St. Paul recorder. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1934-2000, 1948-05-28
BETWEEN
THE
LINES
BY GORDON B. HANCOCK
A REVOLT IN REVERSE

/
That the south's political revolt is
now in reverse can no longer be
doubted or denied. At first the
revolt seemed a serious matter with
governors from the southern region
going into a huddle about President
Truman and his civil rights recon-
mendations. But it seems that ev-
cry meeting sees fewer and fewer
southern leaders willing to take the
long plunge that the revolt logical
ly demands. Boiling the Democra-
tic party is not the slight thing it
is Cracked up to be" and this some
Of the more bellicose southerners
have found to their chagrin and dis
may and confusion.
The south Is growing morally in
ways few take time to ponder and
the latest failure Of the south to be
stampeded on the state rights issue,
which is being used as a cloak for
Negro-phObia, is convincing proof
thereof. Gone are those happy days
when southern politicians could cry
IN er" and the south would
go into a frenzy Of excitement and
stampede to the support of the willy
politician who espoused the anti
Negro causes. The proposed revolt
Of the rabid sOutherners just failed
to materialize and each succeeding
meeting makes them more and
more ridiculous.
1t is said that when a man keeps
butting his head against a stone
wall, il the wall does not give away,
his head will. 1t is seriously to be
pondered whether the anti-Truman
Democrats Of the south will keep
on butting their perfectly good
Democratic heads against Truman's
perfectly strong stone wall Of cou-
rageous craftsmanship until their
heads give away. What is more,
Truman is not only defying these
would-be revolters but he is grow
ing more defiant daily.
Humans moral grounds are so
strong that it does not seem an
easy matter to dislodge him from
his pinnacle of prominence his cou-
rageOus craftsmanship, has foisted
upon him.
1t is equally noteworthy that Tru-
man is so dead sure of his moral
advantage that he is beginning to
talk back" to the recalcitrant Dem
OcrAtic revolters.
When the new south speaks In
the coming elections, We are going
70 have some worthW lille revela-
tiOns. Although many of the old
liners do not know il, the current
south Is not that Of Ben Tillman
and HOke Smith and Hefin and
VArdaman nor even Of the late Bill
bO. The slowly infiltrating educa-
ton Is doing its work and II is just
u matter Of time when the sOuth's
current whispers will become stem
tOriAn voices for justice and right
eOusnesS.
Although the Negroes who met
AZ Durham in 1912 sensed the rise
Of the new south. they could not
make it as plain as it is daily be
coming. The element with whom
these Negroes sought To cooperate
is definitely there and their num-
bers are growing. That the south
will go solidly against Truman in
rPprisal for his civil rights program
is by no means a foregone conclu-
sion. OF the Is states Of the region
only four can be definitely counted
as anti-Truman. II some truce
could be called between the third
party and the other major parties,
Truman would have good chance for
victory.
The story goes that during the
War Of Secession when Grant and
the Union armies were closing for
tho LIN N ,,,;fa - ,,,., ~ ~, ,,.,.I,k =.