The Lexington advertiser. [volume] (Lexington, Miss.) 1904-1985, 1948-03-04

Hazel
EYES
BY Hczel Brannon

mon man era, SAID (IlduceIlOT M.
B. Montgomery in an address before
the Lexington Rotary Club Friday,
sbut we must recognize our respon-
sibilities if we are to claim our
rights
It is necessary for every citizen to
wake up to his responsibility, Judge
Montgomery said. in referring to the
proposed civil rights program Of Pre-
sident Truman and the Democratic
patry.
s1This movement must originate on
the level of the qualified elector,"
he said, lis can't come from the top
down"
We may feel very unworthy of this
great task even as Gideon did in
the old days when he was told by
the Lord to free his land from the
Midianites Chancellor Montgomery
said.
Gideon couldn't see how he could
do the task but the eye of God was
upon him.
1.-The y Of God is on every white
Democrat in the South. We must
have the willingness to assume the
responsibilities, every single one of
us" the speaker challenged.
He then went on to tell what the
Lord told Gideon to do, the first
being to turn over the altar of Baal.
There are some affairs Of Baal that
we are going to have to turn over in
Mississippi" the eminent jurist pro-
claimed.
It is a very little known fact that
in 1860 the state of Mississippi rank
ed third in the list Of states on per
capita wealth. That was third from
the top, the speaker related.
In 1870 we were on the bottom of
the list and have remained there
ever since, he said.
'The negro has been a liability
to us" Mr.. Montgomery said.
I'VE know we have spent more on
the negro's education than he has
paid in taxes.
I'VE must recognize, however, that
our negro schools in Mississippi are
terribly deficient. II we give him
better schools it will act to his in
terest and to ours" he stated.
In addition our critics will have
been robbed of their ammunition, he
declared.
One Of the affairs Of Baal that
should be overturned is that
we should make q more reasonable
effort than being done at the
present time in negro education.
Education of the negro will make
possible greater use of available
labor. Judge Montgomery explained
making it possible for Mississippi to
cash in on the present trend of de-
Capitalization in industry; making it
possible for us to nearly bal
ance our agriculture with industry
This fight should be placed upon
the high level of States Rights leav-
ing the color line out of it. Judge
Montgomery said. The people of the
north are interested in it as much
as we are.
When Gideon blew on his horn
and $4,000 came. there were many
who were timid and afraid. BY the
time the crowd had been culled
there were only 800 left. But those
800 defeated 100000 Midianites.
$50 if we can get a few men and
women united in our effort we can
win" the Yazoo City citizen SAID.
IF we lose at the convention and
there is nowhere else to 60. we will
remember that it takes 266 votes to
elect a president and vice-president.
The southern states have 165. The
solid south has 134 electoral votes.
when we get to the House with
1874 solid south votes and a possible
165, you may rest assured that we
will again be courted by the Demo-
cratic party" he concluded.
The above remarks we were glad
to hear coming from a man in Judge
Montgomery's position.
We believe the majority of intelli-
gent people in the south think pretty
much along the same lines. The ma
jority of southern citizens, we be-
lieve, want to give the negro a better
education. AS a matter of fact they
want to improve their w white
schools. also, bringing them up to
a standard with schools in other
parts of the nation.
This the south is doing as rapidly
as our economic position permits
We have long since realized that
Mississippi's place at the bottom OF
the list of states is due to the fact
that we are one-half white and the
other half of our entire population
is black.
We have brains enough to know
we cannot exist one half wealthy
one half poverty-stricken; one hall
healthy and one-half disease stricken
We are vitality interested in pull
ing ourselves up by our own boot
straps, however.
We are definitely not interested in
being taken over by any form OF
Federal government, benevolent OF
otherwise. We propose to solve our
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