St. Paul recorder. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1934-2000, 1948-04-09


tor Of Group Health Of New York,
will speak Friday evening. tMr.
Carlton is the son of Newcomb
Carlton, former head Of the West
ern Union TelegraphJ
Group Health Mutual now has
1850 members enrolled. The st.
Paul Federal Employees group is
the largest individual group with
$500 members.
them the d. y. as a bone for their
hate to gnaw on. 1t is a vast,
though unintentional, libel against
the whole South.
Our Southern papers and radio
sustain this fiction. We are caught
in a trap that we have contrived
ourselves and now at this critical
time for the future Of the whole
world, we are weighing around like
frightened little mice. We remem-
Der our psychotic Is per cent, and
our long, long Tobacco Roads, and
say, 1--WE can't change the folks
overnight" No, we can't, but we
can change liberals overnight. We
must change liberals overnight, in
the South, North, and all over
the world il we want TO save human
freedom. It is our only chance now.
II is only the liberal now who can
win against the demagogue, wheth-
er Fascist or Communist.
We must remember that dema-
gOgues fatten on the poor mans
vote and his loneliness, that they
use the psychOtic to do their dir
ty work, but they exist because
We liberals let them exist. II is
our caution, our lack Of energy,
our moral impotence and our
awful if unconscious snObbery,
that make demagOguery unafraid
Of liberalism.
Look at them today in the South:
tanning hate, giving the green
light to violence by their almost
traitorous indictments against their
own national government, while the
liberals stand by silently. Silence
is a poor way Of changing people.
1t is a poor way Of making peo-
pie fall in love with an idea.
Education" Received
In parts Of our South, our peo-
pie have never heard talk Of hu-
man rights and the dignity Of man;
they do not even dream that there
are fellow Southerners who would
question segregation. But they
hear, in every county, almost ev-
cry day, on radio and in newspa-
per, the doctrines Of yankee bait
ing and White Supremacy; and
they hear their "wisest" liberals
repeating the old lesson "Whatev-
er is done has to be done by us
alone and has TO be done under
the segregation system" This is
the Education" our people are re-
ceivinR; this is exactly what the
demagogues mean too when they
say Southerners must change by
education, not legislation.
Only the liberals, South and
North, can cOunteract these doc.
trines. A concerted effort made by
newspaper, radio and pulpit, could
break the back of demagoguery in
year simply by giving Southern,
ers something else to believe and
making them fall in love with their
new beliefs. Our long-range rura'
programs must be put in effect, of
course, but it will take ten years
to change our Tobacco Roads, even
with hard work. We don't have
ten years now Things cannot &c
on as they are in Dixie. The Com
munists know it and they are not
waiting for liberals to think il
over-just as they are not waiting
in other parts Of the world. 1t is
tragic fact, but true, that PEG.
pie long used to one authority find
it easy to accept another. The Solid
South founded on the authority OF
White Supremacy, held firm by one
party and a hatred Of those enc
mics outside" might not find it
too hard to accept the authority
and one-party system Of the Solid
SOviets.
Already the Wallace Party is
gathering up many of our young
idealistic Southerners while their
elders are still saying This isn't
the right time" and the dema-
gogues are still screaming about
"our enemies in the North" II
is the same old drama being played
on stages all over the world to.
day; liberalism squeezed to death
between the Right and Left reac.
tionaries.
LILLIAN SMITH
Clayton, Ga, March %, l94S