Evening star., 1948-02-26
| South's S Revolt No Joke
For Trumun's Cundiducy
Denial of Electoral Votes Could Cause
Worst Defeat in u. S. History =
. Bv Gould Lincoln


By Gould Lincoln
And 50 the Southern Revolt-against Presi-
dent Truman's civil rights programmes
Joke" So much Of q joke that there is doubt.
now, in the minds of some of the Southern
Democratic leaders that Mr.. Truman will have
the electoral votes Of these States, which since
reconstruction days have been voting almost
automatically for Democratic presidential
nominees First, the Southerners would like
to deny Mr.. Truman the presidential nomina.
ton. If they fail there, as seems probable,
then they plan to deny him the electoral votes
of their States. If this happened, 1t would be
within the bounds of probability that Mr..
Truman would be the worst defeated candi.
date for President, not even excepting All
Landon, who in 1896 carried two States, Maine
and Vermont.
The promoters Of the "joke" idea suggested,
that the Southern Democrats, even If they
did not like Mr. Truman and his proposals for
anti-lynching, anti-pol tax and anti-segrega-
tion legislation had mo place to CO.; that
they would prefer Mr.. Truman In any event
to a Republican in the White House, which
desertion of Mr.. Truman would probably
bring about
1928 Revolt Disregarded.
They counted, however. upon old political
party ties being stronger than certain insti-
tutions and principles Of government in which
Southerners have been grounded. for years.
They paid no attention to the historical fact
that revolt of the Southern voters 20 years
ago found five of the States of the Democratic
solid South" giving their electoral votes to a
Republican, Herbert Hoover. These States were
Texas, Florida, Tennessee, North Carolina and
Virginia. The religious issue was paramount in
this desertion of the Democratic presidential
nominee, AL Smith-although also involved
were the Souths stand for prohibition and
against a wet"
The recalcitrant Southerners say they are
fighting Mr.. Truman on two grounds. First,
they are strongly opposed to his proposal for
doing away with segregation Of the races
white and colored Second, they are opposed
to his proposals which would flatten out States
rights and make the Federal Government
supreme in matters which, they insist, must
remain within the Jurisdiction of the States II
the present form of Government Is to continue
BY anti-segregation laws. by anti-poll tax Fed
eral laws and by anti-lynching Federal laws,
it is argued, the Federal Government would
take over control of elections. police, employ
ment, travel conditions and education. ~.
Mr.. Truman and the chairman of the Demo-
cratic National Committee, Senator McGrath
of Rhode Island, have turned their backs on,
appeals from the Southerners for some mitiga-
ton of the civil rights program which Mr..
Truman has demanded Of Congress. A COM
mittee of Southern governors, presenting to-
Mr.. McGrath a series of questions asking what
his stand as chairman of the partys national
committee would be. obtained no satisfaction.
Indeed, they received an emphatic mo" to all
their requests.
Leaders Pressed by People.
While the governors were rebuffed. the very
rebuff served to point up the sharp differences
between the Southern Democrats and Mr.. Tru-
man. Because this revolt in the South goes
down to the grass roots, 1t is far more serious
than If it were just revolt on the part of
some Of the party leaders. The leaders are
being pressed by the people they lead. In 1928,
when Southern voters revolted against Al
Smith, the party leaders-with two notable ex-
ceptions, Senator Simmons of North Carolina
and Senator Hefiin of Alabama-went along
with the Smith presidential candidacy-on the
surface at least. The Southern Democratic
leaders today face the alternative Of fighting
Mr.. Truman up to and through the election
or Of merely voicing their protests. What the
rank and file voters Of the South may do u
another thing.
oLc VI tIlc AoVcS uoW pIOpOSeu rs TO bdk6
Mr.. Truman off the Democratic ticket In the
Southern States, even If he be nominated by
the Democratic National Convention, and so
permit the voters to vote for individual Demo-
cratic electors, who in the Electoral College
would cast their ballots for some Democrat
other than Mr.. Truman. If followed out, this
would be an effective way OF denying Mr. Tru-
man the votes of the Southern States
1t Is beginning to look as though Mr.. Tru-
mans efforts to line up for him the Negro
votes of the Northern and Western States may
be as disastrous as his efforts to win the Jewish
vote