. of the population, yet not
since the reconstruction period,
1855 1879 have they had any
representation in the U. S. Con-
gress. This was precisely the
cause of the Revolutionary war
against England Taxation
without representation. Al
though the XIVth amendment
to the U. S. Constitution prohi-
bits the abridgement of citizen
sip rights, this important docu-
ment has been completely ig-
nored. However. during the pc
Rod 1S65-1875) there were
twenty two colored Americans in
the U, S. Congress from the
Southern States and several SEN
atorS.
Having the support Of South
ern colleagues, Bilbo, denying
all the charges proposed to fill
buster himself into the Senate
seat. However he was never
seated. Bilbo could not win. 1t
was impossible. And those UNI
fortunate persons with similar
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