Evening star., 1948-09-13
No Southern Cumpoiqn

There may be more than meets the eye
In the unofficial report that President
Truman has abandoned plans for an ex-
tended campaign tour in the South. AS
an alternative, according to this report, the
President is thinking now of making few
speeches at selected spots or, perhaps, a
single brief tour of what once was almost
certain Democratic territory.
II this report Is true, 1t is not because
the Southern States, as formerly, are
safely in the Democratic column. On the
contrary, sizable bloc of Southern elec-
toral votes is irretrievably lost to Mr.. Tru-
man. And, barring a major shift in pol
icy, a fighting campaign in the South
might well cost him still more votes
rather than regain any of those already
lost. The dilemma, briefly, is this: Mr..
Truman cannot reverse himself on hts
civil rights" program without alternating
the votes of pressure groups in the North
and East which are deemed essential to
Democratic political success At the same
time, he cannot campaign in the South
as a champion of the civil rights program
without driving still more Southern voters
out of the Democratic Party
This state of affairs stimulates specula-
ton as to whether the Democratic Party,
having aligned itself with those who advo-
cate the use of Federal power to break
down social and economic patterns in the
South, Is not now faced with the perma-
nent loss of that Southern support which,
in good times and bad, it has heretofore
enjoyed.
To a very marked degree, the Democratic
Party has become the party of groups and
interests that are antithetical to the in
terests of the dominant political elements
In the South. Spokesman for the Presi-
dent make no secret of their view that the
party must hold the Negro vote in States
like New York, Pennsylvania and Illinois.
The same thing is true of the Jewish vote
in places like New York City. But in
order to hold the votes Of these groups
against the Republicans, who are vigor-
ously competing for them, the Democrats
are compelled to embrace policies that
are anathema to the South And to the
extent that one can look into the political
future, this is going to be even more true
henceforth than it has been in the past.
Every SGTdW III GlfC pOllGlCdl Wllluo pOlllOS
to the conclusion that the Democratic
Party, as 1t rebuilds after this election,
will build on basis that will make 1t
more rather than less Objectionable to its
Southern wing.
This being so, the natural expectation
is that the Southern revolt which this
year seems poorly organized and somewhat
aimless will prove to be a viable thing.
For whatever the surface appearance may
be, it is not so much revolt against Mr..
Truman, the individual, as it is revolt
against party policy. And it is hard to
see how that policy, from the Southern
point of view, can change for the better,
regardless of who the next presidential
candidate may be.
1t is this fact, plus the additional con-
sideration that the Republican Party has
nothing more palatab1e to offer the South,
that makes the present political uprising
such an uncertain thing. Within the two
party system, the South has no place to
Co. So, somewhat blindly perhaps, it Is
being driven to third party status-a
third party which would use its electoral
votes for bargaining purposes with the
two major parties. The precise steps by
which this will come about are hard to
foresee. But the chances are that it will
be done, one way or another.