Evening star., 1948-10-11
Virginia 6. 0. P.
Disappointed by
DeweySi|ence
Says Failure to Speak
On Stotes' Rights May
Cost Electoral Votes
By Joy 6. Hayden
North American Newspaper Alliance

'-'--''~~
RICHMOND, Va, Oct. Ire
publican leaders in the South are
disappointed and increasingly angry
because OF the failure of Gov. Dewey
so far to schedule a speech any,
where this side of the Mason and
Dixon line.
High-ranking Virginia Republic
cans told this writer that when Gov.
Dewey came to Richmond last
spring in quest of delegate support,
he promised that if nominated he
would make speech in the. South,
taking a States rights slant on the
civil rights issue.
According to these Virginians,
Dewey stressed that his fair en-
ployment practice setup in New
York Is strictly State affair. For
that reason, he said, he was in posi-
ton to argue the right of every
person to equality of job opportu-
nifty, regardless of race, color or re-
llgious creed, while contending at
the same time that State action, as
in New York, was the best ap-
proach to the problem.
Specifically, Gov. Dewey is re-
ported as saying he did not favor
Federal compulsion of the South in
matters involving political or social
discrimination against Negroes; that
the Federal Government should
content itself with educational effort
in that line.
No Talks Now Planned.
Republican spokesmen in North
Carolina told the same story, but
with one added detail: They said
that Gov. Dewey made them the
definite proposition that if North
Carolina's delegates supported him
unanimously he would, if nominted,
make at least one speech in that
State. North Carolina did give all
OF its votes to Gov. Dewey on every
ballot.
Gov. Dewey's latest itinerary, carry
ing up to within two weeks of elec-
ton with no allotment of time to the
South, came as a severe shock to
Southern Republicans. Their guess
Is that Gov. Dewey has become so
enamored of his "no-commitment-
on-any- ticklish-subject" policy that
he has decided not to get even with
in hearing distance of the rumpus
over racial equality now going on
everywhere in the South.
Another factor that may be in
fluencing Gov. Dewey is President
Truman's failure to mention the
civil rights issue. Mr.. Truman
lodged it entirely in Texas and
Oklahoma. He is scheduled for a.
"non-political' speech before the
American Legion convention in
Miami next Monday, but he Is
making that trip by air and has
announced no intervening appear
ance.'
Loss Of Electoral Votes Seen.
Should Gov. Dewey persist in
avoiding the South, his chance of
winning electoral votes in this Sec
ton will diminish. Particularly.
Gov. Dewey's chance of carrying
North Carolina may depend on his
keeping the purported promise to
speak there, and a speech in the
South. squirting toward States
rights, almost certainly would cinch
Virginia and Florida for him.
Because they expect Gov. Dewey
to win. the first inquiry to a visitor
from Washington by almost every
Southerner is as to what a .Repub.
lican President and Congress are
likely to do with regard to civil
rights legislation.
JuStif1ably or otherwise, Southern
whites believe that President Tru-
mans civil rights program was de-
vised mainly to keep Negroes in
Northern States-who turned from
Republican to Democrat to support
Franklin D. Roosevelt-in the DEM
ocratic line for the present election,
and Southern white folks fear that.
If the Republicans come into full
power at Washington, their main
prediction as concerns the race is
sue will be to win back Northern
Negro votes.
More Negroes Voting.
Southerners are not much con.
cerned about anti-lyching legislation
and they say poll taxes soon will fall
Of their own weight.
Negroes are voting in large num-
bers everywhere along the South At
lantic seaboard, from Virginia to
Florida, and there is little doubt that
within another four years they will
be voting throughout this section,
completely without hindrance on &C
count Of their race. There is no lack
of jobs for Negroes and their wage
level has doubled in the past few
years.
What the whites of the South still
do object to most strenuously is any
Federal action that would tend to
break down bars against social in
termingling of the races. A striking
case is that in Jacksonville, while
Negroes register and vote as freely
as whites. each booth has its segre-
gated voting machine, placarded re-
u I4-gf